The Bottom, Saba -UNICEF Netherlands hosted a presentation on the 2019 situation analysis for stakeholders on Saba on Wednesday, December 4. 

During the presentation, representatives of UNICEF presented the key findings of the Situation Analysis Children and Adolescents in the Caribbean Netherlands and elaborated on the recommendations. The Public Entity Saba, as well as the other two public entities, and the ministries in The Hague gave their input for the 2019 situation analysis. 

On the basis of the 2019 Situation Analysis, three key critical issues have been identified: the lack of data which makes it difficult to ascertain which children are being deprived of their rights, there is room for improvement in the coordination between the ministries and between the ministries and the public entities, and the legislative and policy gaps need to be tackled. 

UNICEF Netherlands has formulated 30 recommendations toward the relevant ministries and the public entities. The tackling of domestic violence and child abuse, poverty reduction, the collecting of data and creating the necessary legal framework and policy environment play an important role in the recommendations. 

“Overall, there is more attention for children’s rights now compared to when the first situation analyses were done on the islands in 2013,” said Caribbean Netherlands Project Lead at UNICEF Netherlands La-Toya Charles who facilitated the presentation with her colleague Marlies Filbri, Dutch Caribbean Program Manager at UNICEF Netherlands. 

During the presentation on December 4, representatives of the Public Entity Saba, including several members of the Island Council, and other stakeholders of, for example, Youth Care and Family Supervision Caribbean Netherlands (JGCN), the Saba Comprehensive School (SCS), the Sacred Heart Primary School (SHS), the Expertise Center Education Care (EC2), Body, Mind & Spirit (BMS) and Saba Health Care Foundation (SHC), had the opportunity to see how the information that they provided during the process of the study was used. Several attendees made use of the opportunity to pose questions. 

UNICEF Netherlands will support the implementation of the recommendations through its new Caribbean Netherlands Children’s Rights Program. This program, which runs from September 2019 to December 2021, is funded by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK. The program focuses on three domains: children’s rights education and participation, communication for behavior change and positive parenting, and monitoring and evaluation for effective policies and programs for children’s rights. 

UNICEF Netherlands works in partnership with the Caribbean Netherlands Public Entities and with the BZK Ministry to strengthen children’s rights. Together with the partners, UNICEF Netherlands strives to promote a culture and attitude in the Caribbean Netherlands that supports children’s rights and is aimed at protecting children. 

UNICEF considers it its role to ensure that children and adults have knowledge about children’s rights and that children have the knowledge, capacity and opportunities to speak out about matters that concern them. In this way, UNICEF contributes to a positive environment in which children and adults together contribute to the respect of children’s rights. In addition, it is UNICEF’s role to monitor the situation of children and to advise policymakers, to help promote compliance with children’s rights.