Promoting the Vancouver Principles in Sub-Saharan Africa

This project supports the implementation of the Vancouver Principles (VPs) to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers in 7 sub-Saharan African countries over a 5-year period. This includes Democratic Republic of Congo Cameroon Ghana Mozambique Nigeria Rwanda and South Sudan. Project activities include: conducting pre-deployment trainings of peacekeepers advocacy around the VPs community engagement and national and regional roundtables. This aims to strengthen the capacity of policymakers security sector institutions and local civil society organizations such as women's and youth groups to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) enhanced implementation of policy frameworks through the advocacy of the Vancouver Principles to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict by member states; (2) increased implementation by security sector actors of gender-responsive measures that prevent the recruitment and use of children in conflict; and (3) increased understanding and integration of the VPs by the security sector including through the integration of community perspectives on the prevention of recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.