Our Story
ANPPCAN is a Pan-African network that promotes child rights and child protection in Africa. It was founded in 1986 in Enugu, Nigeria at the first Child Labour Conference. The organization has national chapters in 26 African countries and is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
Our mission is to create and enhance partnerships and other opportunities for the prevention and protection of children from all forms of maltreatment, thus ensuring the realization of children’s rights.
ANPPCAN’s 26 chapters respond to the specific needs of children in their countries by developing appropriate program interventions. The Regional Office implements national and regional interventions on children that include direct program intervention, advocacy on specific issues as well as networking and partnership building on issues affecting children in Africa.
Our Vision
A continent where children are free from all forms of maltreatment
Our Mission
To enhance, in partnership with others, the prevention and protection of children from all forms of maltreatment, thus ensuring that the rights of children are realized
Our Governance
ANPPCAN is registered in Kenya as an International non-governmental organisation. It has a regional board of directors and a board of trustees. The Regional Board comprises of the President, the Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary General, a Member and an Attorney. The Regional Director of ANPPCAN is the Secretary to the Regional Board. The Regional Board meets once in a year to transact the business of ANPPCAN. ANPPCAN Chapters have Country Advisory Boards.
Presidents of ANPPCAN
Current President
Dr Rebecca Nyonyintono (Uganda)
Past Presidents
Prof Peter Ebigbo (Nigeria)
Dr Moncef Marzuki (Tunisia)
Dr Philista Onyango (Kenya)
Partners
Since its inception, ANPPCAN has collaborated with many organizations in implementing a wide range of programs on children. We strive to maintain close ties with organizations that are working to protect children from abuse, neglect and exploitation. We maintain alliances with international organizations working in the children’s sector and partner with local organizations in implementing child focused interventions and to increase their capacity.
ANPPCAN has also worked closely with trade unions and Governments in the continent to champion children’s rights. In it’s relationship with partners, ANPPCAN is strictly guided by the principle of non-alignment and by general principles of humanity as reflected in our constitution. ANPPCAN salutes the following partners who have immensely assisted the organization to grow and develop into a truly child rights organisation in Africa:
a) Originators of ANPPCAN that nurtured ANPPCAN in her nascent years and helped her grow into a vibrant child protection network in Africa.
b) Programme-based partners that have partnered with ANPPCAN in the implementation of various child protection programmes in Africa
c) Institution-building partners who have empowerment the network in Africa by increasing the capacity of staff and that of ANPPCAN Regional Office and the Chapters as institutions
d) Key personalities who have supported ANPPCAN in programme activities and/or helped the organisation to build her institutional profile and structures
Achievements
ANPPCAN has played a leading role in implementing and supporting continental policy, advocacy and social programs addressing child rights and child protection. They include the following:
Establishing Benchmarks for Child Protection
One of the most celebrated achievements of ANPPCAN is the role it played in development, lobbying and pushing for the ratification and adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child by countries in Africa. Today the Charter remains the benchmark for child protection and support policies of governments across the continent. Countries in Africa have developed national laws and policies drawing from the provisions of the Charter.
Establishing Chapters all across Africa
ANPPCAN has established national chapters in twenty-six countries in Africa, each addressing unique and relevant national issues. The chapters run various programmes on child protection and have established child help desks where they offer psychosocial support services to children and referrals to appropriate service centres. Programme areas pursued by the chapters include child trafficking, child prostitution, education, child labour, community child protection systems as well as support to children in emergencies, among others. ANPPCAN will continue to establish chapters in the remainder of the countries in order to create a stronger child protection network in Africa to ensure that children in the region are protected and receive services.
Adults to Work, Children to School
ANPPCAN established networks comprising of ANPPCAN chapters and other child protection actors in Africa under the umbrella of the Global March against Child Labour. The networks contributed to the formulation and ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and its accompanying Recommendation 190.
Empowering others to fight child abuse
ANPPCAN has helped different professionals to set up lobbies to support children’s rights. For example, child protection teams were created in 40 districts throughout Kenya under the then Coalition on Child Rights and Child Protection. ANPPCAN also, helped in the creation of Children’s Legal Action Network (CLAN), an organization of lawyers that offer free legal services to children. The organization also spearheads the Nairobi Child Protection (NCPT) a network of 30 child focused organizations who bear the burden of child protection in Nairobi. The aim of the network is to streamline the referral system and to improve capacity of its members in child protection.
The organization has built teams at the community level such as the District Child Labour Committees (DCLCs) for child protection and also trained various child protection actors and professionals such as the Area Advisory, medical, teachers, the police, community Councils on best practices in handling child protection issues.
Observer status with the African Union
ANPPCAN has observer status with the African Union (formerly the organization of African Unity, OAU since 1990) and similar status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Organizing International Conferences
Several scientific researches and social studies have been carried out and shared at thematic and flagship conferences under the auspices of ANPPCAN. Key among the thematic is the conference on Human Trafficking in Eastern and Horn of Africa, a conference that resulted in African organizations realizing the need for increased networking, information sharing and in-depth research among organizations working to combat human trafficking. Recently, in 2007 and 2012, ANPPCAN held the first and second conferences on child sexual abuse in Nairobi Kenya and Accra, Ghana respectively, to remind nations and stakeholders on the need to protect children from the vice. Another thematic conference on family based care was held in 2009.
Since its inception ANPPCAN has held her flagship African Conferences on Child Abuse and Neglect. The recent such flagship conference was the Sixth African Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect whose theme was Early Childhood Development and Education held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2009.
Fighting Child Labour in Africa
ANPPCAN grew on the basis of tackling child labour. Since 1986, ANPPCAN has conducted interventions in addressing child labour not only in Kenya, but also in Africa. ANPPCAN Chapters have also run programs focusing on child labour. With the support of ILO/IPEC and other partners, ANPPCAN has withdrawn thousands of children from labour situations to school.
The organization has also been involved in working with schools in Income Generating Activities (IGAs) to support children in situations that would lead to neglect and school dropout, has been one of the most successful interventions in the world. Innovative models from the program such as school and family IGAs and the structures such as the District Child Labour Committees (DCLCs) have been borrowed and replicated by ILO/IPEC and its partners world over.
Lobbying African Governments for Child Rights
ANPPCAN played a critical role in the development and pushing for the adoption by African Governments, of the International Labour Organizations (ILO)’s Convention 182 and its accompanying recommendations 190 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
Policy and Legislative Changes
ANPPCAN has been instrumental in both social interventions and in bringing about policy and legislative changes addressing child labour, education, conflicts, street children and other child-related issues. For instance, ANPPCAN teamed up with national NGOs in Kenya to lobby the government to enact the Children Act (2001), the Sexual Offences Act (2006) and the Counter Trafficking in Persons Act (2010). Also, ANPPCAN participated in the development of policies such as the National Children’s Policy, Child Labour Policy, Orphans and Vulnerable Children Policy, and the National Plan against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Kenya, among others. Chapter. Chapter programs have also helped in pushing for acts and policies in many countries in Africa.
Creating Coalitions - Coalition on Child Rights and Child Protection
Since the promotion of the rights and welfare of children involve different stakeholders including children and their parents, ANPPCAN has been helping countries to develop strategies that are all-inclusive. In Kenya, for example, ANPPCAN created a Coalition on Child Rights and Child Protection. The Coalition was instrumental in training various child rights professionals in handling child-related issues and in facilitating efficient delivery of services to children.
At the international level, ANPPCAN is membership to coalitions on child rights. These include the East African Child Rights Network, the Better Care Network, Child Rights Information Network, Global March against Child Labour, the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and the End Child Prostitution, child Pornography and Trafficking for Sexual Purposes.
Creating Alliances
ANPPCAN has excelled in the creation of alliances between government departments and other groups at the district and community levels to address child protection concerns. For example, alliances have been created on child labour, child trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, and others, during the implementation of direct program interventions to leverage on resources available and enhance sustainability of the program activities. Similarly, alliances have also been created for purposes of undertaking lobbying and advocacy by mobilizing community and actors action in pushing for the enactment of relevant laws and policies on child protection.
Research and Documentation
ANPPCAN has been involved in many research activities on children’s rights. In Kenya, a study that ANPPCAN conducted on street children, following a request by the Attorney General in 1991, led to a National Hearing on Street Children. This led the government to review laws affecting children, culminating in the enactment of the Children Act in 2001. Another study on Awareness and Views Regarding Child Abuse and Child Rights in selected communities in Kenya conducted in 200o revealed low level of knowledge of child rights amongst different professionals providing services to children. Based on the study, ANPPCAN through the Coalition on child rights and child protection in Kenya conducted a decade long trainings child rights and child protection targeting different professionals , such as the police, teachers, nurses and doctors, magistrates, Area Advisory Councils, among others.
Over the last two decades, ANPPCAN has prioritized research activities in different areas of child protection. These include child trafficking, child labour, sexual exploitation of children, child protection systems, deafness, physical and humiliating punishment of children and many more. These studies inform child programming and child protection discourse.
Awards and Recognition
ANPPCAN is proud of the awards we’ve received throughout our history, both local and international, great and small. Some of them are listed for your viewing below:
C. Henry Kempe Award
The C. Henry Kempe Award was given to ANPPCAN by ISPCAN for its inspiring work in child protection in Africa. It was presented to ANPPCAN at the ISPCAN Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1988.
The Distinguished Service Award
In this award, ISPCAN recognized ANPPCAN’s for being its country partner in Kenya. The award was presented to ANPPCAN during the 10th International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1994.
First African Union Award for Children’s Champion in Africa
ANPPCAN won the African Union’s Children’s Champion in Africa award for her commitment in defending the cause of children and fighting for their rights. Through the award, the African Union recognized ANPPCAN’s efforts in the development of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and promoting its ratification by Member States. The award was presented at the gala dinner of the Heads of State and Government in Banjul, The Gambia, on 30 June 2006 during the African Union Summit.
Kellogg’s Child Development Award
The Kellogg’s Child Development Award for the year 2004 honoured ANPPCAN Regional Office for her work since the 1980’s that has dramatically improved the lives of children in Africa. As the 2004 World of Children Awards, the Kellogg’s Child Development Award was a motivation to ANPPCAN to keep the momentum in developing, pursuing and and implementing child protection programs that make a difference in the lives of children in Africa.
Financial Reporting Award
ANPPCAN Uganda won the prestigious FiRe Award in 2014 for its financial reporting and transparency.
Certification - Most Supportive NGO in Busia District in Kenya
ANPPCAN was voted the most supportive non-governmental organization in Busia Sub-county in 2011. ANPPCAN’s efforts were recognized by Kenya’s Ministry of Education during the occasion marking the District Education / Prize Giving Day held in the Sub-County in 2011.
Appreciation - Education of Needy Girls
This award recognized ANPPCAN’s efforts in the education of needs girls from the streets and urban poor communities in Nairobi. The award was presented to ANPPCAN by the by the Streets and Slums Integration projects in 2012.
Partner in FK Norway programme
ANPPCAN collaborated with Fredskopset Norway in a decade long Exchange of personnel programme (2002/2012) that involved over 12 of its National Chapters in Africa. The programme facilitated the exchange of information, sharing of good practices on child protection and empowerment of chapter offices. FK recognized ANPPCAN as a valued partner in the programme.
