Priority setting for children’s right to protection in BC: A knowledge mobilization symposium

Dr. Ziba Vaghri and her research user co-leads — Mr. Bernard Richard and Ms. Deborah Chaplain — propose a knowledge mobilization symposium with participants from a range of advocacy organizations, policy makers, service providers, and researchers in the areas of child rights and/or early child development (ECD) across British Columbia (BC).

The symposium is a stakeholder engagement event with a goal of improving the state of ECD in BC. It will support evidence-based decision-making by presenting data collected in the pilot of the Early Childhood Rights Indicators (ECRI) in BC.

ECRI is a comprehensive child rights monitoring tool for young children aged 0 – 8. The innovative ECRI tool is a series of indicators designed to verify the state of rights relevant to young children, as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); it aims to enhance children’s health and development through fulfilling their rights. The user-friendly digitized tool combines the indicators framework with information technology to facilitate the monitoring of existing capacities to support child rights, and to measure their impact on children’s health and development. Such information will be useful for policy makers, researchers, and service providers concerned with evidence-based decision-making.

The symposium objectives are to:

1. Inform stakeholders of the findings of the ECRI BC pilot.
2. Bring guest speakers to present the current state of knowledge on issues outlined in the pilot report to further inform stakeholders.
3. Engage participants in constructive dialogue to discuss priorities for child protection in BC.

The symposium outcomes are to:

1. Raise participants’ awareness of the status of child rights for young children in BC.
2. Increase communication and collaboration between child rights and ECD stakeholders in BC, as these two sectors have traditionally remained disconnected from each other.
3. Build the capacity of stakeholders in promoting child rights, child development, and well-being.

The expected symposium outputs are a summary report, newsletter op-ed article, and policy brief developed by the research trainee under Vaghri’s supervision and in collaboration with attendees of the symposium.