© 2017 Save the Children

On March 6 and 7, Watchlist participated in Save the Children’s Middle East and Eurasia Workshop on Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups (CAAFAG) and the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM). Watchlist was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of regional programmatic experts working on child protection in conflict settings. The objective of the workshop was to build capacities of staff by garnering relevant internal and external knowledge for engagement with the MRM and for addressing the issue of CAAFAGs in its work.

In this role, Watchlist provided participants an overview of the United Nations Security Council’s children and armed conflict agenda, including trends and challenges regarding recruitment and use of children. Furthermore, Watchlist introduced its Resource Pack for NGO Engagement in the MRM as a tool available for assessing potential ways of engaging with the Mechanism. Finally, in addition to these presentations, Watchlist engaged participants in a range of questions through a panel regarding policy and practice relating to the prevention of the recruitment and use, as well as release and reintegration of children associated with armed groups or forces.