Helping children outgrow war

This guidebook offers numerous examples of successful interventions in postconflict settings. Interventions are presented within a framework that emphasizes the ecology of children’s well-being and learning.

Central intervention themes presented in the guidebook include:

• essential relationships and primary caregivers must be supported
• holistic and integrated services are required to respond to children’s needs
• learning is an enabling right and catalyst for development
• interventions should be oriented toward transformation
• community approaches are the most effective
• when children are taking positive action, follow their lead.

The report also argues that:

• conflicts and crises have multiple phases and transition points, with conflicts of varying stages, scopes, and intensities occurring in different places simultaneously
• it is critical for project designers to think carefully about the nature of the situation, in terms of phases and transitions
• it is useful to consider how a project can enable the constructive satisfaction of basic psychological needs for various groups on multiple ecological layers
• the importance of investment in evaluation, preferably of the sort that involves children and local communities themselves in design and analysis
• the importance of functional places of learning to provide children with opportunities to gain the skills necessary for competent participation in the reconstruction of economic and civil life

[adapted from author]