Girl child soldiers
A conference on girl mothers in fighting forces and their post-war reintegration in Southern and Western Africa
Conference highlighted the issues inherent in working with child mothers in conflict
Authors:
M. Robinson; S. McKay
Publisher:
Rockefeller Foundation, 2005
This conference paper summarises discussions and conclusions reached at the conference on "Girl mothers in fighting forces and their post-war reintegration in southern and western Africa" held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy, from April 12th through 18th 2005. The conference was intended to provide an opportunity for those directly involved with the demobilisation and community reintegration of girl mothers in African conflict situations to explore the existing research and share their practical experiences, with the "luxury" of time and space for reflection, discussion, sharing and creating possibilities - programme ideas, policy recommendations, a research agenda, and a scholarly publication.
The goals of the conference included:
- create space for reflection, analysis and sharing of experience of the work of supporting girl mothers who were involved in armed conflict in southern and western Africa
- synthesise learning to date on the situation of these girl mothers and their children and identify knowledge gaps
- share country-specific approaches to identifying these girl mothers and working with communities to enhance community capacity to assist them
- develop concrete responses to the challenges addressed, in the form of programme and policy recommendations, programming and research proposals
- establish relationships and connections for collaboration and continued networking.
Countries particularly focused upon included Uganda, Sierra Leone, DRC, Sudan, Angola, and the participants discussed at lengths various aspects of working with, and researching, girl mothers.
Because so little is known about girl mothers and their children, participants felt they were unable to work on approaches and "best practices" since few presently exist. Instead, substantial discussion occurred from the perspectives of practitioners, researchers, and policy makers about knowledge gaps, articulation between policy, research, and practice; there was substantial debate about how (conceptually) to address the problems that arise in working with girl mothers and their children. Participants decided that the debate needs to move now to a practical level whereby best practice can be more readily articulated.
