Mainstreaming child rights in the new aid modalities makes good development sense:

• Child rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. The new aid modalities (PRSPS, budget support and sector-wide approaches) are more holistic in their scope, offering the potential to link child rights commitments more directly with poverty reduction efforts and the attainment of the Millennium Development goals. Policies and plans at this level can address the interdependence of children’s rights more coherently than the individual project modality. For example, a child’s right to education is intimately linked to their right to a national identity and language, their birth registration, their right to participation, their right to protection from abuse and harmful labour, their right to rest and leisure, etc. The interdependence of these rights is more effectively addressed at the policy level, over individual project interventions.
  


• Children are an important stakeholder in the PRSP process, given PRSP links to the attainment of the MDGs, the majority of which are focused directly on children’s well-being. Mainstreaming Child Rights in the new aid modalities creates a forum for policy makers to build their understanding and capacity with regard to child rights commitments and brings representatives (government, civil society, donors, private sector, etc.) from different sectors together to work towards common goals. The new aid modalities can potentially create forums for improved knowledge exchange, coordination and potential synergies with a child rights focused lens. For example, by bringing child-focused civil society organisations into national policy dialogue forums or by ensuring that child rights indicators are included in national performance measurement frameworks, children’s rights are made more visible at a level they could not in traditional project modalities.
  


• The new aid modalities also have the potential to improve financial predictability and sustainability for child rights realisation. Where child rights are mainstreamed in national policies and plans, these commitments are reflected in national budgeting processes. Whereas with project modalities, resource commitments to child rights end with project completion.