Addis Ababa – The number of children who return in Ethiopia has been on the increase in recent years. Since the start of 2019, over 2,100 cases have been assisted by IOM. This is nearly double the over 1,000 cases recorded in the whole of 2018.

As part of efforts to deal with a spike in such cases, this week an interagency task force on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (IATF UASC) of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for child protection practitioners.

“Minimum standards for child protection are assured when practitioners understand and implement the guidelines, basic modalities and principles, and such trainings are essential for sharing best practices compiled by major actors working on child protection in humanitarian settings. That is why we are providing such trainings,” Nadia Akmoun, Protection Officer at IOM Geneva and current lead of the UASC IATF of the Alliance CPHA, said.

Participants included representatives of ICRC, IRC, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNHCR, World Vision International and Terre des Hommes and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which directed the training.

The training, supported by IOM Ethiopia in coordination with the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CPAoR) and the national Child Protection Sub Cluster in Ethiopia, took place over five days in Bishoftu City, with instruction based on the inter-agency taskforce on UASC’s two reference publications – the Field Handbook, and its accompanying Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children.

“The training has provided us with a good opportunity to understand the basic modalities on child protection and other practical aspects,” Sumeya Mohammed, UNHCR Child Protection Associate from the Addis Ababa Office said.

According to this attendee, the meeting also gave her an opportunity to learn from the other partners working on child protection, adding, “It has broadened my views on the other context of dealing with unaccompanied and separated children, besides the Internally Displaced Persons and refugees context that I am aware of.”

The first roll-out of the ToT, which is being conducted in Ethiopia this month, is funded by the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) as part of the project Regional Migrant Response Plan for Horn of Africa and Yemen (RMRP), with support of the CPAoR.

For more information, please contact Alemayehu Seifeselassie, IOM Ethiopia. Tel: +251-116-611117 (Ext. 1455), Mobile: +251-911-639082, Email: salemayehu@iom.int