Welcome to the Annual Meeting of the West Africa Network for the Protection of Children (RAO), a regional cooperation mechanism dedicated to the protection and transnational reintegration of children and young migrants in difficulty.
Regional cooperation for child protection: the RAO represents a unique alliance, with each ECOWAS member state represented by its national coordination bodies, made up of civil society organizations and state services. The RAO’s ultimate goal is to make the West African space safe for children and young people on the move.
Connecting protection systems: at the heart of its mission, the RAO strives to effectively and permanently connect the national protection systems of ECOWAS member states and Mauritania. This aims to better identify, protect, reintegrate, and monitor vulnerable children moving between countries in the sub-region.
15 years of impact and collaboration: over the past 15 years, more than 18,000 children and young people on the move have benefited from protection services provided by more than 1,000 state and non-state actors who are members of the RAO. These results were made possible through national and transnational collaborations, involving state and consular authorities, and civil society organizations from the 15 ECOWAS countries and Mauritania.
Looking ahead: reflections and strategies. The Annual Meeting, supported by ECOWAS and backed by Service Social International – West Africa (SSI-AO), is currently being held in Accra, Ghana. It brings together participants from the ECOWAS Commission, directors in charge of child protection, child protection organizations that are RAO members, and partner institutions.
Objectives of the 2023 meeting: this year, the meeting aims to define future strategic directions, monitor member states’ performance on the protection of children and young people on the move, share the results achieved by member countries, and track the indicators defined for the 2022-2025 period.
Sharing progress and challenges: the expected outcomes of this meeting include awareness of progress made, sharing of advances by member countries, precise definition of annual strategies and directions, as well as highlighting the issues and challenges to be addressed.
