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Pilot Evaluation Report:Sava - Safe Saving

The SaVa pilot partners Ecobank, Terre des Hommes (TdH), the African Movement of Working Children and Youth (AMWCY), and the University of Bath (UoB). Its primary aim has been to offer street-connected working and migrant children access to formal digital financial services, with the goal of helping them to save money and thus avoid the violence associated with theft at night. The pilot took place in Lomé, Togo, over a 12-month period. The key question: would it work?Assessment shows it to have been enormously successful, outstripping all of its key targets. Over 200 accounts have been opened, more than 600,000 FCFA has been deposited, and the associated reduction in violence and theft have been remarkable. Further, SaVa has operated as a gateway for additional services, with almost 1,000 children engaged by at least one intervention or activity, 54 oriented to social or health services according to their needs, and 111 removed from the streets. Perhaps most inspiring, it has given hope to some of the most disenfranchised of children.The challenges have been considerable. Technical issues relating to the digital banking platform, internet connection and SIM cards have all been important. Operational challenges around staffing, opening times, and post-reinsertion all remain. Likewise, there are issues to resolve around partnership management, bureaucratic procedures, and, most of all, what will happen now that TdH Togo is closing its doors and a new institutional arrangement needs to be worked out.There are many recommendations for going forward. First and foremost, stakeholders must find a way to fill the void left by TdH’s departure. Former staff are incorporating as ‘Child First’ and TdH should do everything to support its successor, including through partnership and resource-mobilisation. Staffing arrangements should be simplified; a steady flow of paid interns is a must. Partner management and public communications should be strengthened significantly, while the resources of the state and wider Togolese child protection network have to be called upon.Ultimately, the SaVa pilot is a proof of concept and what exists in terms of lessons learned can be refined for sharing far and wide. There are an estimated 100 million street-connected children in the world and almost none of them are connected to the rapidly expanding universe of digital banking. SaVa has pioneered a way to do this and in the process to support their protection. It is vital that its model be codified and spread to willing partners. <br/

Protecting Children From Trafficking In Benin: In Need Of Politics And Participation:Special Issue: Child Protection In Development

This paper critically examines policy in Benin against child trafficking. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with adolescent labour migrants and their communities, it problematises both the assumptions underpinning anti-trafficking policy and the appropriateness of the initiatives that comprise it. It suggests that, in order truly to protect the young labour migrants defined as trafficked, the policymaking establishment needs to focus more closely on the structural economic underpinnings of migration and exploitation, and to adopt a more participatory approach to policymaking

A Critical Appraisal Of Anti-Child Trafficking Discourse And Policy In Southern Benin

This article offers a critical overview of anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in Southern Benin. The article examines the major trends in interventions pioneered by the dominant institutional actors in the field, and looks at the discursive background against which they are formed. The article contrasts mainstream policy and discourse with the alternative narratives and policy suggestions pertaining at the level of the communities who find themselves targeted by the anti-trafficking establishment. It offers suggestions for the improvement of policy. </jats:p

Promoting “Healthy Childhoods” And Keeping Children ‘At Home”: Beninese Anti-Trafficking Policy In Times Of Neoliberalism’

Article first published online: 18 APR 2013.This article offers the first examination of its kind of the content and nature of anti-trafficking policy as it is pursued in Benin. The article draws on data gathered from policy and project documents and from interviews and participant observation with actors integral to the constitution of policy in (and with influence over) the Beninese anti-trafficking community. It attempts to bridge the oft-lamented gap between page and practice by conducting analysis not only of the representation of policy in text, but also of its lived manifestations in processes, interactions and structures. It argues that the various different actors that comprise Benin's anti-trafficking pantheon seek to accomplish one fundamental goal – to protect children from trafficking – through two overarching strategies – the promotion of ‘healthy’ childhoods and the pre-emptive prevention of child movement. The article examines each of the main strands of policy and concludes by offering a Foucauldian analysis of their operation. It thus fills a major gap in the academic understanding of anti-trafficking policy in the Beninese context

Towards ethical good practice in cash transfer trials and their evaluation

Over the past 20 years, cash transfers have become increasingly widespread within international development and global social policy. Often, their roll out is preceded by a trial or pilot phase aiming to check feasibility and effectiveness. These pilots can involve thousands of people. However, there is limited discussion within the literature (and even less in practice) of how and whether cash transfer trials and the research that they involve can respect ethical standards. This paper represents an initial step towards filling that gap. It does so by reviewing the latest literature pertaining to the ethics of cash transfers and social experimentation. It concludes by advancing a series of proposals that could support cash transfer trials to take place with greater respect for research ethics norms and in the best interests of participants