Strong, united and vocal national civil society is key to defending the right of all children to a happy and healthy childhood. As the Member States study the just adopted European Commission Recommendation "Investing in Children: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage", Eurochild is gearing up to empower its member organisations to apply pressure to national and regional governments to follow the EU guidance and address the increasing child poverty and deprivation in Europe. To this end, Eurochild, together with its partners UNICEF and the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), organised a series of events to strengthen the cooperation and advocacy of national civil society and to gather political commitment to tackle child poverty.
The events, also co-hosted by the Children’s Rights Alliance Ireland, UNICEF National Committee for Ireland and EAPN Ireland, took place in Dublin, Ireland, on 10-11 April 2013. It consisted of a political roundtable with participation of many high-level speakers, and an advocacy seminar. The first day was hosted in the Royal Kilmainham Hospital under the patronage of the Irish Presidency. Irish Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald hosted the morning round table which launched the Unicef Report Card 11 on child well-being.
High level speakers from Ireland, Lithuania and the European Commission opened the debate in the afternoon. The second day was a working meeting of members of different European networks to discuss implementation of the EC Recommendation at national level by taking advantage of advocacy opportunities and developing joint points for action.
Eurochild and EAPN took the opportunity of the event to launch the joint Explainer "Towards Children’s Well-Being in the EU" which aims to raise public awareness on child poverty in Europe and on the devastating effects it has on lives of children and families as well as on society as a whole. The explainer illustrates concrete solutions at EU, national, local and individual levels to support the implementation of the European Commission Recommendation.
10 April Plenary - Lieve Fransen
10 April Plenary - Daina Urbonaitiene
10 April Plenary - EAPN-Eurochild Child Poverty Explainer (Kart Mere & Sean O'Neill)
11 April Plenary – Chris de Neubourg
11 April Plenary - Deirdre de Burca
11 April Plenary - Sian Jones
11 April plenary - Gaelle Buysschaert
11 April Plenary - Reka Tunyogi
Workshop I - Graciela Malgesini
Workshop I - Stuart Duffin
Workshop II - Gaelle Buysschaert
Workshop II - John Dickie
Workshop III - Dilyana Giteva, NNC Bulgaria
Workshop III - Fatima Veiga, EAPN Portugal