Strengthening social services

UNICEF Côte d’Ivoire complements the work in the community with advocacy at national level on strengthening child protection services through social workers and community mechanisms. Emphasis was placed on increasing the quality of services provided by social centers and the skills of local and community organisations and staff. With technical and material support, these local and community organisations were strengthened in identifying, preventing and caring for children at risk and/or victims of child labour.

“As a result we now see that social workers are more present in communities to address the psychosocial needs of children. The social workers also play an important role in encouraging communities to respect child rights.”, explains Soumahoro Gbato, programme manager at UNICEF.

“Also, we were able to ensure the continuity of education for 2,000 children by supporting them to obtain legal identity documents, which are a fundamental right in themselves and a prerequisite for continuing education beyond the primary level. Additionally, school kits were distributed to 2,000 children from economically vulnerable families to facilitate their access to and retainment in the formal education system.”