Participating Institutions

By

Childwatch International

Report form the First Meeting of Key Institutions continues…

Participating Institutions

CONTENT

    CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF THE CHILD & SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW was
    established in 1992 with a donation � 250.000 from the Dioceses of Scotland,
    and is located in the social science faculty of the University of Glasgow.
    The objectives of the Centre are to improve the quality of children’s
    lives by providing a child centred base base for research, training and
    practice on children’s issues. The approach is inter-disciplinary and
    cross-professional. Currently the Centre gives priority to three thematic
    areas which determine the main activities, and thes are Child Care,
    Children’s Rights and Children, Crime and Justice. Though a new Centre,
    by October 15th 1994, there were ten members of staff working across
    all of the thematic areas. The Centre has an international remit and
    is involved in a number of European activities involving collaboration
    with colleagues in France, Romania, Lithuania and elsewhere.

    CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE L’ENFANCE, PARIS was
    established in 1949 and has an international executive board. The Centre receives its core funding from among others the French Government, UNESCO and UNICEF. Main focus of the centre’s activities is on health and development of children in developing countries and in France. The Centre is particularly known for its long-term action for capacity building through a) stimulation of research; b) training courses; c) technical support; and d) dissemination of documentation. A multi-disciplinary scientific team works with an approach that combines research and training. During the last years, the Centre has widened its scope of to include issues relating to the rights of the child, psychosocial, legal and ecological issues, such as the environment of children, socio-economic effects of diseases, and has invested in a large documentation centre with i.a. a CD-Rom subscription service giving easy access to its bibliographical data base.

    CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS DEL MENOR (CEM), MADRID is a subdepartment of the State Office for the Legal Protection of Juveniles which in turn is part of the Ministry of Social Affairs. It was established in 1988 with the aim to offer support in the form of information, training or material, to professionals, scholars, volunteers and the general public, as well as to public and private institutions and their representatives who attend to children and their families, solving their problems and promoting their general welfare. In accordance with these aims the CEM, amongst other things, promotes, participates and coordinates with other organisations within the framework of specific programmes which provide information, training and research for the general public or for specific groups of people. CEM is divided into working sectors, such as training service, documentation sector, research sector and family service.

    CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE OF CHINA (CDCC) was established in 1983 as part of the programme of cooperation between the Government of China and UNICEF. The research of the Centre is based on a multi-disciplinary and applied approach to child development. Four aspects of child development are currently in the focus of research and training activities: a) scientific child rearing; b) situation of only child families; c) situation of the girl child; and d) child personality development. CDCC has a large outreach in terms of dissemination of information and training particularly aimed at populations in remote and/or poor areas of China.

    THE CHILDHOOD PROGRAMME, EUROPEAN CENTRE, VIENNA
    was established in 1986, and has particularly focussed on developing a comprehensive understanding of modern childhood in European countries. Its activities have included a series of expert meetings, on themes such as �Trends in Child Welfare: Experiences with and Alternatives to Compulsory Custodial Care’, �Children at Risk – future Developments in Child Welfare and Family Policy, and Politics of Childhood’ and �Children at Risk: Provision – Protection – Participation’. Further, the Childhood Programme has published a series of reports on the situation of children in various European countries based on the research of a group of sociologists studying current trends and concerns in industrialised countries, such as a) the demographic transformation that has lead to a decreasing share of children and an increasing share of adult and elderly persons in the total population; b) the relative impoverishment of children; c) alarming symptoms of special stress on groups of children, e.g. physical, sexual and emotional child abuse, child labour, international trade with children, children in areas of war and violence, street children; and d) the process of implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child in a manner that corresponds with �the best interests of the child’.

    THE CONSORTIUM ON CHILDREN, FAMILIES & THE LAW was created in 1987 to facilitate collaborative research, education and consultation on critical issues in child and family policy. The Consortium includes eight member centres and four affiliated organisations in USA. All of the member centres of the Consortium are university-based, inter-disciplinary and actively involved in research, policy analysis, graduate, professional and community education, consultation to policy makers, and technical assistance to programme administrators. All are committed to research and scholarship to inform policy makers about empowering families and enhancing child development. The Consortium conducts periodic study groups to synthesise knowledge and concepts to public policy. The Consortium plans to expand the information base available to child and family policy makers.

    THE CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, CARE AND DEVELOPMENT (CG) is an international, inter-agency group dedicated to improving the conditions of young children at risk. The CG grounds its work in a cross-disciplinary view of child care and development. The CG a) works to increase the knowledge base on children’s development drawing from field experiences, traditional wisdom and scientific research; b) works to increase awareness of issues affecting children, developing materials and strategies to help move communities, organisations and governments from rhetoric to practice, from policy to programming; c) fosters networking among those with common concerns and interests within the field of early childhood development and care; and d) engages in a dialogue with funders and decision-makers about developments in the field, providing the base for policy formulation, planning, programming and implementation. Participation in CG is possible at three levels, as donors, affiliates or network participants. The CG is facilitated by a secretariat, housed in the UNICEF Headquarters in New York. Administrative backstopping has been provided by the High/Scope Foundation. Financial support for the Secretariat comes from participating organisations.

    DEPARTMENT OF CHILD ECOLOGY, THE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, TOKYO is established with the purpose of clarifying genetic and environmental factors (including social factors) for diseases and development of children by genetic, epidemiological and behavioral research. Projects are mainly focussed on the following topics: Child living and development, child rearing (including child abuse and support systems for parents needing help with child rearing), quality of life for chronically ill children, national wide survey of diseases in Japan. Funding comes for the National Children’s Medical Research Center, the Ministry of Health and Welfare as well as various foundations.

    DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, KENYATTA UNIVERSITY, NAIROBI has been actively involved in research on children in since the early 1970s, i.a. in collaboration with the Child Development Research Unit founded by the Harvard University School of Education and funded by the Carnegie corporation of New York. The activities of the department include research projects such as: ‘Intelligence and Development Tests for East Africa’, ‘African Children Intelligence Tests’, ‘Child Survival and Development’ and training projects such as ‘Early Childhood Project’, ‘Child-to-Child Project’, ‘Kenya-Danish Health Project’ and ‘Strengthening Primary Education’. The department wants to initiate an international collaborative research project on the social and psychological problems encountered by children in difficult circumstances, including an evaluation of programmes aimed at such groups of children.

    THE FAMILY LIFE DEVELOPMENT CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY was established by New York State in 1974. It s mission is to improve professional and public efforts to understand and deal with risk factors in the lives of children, youth, families and communities that lead to family violence and neglect. It focuses on strategies and programmes to help vulnerable children and youth by strengthening families and communities. As an inter-disciplinary unit of the College of Human Ecology, the Center accomplishes its mission through research, training, outreach and education. It carries out its mandate through programme development, implementation and evaluation projects serving New York State, the nation and the international community. The Center receives core funding from New York State and currently operates over $ 4 million in programs funded through competitive grants and contracts at the state and federal levels. The Center occupies offices on the Cornell campus at Ithaca, and in New York City.

    FUNDACI&oacuteN PANIAMOR, COSTA RICA is a non-governmental organisation that was established in 1987 to improve the quality of life of Costa Rica’s children, youth and families, particularly through training in the prevention of child abuse and efforts to reduce interpersonal violence. Paniamor also has a child abuse prevention programme and incorporates the basic tenets of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in all its efforts and works to promote the recognition of children and youth as human beings with inalienable rights. The organisation tries to serve as a link between various groups in civil society to ensure the implementation of children’s rights. In terms of research, it particularly encourages research needed to provide appropriate information of the situation and welfare of children, and promotes the view that research could be used to prove the effect of programmes for children.

    INSTITUT DE L’ENFANCE ET DE LA FAMILLE (IDEF), PARIS was created in 1984 and receives its funding from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. It has a national Executive Board, with representatives from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the National Union of Family Associations, the French Committee for UNICEF, national public agencies involved in family policies and renowned researchers within this field. The institute is dedicated to deepen, expand and to disseminate general or specific knowledge about childhood and families in France as well as in other European countries. The purpose is to stimulate inter-disciplinary research and publications, to analyse significant trends of the professional practices, and to promote appropriate public policies within relevant areas. IDEF has a multi-disciplinary team, and a public documentation centre connected with other centres. Since its creation IDEF has been known as a key institution for the promotion and the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in France (especially in the fields of social, educational and cultural rights of protection and expression). IDEF is also devoted to such issues as assessment of child abuse and neglect, international adoption, new parental responsibilities created by the formal recognition of the rights of the child, changes in the role and status of fathers, new trends in the field of childhood health promotion and social welfare, children families and medical drugs, childhood, family and death. IDEF has a formalised cooperation with the Centre International de L’enfance in Paris on issues of common interest.

    THE NORWEGIAN CENTRE FOR CHILD RESEARCH (NOSEB) is a national, inter-disciplinary centre supporting both basic and applied child research. Its purpose is to enlarge the knowledge of how children’s development is affected by social, historical, cultural and psychological processes. With its inter-disciplinary profile, clear research goals and nationally-mandated responsibility for child research, NOSEB is also uniquely suited to play a constructive role in the wider European and international context. Research activities of the centre have particularly focussed on childhood in a cultural perspective, socialisation in a historical context, children’s social development and surroundings for growing up, children and the environment. NOSEB was established in 1982 and was declared a permanent national research institution in 1988. The Centre is connected to the University of Trondheim through the general scientific research foundation ALLFORSK, and receives its core funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

    UNIT FOR CHILD AND YOUTH RESEARCH, TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, BOMBAY was set up with the initial support from UNICEF. From l974, it is an integral part of the Institute The Institute is deemed University and supported by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi. The Unit reflects the philosophy of the Tata Institute according to which it is the responsibility of academics towards society to ensure that research could be applied. The principal objectives of the Unit are: (i) to conduct inter-disciplinary research in relation to the needs and services for child and youth development, (ii) to develop teaching material and to conduct workshops, training programmes and conferences/seminars for programme personnel, policy planners, and trainers in the field of child and youth development, (iii) to document, disseminate and exchange information on issues concerned with children and youth, (iv) to undertake demonstrative social action research projects, and (v) to provide technical assistance to government and non-governmental agencies for appropriate interventions to support the actions for children towards a better life.

    Currently the Unit’s faculty works on issues related to rights of children, psycho-social development of children, adolescents and their environment, early childhood care, day care, the girl child, growing up at work and on and off the streets, (child labour, street children), substance use/abuse, youth culture and social change. The Unit’s faculty is multidisciplinary and undertakes collaborative research with national, UN and other international institutions.

    THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON CHILDHOOD, UNIVERSIDADE SANTA URSULA, RIO DE JANEIRO has as its primary objective the exchange of information, stimulation of knowledge, and promotion of research on, and social action for, impoverished and marginalised children. The Centre was founded in 1984 and has carried out and published research, promoted debate, and oriented students and professionals interested in delving more deeply into this field. The Centre’s main commitment to the children’s issue in Brazil is founded on active involvement in social change, aimed at improving living conditions for a vast number of children and adolescents now condemned to subhuman conditions in their struggle for survival. Priority lines of action include: developing a documentation centre on childhood and adolescence among low-income-sectors in Brazil, promoting a public debate on children’s conditions for growing up, training future professionals, promoting joint research projects with other institutions, and facilitating communication among different social actors involved in child welfare in Brazil (educators, researchers, social planners and decision makers).

    [Next chapter]
    [Report index]
    [Key Index]
    [Childwatch Home]