Module 6 - Trainer Guide FINAL

Module 6:
COORDINATION WITH EXTERNAL

ACTORS
OVERVIEW
This module helps child protection staff identify relevant external actors, including
government entities, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations, that child
protection staff should liaise with as part of their coordination function. UN field missions
rely on support from these actors to carry out the child protection mandate, particularly
in terms of referring children to service providers for assistance.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
• Explain why it is essential for UN field missions to coordinate with external actors
on child protection;
• Describe the role of child protection staff in coordinating with external actors;
• Identify relevant external actors for the mission’s work on child protection.
ACTIVITIES
• Group exercise: Actor mapping (60 min)
HANDOUT
• Handout: Actor mapping
Specialized Training Materials 1

for Child Protection Staff
Module 6:
Coordination with External Actors
SESSION TIME
• 1.5 hours
SLIDE 1: INTRODUCTION
TRAINER NOTES
UN field missions often rely on support from external actors to carry out the child
protection mandate, particularly when it comes to programmatic responses. To
facilitate this, child protection staff should establish strong, reliable networks and
functional referral pathways with relevant external actors, including government
entities, UN agencies, NGOs, parties to conflict, etc.
This module focuses on coordination with external actors. At the same time, child
protections staff also coordinate on child protection within the mission as part of
mainstreaming. In addition, they also coordinate closely with the OSRSG-CAAC,
which leads efforts of mainstreaming concerns of children affected by armed

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conflict across the UN system.

Coordination is a cross-cutting issue and important for all your work as child
protection staff, including monitoring and reporting, advocacy, engagement with
parties to conflict and mainstreaming child protection within the mission.
SLIDE 2: LEARNING OBJECTIVES
TRAINER NOTES
After this module, learners should be able to:
o Explain why it is essential for UN field missions to coordinate with external
actors on child protection;
o Describe the role of child protection staff in coordinating with external
actors;
o Identify relevant external actors for the mission’s work on child protection.
Before going to the next slide, ask learners why they think coordination is
essential for the mission to deliver on its child protection mandate.

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SLIDE 3: WHY IS COORDINATION IMPORTANT?
TRAINER NOTES
Coordination is essential for the mission to deliver on its child protection mandate.
Some reasons for coordinating with partners are to:
• Benefit from different actors’ access to certain geographical areas, sources
of information and advocacy targets. For example, you may be able to partner
with civil society organizations in a remote area to gather information on grave
violations or conduct sensitization campaigns.
• Avoid duplicating efforts, which is important given that the child protection
contingent tends to be small. Also remember that lack of coordination can do
harm, for example when actors re-interview survivors or witnesses of violence.
• Strengthen local capacities, by working with external actors on child
protection issues. For example, by asking the government entity responsible
for children’s services to join you for prison monitoring can be an important
learning experience for them.

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• Ensure that child survivors can access support services. The UN field
mission does not offer any services for children. Liaising with relevant service
providers is thus fundamental to ensure that affected children will receive the
medical, psycho-social, legal and other support they need.
• Bolster advocacy efforts. For example, some service providers may know
about violations committed against children but are reluctant to engage in
advocacy efforts themselves for fear of losing their humanitarian space.
However, they may be willing to share this information with child protection
staff to bolster advocacy efforts in the mission context.
As these examples illustrate, coordination can benefit both the mission and its child
protection partners!
Before going to the next slide, ask learners why coordination can be challenging?
What are some of the main obstacles for effective coordination?
SLIDE 4: WHY IS COORDINATION CHALLENGING?

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TRAINER NOTES
Coordination also poses a number of challenges. It is important for you and your
partners to be mindful of these challenges and to work together to address them.
Among other reasons, challenges may be due to:
• Entities’ different mandates and approaches: For example, if other actors
have lower security and confidentiality standards, child protection staff may not
be able to share data, particularly sensitive data, with them due to potential
harm to survivors and others.
• Competition for attention and resources: For example, some entities may
prefer to take action on their own to minimize logistical complications, to more
directly profile their work and/or to avoid having to share resources.
• Limited incentives for coordination: For example, there may be limited
resources to support staff participation in coordination bodies.
• Cost of coordination: For example, having to mobilize multiple actors quickly
can be complicated and may lead to delayed responses.
Discuss with learners how they can mitigate some of these challenges. For
example, one option for limiting the cost of coordination is to make sure all
partners add value to the effort and to assign clear roles and responsibilities of all
those involves. Similarly, partners can develop standard operating procedures for
information management based on relevant international child protection
standards.

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SLIDE 5: ROLE OF CHILD PROTECTION STAFF IN COORDINATION
TRAINER NOTES
Child protection staff take a lead role in coordinating efforts to protect children in
armed conflict. Your roles and responsibility in coordinating with partners on child
protection are laid out in the 2017 Child Protection Policy. In summary, your role
is to:
• Act as an entry point for relevant external actors to engage with UN field
missions on relevant child protection concerns.
• Educate mission staff about medical, legal and other services that external
actors provide for child victims/survivors of violations, and referral systems.
• Engage on monitoring, reporting and advocacy activities with relevant
mission components and its partners, including co-managing the Country Task
Force on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR), where it exists.
• Mobilize external technical capacity when needed within the immediate
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operating environment.
The overarching goal of these efforts is for UN field missions to leverage the
comparative advantages of the different actors in the field in order to advance the
protection, rights and well-being of children.
SLIDE 6: GROUP EXERCISE: ACTOR MAPPING
TRAINER NOTES
ACTIVITY: GROUP EXERCISE: ACTOR MAPPING
AIM: Learners will conduct an actor mapping to identify and analyse relevant external
actors for the mission’s work on child protection.
TIME: 60 Minutes
ACTIVITY GUIDELINES:
1) Split learners into groups of 4-5 people and distribute the handouts to them.

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Handout: Actor mapping

2) Go over the instructions on the handout. Groups should be prepared to report
back to the plenary in 40 minutes. Ask them to spend no more than 20 minutes
on the mapping so that they have enough time for the analysis part.
3) After 40 minutes, invite each group to report back on their key outcomes and share
with other the other groups what they have learned from this exercise (20 min).
In the debrief, emphasize that coordination is essential for the mission to deliver
on the child protection mandate. However, it is critical to carefully choose who to
coordinate with and on what issues. Doing such a mapping can help child
protection staff be more strategic in their coordination efforts.
SLIDE 7: TAKEAWAYS
TRAINER NOTES
Review these key takeaways.


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Module 6:

COORDINATION WITH EXTERNAL

Specialized Training Materials 1

Specialized Training Materials 2

conflict across the UN system.

SLIDE 2: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Specialized Training Materials 3

SLIDE 3: WHY IS COORDINATION IMPORTANT?

Specialized Training Materials 4

SLIDE 4: WHY IS COORDINATION CHALLENGING?

Specialized Training Materials 5

Specialized Training Materials 6

SLIDE 5: ROLE OF CHILD PROTECTION STAFF IN COORDINATION

SLIDE 6: GROUP EXERCISE: ACTOR MAPPING

Specialized Training Materials 8

Handout: Actor mapping

Specialized Training Materials 9

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