Keywords : Children Affected by Armed Conflict (CAAC); Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups (CAAFAG); Foreign Aid; Innovative Financing Modalities; Child Recruitment
The reintegration of child soldiers is the key to achieving lasting prosperity and peace in conflict-affected societies. Unfortunately, a small fraction of child soldiers receive the necessary 3-5 years of support needed to reintegrate successfully into society. To address this, both immediate and long-term investments are crucial in providing humanitarian and developmental assistance and to tackle the root causes of recruitment to break and mitigate the vicious cycles that expose children to continued violence.
Despite an USD 80 million increase in yearly humanitarian funding since 2016, child reintegration efforts remain critically underfunded. In fact, humanitarian appeals supporting the umbrella “child protection” list of needs increased by USD 317 million yearly. As such, the gap between growing needs and current levels of funding has grown to a sheer 75% funding gap in 2021. Meanwhile, despite increasing reintegration needs in the CAAC agenda, peace funding has steadily declined since 2012. Simply addressing these needs in isolation is inadequate.
Our research identifies root causes of child recruitment, with 33% of these drivers expected to worsen due to climate change. Interestingly, there is a strong negative correlation between the increasing performance of indicators related to these drivers and the levels of child recruitment and use, particularly in violence-prone and lower-income countries.
In a world deeply affected by conflict, the reintegration of child soldiers represents a critical yet significantly underfunded effort, facing a 75% gap in necessary resources. Despite increased financial efforts since 2016, the support remains insufficient to address the escalating needs in the Sahel. The root causes of child recruitment, exacerbated by climate change, necessitate innovative financing solutions to pave the way for sustainable peace and development.
Key Take-aways
The reintegration of child soldiers is vital for peace and prosperity, but funding falls drastically short, leaving a 75% gap. Innovative financing is urgently needed to tackle the root causes of child recruitment and climate change's worsening impacts.
Critical Underfunding: Despite an annual increase in humanitarian funding, there remains a significant 75% funding gap for child reintegration efforts as of 2021, highlighting the need for greater financial commitment.
Root Causes and Climate Change: Climate change exacerbates a third of the drivers of child recruitment, reinforcing the importance of tackling underlying causes.
Innovative Financing Needs: Innovative financing solutions are essential to meet the increasing demands for child reintegration.
Global Collaboration: The 2023 Financing Innovation Forum, organized by the OSRSG-CAAC and the World Bank, highlighted the importance of global cooperation in securing new strategies for child reintegration funding.
To effectively disrupt these recruitment cycles, international efforts must focus on these underlying causes, thereby reducing humanitarian needs. This requires predictable, long-term, and sustainable finance across humanitarian, development, and peace nexus (HDPN), suggesting a shift towards innovative financing solutions beyond traditional funding streams.
Innovative financing sources are all increasing and show high potential through blended financing modalities to address the alarming shortfall in humanitarian financing. Between 2017 and 2021, development, peace, and climate financing have all seen an uptick in available resources (+72, +124, and +4 per cent). These resources could provide the sustainable financial support needed to close the reintegration funding gap and address long-term child recruitment drivers.
Key stakeholders convened at the 2023’[Ya2] s Financing Innovation Forum, organised by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC) and the World Bank, to explore new financing modalities and mechanisms for child reintegration, aiming to bridge the current funding gaps and foster effective solutions.
