MHPSS and EIE Toolkit

The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

This document sets out the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS). It gives background information on the intentions for developing the standards and their legal basis. It outlines ten principles. The standards are then ordered within four pillars: standards to ensure a quality child protection response, standards on child protection risks, standards to develop adequate strategies and standards to work across sectors.

Education in Emergencies - Child Protection Collaboration Framework

This framework specifically supports collaboration and coordination between Education and Child Protection cluster coordination teams. It provides steps to strengthen collaboration through the humanitarian project cycle. For each phase it outlines the objective of collaboration, three different levels of potential collaboration, key steps including minimum suggested actions, promising practice examples from different countries, and further tools and resources to support collaboration. It aims to enhance the quality, coverage and accountability of the humanitarian response, and reach more children in need.

Defining and Measuring Child Well-Being in Humanitarian Action: A Contextualization Guide

This guide highlights the key steps in the process of adapting the global inter-agency child well-being definition and measurement framework to context. It is based on the principle that the core factors that contribute to the well-being of children must first be understood in context to ensure cultural and contextual relevance to children, families, and communities. This guide presents the global definition of child well-being in humanitarian action and its key components and the measurement framework. It gives detailed information to support child protection practitioners and other relevant actors to contextualize the definition and measurement framework.

Alternative Care in Emergencies Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to facilitate interagency planning and implementation of alternative care and related services for children separated from or unable to live with their families during and after an emergency. It contains: guiding principles for interim care-related work; summary guidance for quick reference to tools and information; extended guidance on - managing and coordinating a programme, how to support families and caregivers without encouraging secondary separation, and managing care to respond to the protection needs of each individual child; and information on how to set up, assess and support a variety of types of alternative care.

Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children

The toolkit was produced by the Inter-Agency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) to provide technical guidance to support the implementation of the core principles for working with these children. It highlights key international instruments and guidelines relating to unaccompanied and separated children, including a series of tools and sample documents for use in programming. It accompanies the Field Handbook (see Linked Resources section).

Field Handbook on Unaccompanied and Separated Children

This handbook provides operational guidance for child protection staff and other actors working on prevention and response to family separation in emergencies. It sets out to ensure that responses meet agreed inter-agency standards and are appropriate to the particular situation of individual unaccompanied and separated children, emphasizing the importance of working with affected communities, including children themselves. It accompanies the Toolkit (see Linked Resources section). The handbook is divided into a summary guidance section, which collates all the essential actions and tools covered in the handbook and acts as a quick reference guide for practitioners. Detailed guidance on each topic can be found within corresponding chapters in sections one and Two. Section one provides an overview of the legal framework and organizational mandates related to unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), characterizes family separation in emergencies, describes the causes of separation, outlines how to prepare for and prevent separation in emergencies, and how to undertake coordination and assessment. It also covers the basics of UASC programming, case management and information management. Section two provides detailed guidance on immediate needs in emergencies and detailed information on identification, documentation, alternative care, family tracing, verification, reunification, reintegration and cross-sector coordination.

Traditional Games for Child Protection

This manual collates a series of traditional games that teach life skills to children as well as foster resilience and self-protection. The manual explains the psychosocial and protection related benefits of games for children, highlights the lessons from each game, and provides follow up questions for the children. Games are organized by age group.

Where Child Protection and Education in Emergency Cross

This paper provides a mapping of the critical intersections between child protection (CP) and education in emergencies (EiE). It is hoped that this mapping will help to establish research parameters around which the two sectors can conduct strategic and focused advocacy that will strengthen the quality of both child protection and education responses in times of emergency. In addition, it aims to encourage further joint planning and programming where possible between the two sectors, and to increase understanding within the two communities.

Child Protection and Education in Emergencies

This fact sheet explains how in emergencies, quality education is crucial to provide children with physical, psychosocial and cognitive protection that can be both life-sustaining and life-saving. It proposes four solutions for education in emergencies, with the vision for boys and girls living in emergencies to have equitable access to quality education and to grow up free from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence.

Working with Other Sectors to Enhance Outcomes of MHPSS Elements of Child Protection: An Introductory Guide for Child Protection Practitioners (field test version 1.0)

This guide has developed recommendations based on interviews with specialists within the various sectors. It has been revised by other independent specialists and validated by a group of child protection coordinators and sector specialists. Notwithstanding these efforts, we are aware that inaccuracies may arise as a result of information that was unavailable at the time of drafting, as well as useful methods and resources that warrant inclusion. This is therefore intended to be a living document that will be updated and expanded over time. 
In a humanitarian response at the national level, all sectors come together for the purposes of MHPSS in the national MHPSS Technical Working Group (TWG). Some knowledge of all sectors may promote more meaningful participation on the part of stakeholders in these MHPSS TWGs. The guide is also a helpful tool for facilitating productive conversations with colleagues from other sectors beyond the MHPSS TWG. Finally, the guidance materials provided may also be useful for case managers faced with the challenge of navigating between sectors to find the best solution for individual children and families.