Plan Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial ...

Learn Without Fear
One of the main obstacles to education in developing countries is fear – fear of punishment,
of abuse and fear of sexual harassment or violence. Plan’s groundbreaking global campaign
Learn Without Fear has propelled us into a leading role among organisations working to
ensure that fear is no longer an obstacle to learning for any child, anywhere.
Plan’s approach has brought exceptional results:
• 485 million children are now better protected from violence in schools –
Plan Learn Without Fear campaigners have helped improve legal frameworks in 13 countries.
For example, the constitutions of Ecuador, Kenya and South Sudan now specify that it is the
government’s responsibility to protect children from violence in schools.
• Plan has become an international NGO expert in preventing violence in schools –
We are frequently asked to present our work at a wide range of events, including UN
expert meetings, the International Bullying Prevention Association Conference and the
World Congress on Violence in Schools.
Although the global campaign is ending, regional and country offices will continue these activities
when they are appropriate to their plans and needs. For example, in Latin America we recently
launched a partnership with cable television network Cartoon Network to tackle school bullying.
And at the global level, Plan is contributing to reports on violence in schools by UNESCO, the
Inter-American Development Bank, the University of Oxford, Child Helpline International and
the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Violence Against Children, among others.
Count Every Child
Globally, 51 million children are vulnerable because their birth has not
been registered. Unregistered children can easily be denied their rights to
protection, as well as to essential services such as healthcare and education.
The universal birth registration programme Count Every Child puts Plan at
the forefront of global efforts to ensure every child is counted.
Plan advocates for improved birth registration policies and practices,
and for adequate resources to be allocated to them. We also encourage
governments to take advantage of advances in information technology
to improve registration systems. In March 2012, birth registration made
it to the top of United Nations agenda following successful advocacy
efforts led by Plan’s UN Liaison and Advocacy Office in Geneva. The UN
Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon
all states to ensure birth registration for all and the right of everyone to
recognition before the law. Plan played a key role in the drafting of the
resolution and ensuring its strong language.
We are working with parents and caregivers to improve knowledge and
practices relating to birth registration as well as integrating registration
into Plan programme areas such as early childhood care and development.
We are also using innovative approaches such as birth notifications
through mobile phones in Kenya. Using lessons learned from Kenya and
other similar projects, Plan has worked with mobile phone operators,
government representatives and key development agencies to develop
the Identity at Birth concept (see below).
CAMPAIGNS
Identity at Birth – creating digital identities
through mobile phones
The Identity at Birth model uses mobile phones to register births in the
local community through a decentralised network of trusted agents.
It sends birth identities to a database within national registration
systems, helping governments register the most marginalised
and achieve their e-governance goals. While the system
improves the process of issuing paper birth certificates,
it also creates a digital identity for the child on the
caregiver’s phone that can be used to access key
services such as health care and education.
© Plan
13