WUNRN
THE GIRL CHILD
CALL FOR PAPERS
UNICEF Egypt Sponsored International Conference:
“Child Poverty and Disparities: Public Policies for Social Justice”
Cairo, Egypt, January 2009
To view the full version of the call for papers please click here
Within the framework of the First International Forum for the Developing Countries Think Tanks, the United Nations Children’s Fund in Egypt (UNICEF) is organizing an international conference on “Child Poverty and Disparities: Public Policies for Social Justice”. The conference serves as a platform for innovative thinking on social policy and child rights that will bring together academics, policy makers, practitioners as well as university students to exchange experiences and discuss proposals for inclusive and child-sensitive public social and economic policies that aim to reduce child poverty and are based on scientific evidence.
Background
Many countries have been unable to set an economic agenda that eliminates
poverty at the rate foreseen by the MDGs and which is required to achieve the
rights of the child. In addition, inequalities have persisted or even
increased. Moreover, even though children often constitute around 40% of the
total population, their rights and special needs are often placed below other
priorities, leading to lost opportunities in terms of both human and economic
development.
Call for Papers
The conference organizers welcome proposals for presentations from academics,
researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. University students and
recent graduates are particularly encouraged to respond to the call for papers.
The presentations at the conference can be any of the following formats:
1) Individual paper presentations of applied research or documented
experiences;
2) Poster presentations on research findings or successful experiences;
and
3) Post-graduate feedback sessions on ongoing research projects.
Papers and presentations submitted should focus either on Egypt specifically or should discuss relevant applied research and experiences reporting on policy proposals that could possibly be transposed to the Egyptian context. They should 1) have a solid methodological approach, be it quantitative or qualitative; 2) have a strong evidence base and 3) discuss implications for inclusive public policies that advance children’s rights and reduce their vulnerability to the multidimensional notion of poverty. Selected papers, presentations and research projects will address at least one of the following themes:
1) Policy implications of child poverty from a child rights perspective with
a focus on:
a) education deprivation and/or
b) health deprivation and/or
c) nutrition deprivation and/or
d) deprivation of social protection and/or
e) deprivation of social support systems for children at risk of violence,
abuse and exploitation
2) Child and adolescent participation in research and development to achieve
child rights
Structure of the conference
Under the umbrella of the first International Conference on Think Tanks in
Developing Countries and in addition to the presentations of selected research
papers, poster presentations and post-graduate feedback sessions, the
conference is planned to have the following components: 1) exchange of
experiences on observatories for child rights in developing countries; 2)
discussion on child rights and well-being indicators and their importance for
monitoring the situation of children; 3) essay competition by Egyptian
secondary school students on the perception of poverty from a child’s and
adolescent’s perspective; 4) training workshop on participatory action research
for young people; and 5) announcement of the winners of the first Young
Innovators Awards for research on public policy and child rights
Language
Presentations of selected papers, research projects as well as poster
presentations at the conference can be either in English or Arabic. However,
proposals (abstracts) and final papers must be submitted in English.
Financial assistance
Small grants covering accommodation can be provided to scholars and students
from developing countries that will present their papers or projects. Please
specify in the Proposal Submission Form.
Calendar of events
31 October, 2008 – Deadline for proposal submission: Please
submit a one-page abstract on paper, poster or post-graduate research project
of no more than 400 words in English and accompanied by a CV by e-mail to egyptchildpovertyconference@unicef.org.
Please use the Proposal
Submission Form.
30 November, 2008 – Selection of papers, poster
presentations and research projects: Selection will be done by a review board
composed of renowned Egyptian scholars based on specified selection criteria.
15 December, 2008 – Deadline for final paper, poster and
research project submissions: All papers should be submitted in .pdf or .doc
format to egyptchildpovertyconference@unicef.org. Papers
can be in a provisional version, but must contain a clear presentation of the
results obtained and a complete reference list in order to be considered by the
review board. The first page of the paper should include: i) submission title
and affiliation; ii) author(s)’ name(s); iii) abstract and keywords; and iv)
contact information (name, surname, e-mail address) of the author in charge of
the communication. Final papers and poster presentations should be in English.
Mid-January, 2009 – Conference: There is no registration fee
and both English and Arabic simultaneous interpretation will be available.
CONTACT:
Dennis Arends, Chief, Social Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation, UNICEF Egypt, darends@unicef.org.