Funding the Future: Challenges and Responses to the Reintegration of Child Soldiers

 

Monday, 24 September 2018

10:30 – 12:00

United Nations Secretariat, Conference Room 6

Watch this event live on: http://webtv.un.org/

 

In 2017 alone, more than 10,000 children were released from the ranks of armed forces and groups in the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia or South Sudan.

Providing adequate, sustainable and reliably funded reintegration programmes is essential to ensuring that ex-child soldiers benefit from the necessary support to recover their lives and allow them to reintegrate their communities.

In that spirit, this high-level event will advocate for the creation of a “Coalition for Reintegration,” bringing together reintegration actors to increase funding, potentially through a new fund or mechanism, for sustainable, comprehensive and long-term reintegration programmes for children. The event will launch a process in which child protection actors, donors, experts and other stakeholders will come together to chart the path towards scalable funding change.

 

Moderator:

  • H.E. Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of Belgium

Speakers:

  • H.M. The Queen of the Belgians
  • H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta
  • H.E. Geoffrey Jideofor Kwusike Onyeama, Foreign Minister of Nigeria (TBC)
  • Mohamed Sidibay, former child soldier and advocate for the right to education for all
  • Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
  • Omar Abdi, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF
  • Maninder Gill, Director, Social Development, World Bank
  • Rob Williams, Chief Executive Officer, War Child UK

Read the concept note for this event:

Please note that this event is full and no longer accepting registrations. For additional information, do not hesitate to contact Stephanie Tremblay (tremblay@un.org, 917 288 5791) or Fabienne Vinet (vinet@un.org)