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Creating a world where every vulnerable child
is able to reach his or her potential |
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Maestral International's target population is children experiencing, or at risk of, abandonment, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Maestral works to facilitate cross-cutting, comprehensive approaches to child welfare that are locally-owned, adequately resourced, sustainable and well-monitored and accountable.
Maestral International's experts work together with stakeholders to:
- Identifying national level opportunities to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families by promoting and facilitating policy dialogue and change, providing technical assistance and training to strengthen government capacity to enhance service delivery, and encouraging improved coordination of key governmental, multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental agencies and programs;
- Map and assess national, regional and local child protection systems, and identify actions and programs required to improve child welfare and protection;
- Advance understanding of what works through effective monitoring and evaluation, dissemination of lessons learned, and support to research efforts; and
- Participate and facilitate networks of organizations, policymakers, public and private agencies, and regional and global organizations to identify channels for leveraging support to help vulnerable children
A GLOBAL CRISIS
Large numbers of children are losing the battle against war, disease, and poverty, and large numbers of young children are fighting that war alone. Recent information shows:
- Roughly 133 million orphaned and vulnerable children worldwide (UNICEF 2005) from all causes, with untold numbers in residential institutions, deprived of their family and community support systems, their security from abuse and predation by adults and older children, their economic assets, and an education that would provide them with a future;
- Government and community failures at protecting children, with 51 million children lacking birth registration (UNICEF, 2007), 70 million girls and women aged 15-49 in some 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East having undergone genital mutilation and cutting (UNICEF), up to 1.25 million children placed in a forced labor situation due to trafficking (ILO, 2005), more than one million children deprived of their liberty worldwide (UNICEF), and 60 million women aged 20-24 having been married before the age of 18 (UNICEF, 2007);
- A global development agenda that, in spite of the evidence, continues to underemphasize child abandonment, exploitation, abuse and neglect in favor of other priorities, and that has only recently begun to shift towards nationally-owned systems approaches and away from uncoordinated and unsustainable service provision.
OUR SERVICES
Maestral International aims to respond to the pressing need to turn this situation around, reducing risk and enabling vulnerable children to grow up to become full members of their communities. Maestral's services include:
- Public policy assessments
- Mapping and assessment of child welfare and protection systems
- Situation diagnostics and assessments
- Strategic planning with key agencies and counterparts
- System management and administration reviews
- Program and project design, development and implementation
- Direct technical assistance and training
- Conference and workshop design and implementation
- Research, monitoring and evaluation
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