June NUI Galway International Development Expert to Present Evaluation of Child Migration Programmes in Horn of Africa

NUI Galway academic Dr Una Murray will present an evaluation she recently led for a UNICEF development programme on migrating children in the Horn of Africa at a webinar on Thursday, 17 June at 1pm.

During the webinar, entitled ‘Evaluation of the Programme - Protecting Children On The Move in the Horn of Africa’, Dr Murray’s presentation will include inputs from programme focal points in each of the countries, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. The UNICEF event presents the results of the evaluation of a UNICEF programme, funded by the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, which aimed to better understand and respond to the specific vulnerabilities of children on the move.

The UNICEF programme was implemented between 2017 and 2020 to strengthen case management systems, develop capacities of social service workforce, improve access to integrated social and child protection services and information on available safe migration options, enhance knowledge about children on the move and to inform programming, and to improve access to legal protection for children.

The results of the work undertaken by Dr Murray and her UNICEF team is informing strategy development, design and implementation of future UNICEF initiatives in the realm of protecting children on the move from violence, exploitation and abuse. The findings and recommendations generated by the evaluation are now strengthening global evidence about what does and does not work, how and why, across different contexts, for children facing different challenges. 

Dr Una Murray, Lecturer in School of Geography, and Ryan Institute Principal Investigator at NUI Galway, said: “Our team’s evaluation began just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck making conditions for children on the move very difficult. The Horn of Africa Region is characterised by mixed movements of peoples, including refugees, asylum seekers, victims of trafficking, smuggled migrants and unaccompanied minors. Although we mainly hear about migration routes into Europe, there are two other primary routes of migration that children follow, the Eastern route via Yemen and Saudi Arabia and beyond, and the Southern route, along an Eastern African corridor through Kenya to South Africa. There is also a high incidence of internally displaced children in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.”

For more details or to register for the webinar visit: https://www.unicef.org/evaluation/evaluation-programme-protecting-children-move-horn-africa-17-june-2021

The UNICEF Evaluation Report can be accessed at: https://evaluationreports.unicef.org/GetDocument?fileID=17407