CHIQUAL 1 - Child Helplines, Quality, Data and Advocacy

ended

Child Helpline International is one of the largest collective impact membership organisations with 166 members from 139 countries and territories around the world, and 30 members in 27 EU member states. Child helplines provide easily accessible psycho-social support, intervention and referral for children to protect and promote children’s rights. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the workload of child helplines increased significantly, and their essential role in children's rights and child protection in their national contexts became clear. When other services had to close or operated under restricted circumstances, children could rely on child helplines for support, guidance and referral. Furthermore, child helplines became further recognised as a source of reliable data for children's right's policy-making. However, the increased workload for child helplines and increased interest in the value of their services suggests a need for regionally established quality frameworks, as well as capacity-building in data management. In 2022, we want to protect and promote children's rights by 1) Establishing a network-wide joint understanding and commitment to good practices for a selection of the Core Quality Standards; 2) Make progress to improve the reliability, comparability and access to child helpline data for policy, advocacy and practice and 3) Raise awareness of regional policymakers, children’s rights partners and the general public on two children’s rights issues facing children and promote child helplines as key actors in protecting and promoting children’s rights in their national context.