A Kony 2012 for Syria???

Although the Kony 2012 campaign was widely criticised for its inaccuracies, it did once again draw the world’s attention to the situation for children in Uganda, which despite the demise of the civil conflict was still ranked 97 of 141 countries for 2005-10 (decline of 3 places from 2000-04), by the Child Development Index in this year’s report.

In the context of the conflict in Syria, ignited with the Arab Spring movement in March 2011, it could be said that such a campaign is now needed for children there, whose plight has been noted but is yet to receive the worldwide attention that it warrants.

The United Nations has received reports of grave violations against children in the Syrian Arab Republic since the beginning of the conflict. Such reports are supported by those of other organisations including Human Rights Watch and War Child UK (see Wikichild Spotlight). According to the UN’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict these violations include killing, maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, and use as human shields.

The degree of this violence, and the targeting of children has shocked even those most experienced in these sorts of atrocities with the UN Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy stating recently,

“Killing and maiming of children in crossfire is something we come across in many conflicts but this torture of children, children as young as 10, is something quite extraordinary which we don’t really see in other places”.

With the persistence of the conflict, surviving families and children who escaped to refugee camps in neighbouring countries are, like those in Uganda, now faced with the aftermath of their experiences and new battles of coping with trauma and life in a refugee camp. In a camp in Jordan, humanitarian workers are reported to be doing their utmost to ‘establish a sense of normalcy for children,’ said Tamer Kirolos, the Jordan country director with Save the Children. UNICEF committed funds for a swing set, slide, a soccer field and tents that will be used for art and music programs, informal education as well as psychological counselling for children (the Star, 13.08.2012).

This week’s Wikichild spotlight feature from War Child UK, chronicles the impact of the conflict of the war on Syrian children and reports that the depth of the conflict is such that “legal instruments, and the international community who signed up to them, have proved completely unable to furnish any measure of security for children.” As the report states, children in countries in conflict should be able to depend on adults throughout the world to take steps to ensure their safety and fundamental rights as detailed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Unfortunately however, in Syria this is not the case and the report claims that both sides in the conflict have failed to provide protection to children in the areas that they control. For further information on this issue see the Wikichild Spotlight. 

Hannah Chadwick 
Wikichild Coordinator

Week in review

Hello,

Happy Friday to all and welcome to another Week in Review. This week we have a selection of highlights including progress in the U.S., a new report on education, an interesting fact about food security and an unexpected Olympic triumph.

Olympic wrap-up
Did London 2012 Bridge the divide?
As the London Olympics came to a close with a spectacular ceremony this week, Guardian blogger Les Roopanarine  argues that sport has the power to not only transfix, but to transcend negative stereotypes and transform perceptions.
See more and contribute to the Wiiprogress article on sport and leisure

Who’s thriving?
Gallup results
Gallup’s latest wellbeing results show that residents in Hawaii, Utah and South Dakota are the most likely to be thriving in 2012, while at the other end of the scale, those in West Virginia and Maine are least likely to be thriving.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on Progress in the U.S.

Report on education in East Africa
Increase to access, doesn’t mean a better education
Although access to education in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda has increased, the quality of learning has stagnated.
Download the report: Are Children Learning? Literacy and numeracy across East Africa

Number Crunch
The 22 landlocked countries on the Global Food Security Index score an average 7 points lower than those that are not landlocked.
Source: The Global Food Security Index

That’s all from me this week, hope to see you again next week.

Yours in Progress,

Philippa Lysaght

Gender and the MDGs: where do we stand?

With the 2015 deadline for the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) fast approaching, it is important that government, donors and policy makers identify how progress towards the goals can be accelerated. There is growing consensus that gender equality is central for achieving the MDGs. However, the recently released Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 (The MDGs Report 2012) tells us that there is much more to be done to achieve the goal of gender equality. Framed into the third and the fifth MDGs, gender inequality is assessed by the gender gap in education, the share of women in wage employment, the proportion of seats held by women in national legislatures, maternal mortaliy and universal access to reproductive health.

The MDGs Report 2012 indicates that there have been impressive gains in achieving gender parity in primary education. The Gender Parity Index in primary education showing the ratio between the enrolment rate of girls and boys has grown from 91 in 1999 to 97 in 2010. However, at the secondary level, girls still face greater barriers to school attendance which emerge from gender-based discrimination in the family and in the society. Parents favour sons over daughters once they are forced to ration resources among children because girls’ education is perceived as generating lower returns. Son bias measured by the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) 2012 is particularly prevalent in South Asia, with India showing the highest level of son bias within the region. Another barrier is early marriage which restrains girls from progressing to secondary school. Sub-Saharan Africa is a region gripped by this problem with more than 50 percent of girls aged between 15 and 19 years being married in Mali and Niger. Parents may also be concerned about the safety of adolescent girls going to secondary school, which are often further from home than the primary school, leading to a greater risk of gender-based violence. These findings reinforce the need to urgently tackle discriminatory social institutions to ensure that every girl can fulfil her aspirations and potential.

On the employment front, women’s share in paid jobs outside of the agricultural sector increased slowly though men still outnumber women in non-agricultural paid employment in all developing regions. Data indicates that in developing countries women are more likely than men to be invulnerable employment, with greater risk of poverty and reduced access to social protection. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest – 85 percent – share of women in vulnerable employment whilst Northern Africa and Western Asia have the widest – 18 and 19 percentage points correspondingly – gaps between women’s and men’s vulnerable employment. This indicates that in addition to increasing women’s engagement in the paid labour market, it is important to pay attention to the quality of jobs.

Promoting the ability of women to become the “architects of change” is vital to overcome persisting discriminatory socio-cultural norms and gender gaps on social and economic indicators. The MDGs Report 2012 demonstrates that the number of women parliamentarians has increased by 75 percent since 1995. However, the overall rate of representation remains low and progress is spread unevenly with Latin America and Caribbean ranking the highest. Introducing quotas as a special measure to boost women’s political participation could be an option since in 2011 in countries where quotas were used women took 27.4 percent of seats in comparison with 15.7 percent of seats in countries without any form of quota. In 2011 the greatest progress was observed in Nicaragua where women have taken 40.2 percent of parliamentary seats, which is 21.7 percentage points higher compared with the previous legislature.

Maternal mortality, addressed in MDG 5, has halved since 1990 though it is still 15 times higher in developing regions than in the developed ones. Increased risk of maternal mortality is linked to early childbearing because mothers younger than 17 have bodies which are not yet mature enough to bear children. Early childbearing is also related to lower educational attainment and poverty though there was some progress with the number of births per women aged 15 to 19 years decreasing between 1990 and 2000. In countries where early marriage is common, developing and implementing programmes to delay the age at marriage and enacting laws concerning minimum age of marriage  is needed to reduce adolescent childbearing and consequently, maternal mortality rates.

It is evident that while progress has been made in some areas, we need a renewed and sustained commitment to meet the 2015 deadline. The UNDP report Innovative Approaches to Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment recommends expanding women’s economic opportunity, strengthening women’s legal status and rights and expanding opportunities for women’s voice, inclusion and participation in economic decision-making. However, these changes won’t be achieved in a vacuum. We also need to create an enabling environment by tackling underlying perceptions and attitudes towards gender roles in society.

Anna Eliseeva, Gender Team, OECD Development Centre

Cyborg and Supercrip: Paralympics and Technological Progress

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, also known as the Blade Runner made history on 4 August 2012 at the London Olympics by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics. The four-time Paralympic champion, 25, finished second in his 400m heat in a time of 45.44 seconds. For many Oscars story is more about very cool technological progress.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games are expected to have biggest crowd ever, with over 2.1 million tickets sold. The increased public profile of the Paralympic Games has resulted in technological progress in this areas, due to an increasing commercial marketplace for aerodynamic and feather light racing wheelchairs as well as biomechanically and ergonomically responsive prostheses; this has helped to create a legion of ‘cyborg’ bodies that is manifest in the image of the sporting ‘supercrip’(refer to note below). 

Mobility devices that enhance performance have also created a divide amongst ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nation, whilst closing the gap in the performance between ‘cyborg’ and ‘able-bodied’ athletes.

To satisfy the demands of elite athletes, radical new technological developments in wheelchair designs such as the J-Leg, seated throwing chairs (Burkett B, 2003) and prostheses have revolutionised the sports. However, developing improved technology is only half the battle, since technolo­gies develop at different rates. Some nations might make advances in performance sim­ply because of their access to superior technology.

 “Medal tables at the Paralympic Games have been traditionally dominated by western nations in part because they are at the forefront of the technological advancements in mobility apparatus…The race to produce the most effi­cient and advanced mobility aids, has a leg race on its hands.”( P. David, 2011)

Since 1980s the materials from which prostheses are made have changed markedly from wood to fibreglass to all manner of carbon fibre and lightweight metals used in advanced scientific design. These mobility aids have been a product of state-of-the-art technologies and, as a result, they are producing performances that would have been considered impossible 20 years ago.

For many developing countries the cost of up-to-date the technology is a real barrier, as they cannot develop a disabled sport programmes integrating the latest technologies, when a state-of-the-art racing wheelchairs can cost upwards of 6,000€ and ergonomically designed prosthesis up to 25,000€, athletes from across the globe can find participation as cyborgs with state-of-the-art technology prohibitive.

At both the Olympics and the Paralympics, authorities must fundamentally strive to provide an even playing field, which includes ensuring equity of access to technology.

Future technological developments will have far-reaching effects on Paralympic athletes: their new assistive anatomy with its higher level of functionality will not only lead to improved efficiency in performing daily tasks but also enable more effective performance in the competition arena. Such technological progress needs to be more inclusive and enabling, such as the use of technologiesfor conflict prevention and the use of informationand communication for development rather than becoming a discussion about ‘those who have access to technology and those who don't’.

Technological Progress has even led some to argue that it's time to re-think the distinctions we makebetween competitors in the Olympics and Paralympics.  Eli Wolff, a former Paralympic soccer player (Director of the InclusiveSports Initiative) argues for more integrated and inclusive Olympic participation, whilst Andy Miah (Director of the Creative FuturesInstitute) believes that if modern Olympics were invented today, there wouldn't be a separate games for disabled athletes. There might even be more athletes competing since technological enhancements might rescue athletes from career-ending injuries.

Note: Athletes such as Pistorius who have amputated lower limbs often run on carbon fibre ‘blades’ that act as feet and as a result Pistorius has been referred to as the Blade Runner . In using such technology Paralympic athletes can be conceptualized as the embodiment of Haraway’s (1991) cyborg, which is a hybrid body resulting from fusion of a live organism and man-made technology. In the context of Paralympic sport the most successful cyborg athletes may be seen as ‘supercrips’. According to Berger (2008), supercrips ‘are those individuals whose inspirational sto­ries of courage, dedication, and hard work prove that it can be done, that one can defy the odds and accomplish the impossible’ (P. David, 2011 45: 868 Sociology).

Salema Gulbahar

Wikiprogress Coordinator

References: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18911479, 4 August 2012.
http://www.paralympic.org/news/record-paralympic-games-ticket-sales, 12 August 2012.
P. David Howe, Cyborg and Supercrip: The ParalympicsTechnology and the (Dis)empowerment of Disabled Athletes, 2011 45: 868 Sociology.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/08/13/merging-the-paralympics-with-the-olympics/, CBC radio 13 August 2012.

Week in review

Hello,

It has been another busy week in the world of measuring progress and I am happy to share a few media highlights with you. This week’s media review has a vague theme of ICT4D and also includes highlights from Ben Bernake’s inspiring speech.

Quote of the week:
“The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being. Economic measurement accordingly must encompass measures of well-being and its determinants.”

Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke speaking at the 32nd General Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth in Massachusetts on Monday.

The importance of measuring well-being (nef 07.08.2012) In response to Ben Bernake’s speech on Monday, Senior Researcher at the New Economics Foundation (nef) Juliet Michaelson blogged about five key reasons why measuring well-being is so important.

Access to technology can help prevent conflict (UNDP 07.08.2012) The concept of Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) is by no means new; last year the use of social media in the Arab Spring reignited the debate about the role technology can play in human development. With advances in access to technology, as well as a shift to more ‘participatory’ modes of communication, technology is playing an increasingly important role in conflict prevention, crisis management and conflict resolution.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on ICT4D

Number Crunch: Over 5 billion people, approx 77% of the global population, have access to mobile phones and the top 10 social networking sites have more than 4.6 billion combined users.
Source: UNDP, 2012

That’s all from us this week. Hope you can tune in again same time next week.

Yours in Progress,

Philippa Lysaght

The Global Whole Child

A whole child approach to education is not something that is unique to the United States, or even to North America. It is an approach to education that has been taken up by many communities, regions, and countries. It is an approach that understands that education is more than just academic achievement and that ensuring that each child is healthy, safe, and engaged is a necessity if we want to support student growth and provide meaningful challenges to those same students. The five Whole Child Tenets—healthy, safe, engaged,supported, and challenged—are the prerequisites for an effective education that allows students to grow, learn, and develop their full potential.

The International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Schools is a truly international body that brings together 35 countries under the umbrella of promoting the mental health and well-being of children and young people. The Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) network aims to develop and sustain school health promotion in 43 countries. It is coordinated by the Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion as the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for School Health. Many of SHE's members also support WHO's Health Promoting Schools framework—similar in the United States to a coordinated school health model—which in turn supports the alignment of health and education in the school setting.

Another Europe-based partner is the Learning for Well-Being consortium that seeks to promote child well-being across not only Europe and the Middle East, but also across each sector of society. It focuses on health, mental health, and social affairs as well as education, aiming to influence policy development in and across each with regard to child well-being.

The reason behind Learning for Well-Being's actions is an understanding that, "children who experience a greater sense of holistic well-being (physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual) and understand its components are more able to learn and assimilate information in effective ways; more likely to engage in healthy and fulfilling social behaviors; and more likely to invest in their own and others' well-being and in the sustainability of the planet, as they take up their social, professional, and leadership roles in adulthood."

Sound familiar? It's not too dissimilar from ASCD's 2007 report of the Commission on the Whole Child, The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action (PDF). This compact introduced ASCD's Whole Child approach and brought together leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners from a wide variety of sectors who were "charged with recasting the definition of a successful learner from one whose achievement is measured solely by academic tests, to one who is knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling."

Each of these partners see value in alignment and collaboration, whether that be between organizations or across the communities and settings they serve.

Our most distant partner, Principals Australia Institute, has been a strong proponent of not only supporting principals' professional development and training, but also promoting well-being as an integral part of student learning and growth. One of their key programs is MindMatters, a whole school approach to mental health that aims to (watch again for similarities!)

• Develop school environments where young people feel safe, valued, engaged, and purposeful.
• Develop the social and emotional skills in students required to meet life's challenges.
• Help school communities create a climate of positive mental health and well-being.
• Develop strategies to enable a continuum of support for students with additional needs in relation to mental health and well-being.
• Enable schools to better collaborate with families and the health sector.

This month, as you listen to the Whole Child Podcast, read the Whole Child Blog, and receive the Whole Child Newsletter, keep the Whole Child Tenets in mind. As you read about schools and communities recognized by ASCD and our partners for putting a whole child approach into action, they will come up time and time again. The context may be different, and the culture and country certainly will, but the basics will be clear: A whole child approach is an effective approach.

Sean Slade

ASCD the Whole Child

For more information on ASCD see here