On the 16th and 17th November 2016, the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty held its third face-to-face meeting at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) – University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

The main objective of the meeting was to chart the way forward for the next level of achievements related to ending child poverty. Over 15 participants representing different organizations that are members of the coalition including: – United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, Arigatou International-End Child Poverty, Eurochild, World Vision, Young Lives and IDS among others, attended the meeting. The Participants shared their child organizational child poverty work from the previous year, with End Child Poverty using the opportunity to share more about the End Child Poverty Multi-Faith guide that is currently at the final stages of development. The participants welcomed the guide noting that it would add to, and complement other resources being developed at both the coalition and individual organizational level.

The SWORT Analysis conducted during the two-day meeting enabled the team to formulate a plan of action for the coming year that prioritized among others:
Creating and sharing tools, knowledge research and expertise to support national work, and building and supporting a network of practitioners and organizations working on child poverty at global, regional and national levels. Some of the tools to be shared include Child Sensitive Social Protection Paper, Budgeting for Children guide, and a paper on adolescence.

Several members of the coalition participated in the Research Scoping meeting at the same venue. This event was co-hosted by the Impact Initiative and the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty. A number of research findings were presented which allowed participants to identify research gaps in the broad area of child poverty, setting the tone for next year’s Research Conference planned by the coalition. Questions such as; How do we influence policy on measurement of child poverty? How can research play a role in bringing children’s voices into development agendas? And how do we initiate a political movement that focuses people’s thoughts towards child welfare emerged. Clearly, the research-scoping meeting laid a firm foundation for a successful research conference and evidence-based actions by the coalition towards ending child poverty.

Find out more about the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty here and on Social Media via Twitter