WAO – Afrique

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WAO – Afrique
BP 80242 Lomé TOGO
Tel: (228) 225 89 90
Fax: (228) 225 73 45
Email: wao@waoafrique.org, waoafrique@cafe.tg, wao_afrique@yahoo.fr
Website: http://www.waoafrique.org

Contact: Mr. Cleophas Mally, Executive Director

Description

The World Association for Orphans – Africa (WAO-Afrique) originated as the African branch of Belgium’s World Association for Orphans. In 1990 WAO-Afrique became autonomous and signed an agreement with the Togolese government to establish its headquarters in Lomé. From 1990-1996 WAO-Afrique’s main activities included social mobilization, awareness raising, advocacy, and the removal of children from exploitative situations as well as their rehabilitation and reintegration. Since 1996, WAO-Afrique has played a coordinating role in the West and Central African sub-regions on actions and initiatives pertaining to child domestic workers and child trafficking.

Since its inception, WAO-Afrique has worked to promote and protect children’s rights, in particular the right to freedom from all forms of sexual and economic exploitation. Its principal objectives are: Building the capacity of children’s rights NGOs; Initiating research on the violation of children’s rights; Assisting in the process of harmonization of national legislation with international legal instruments pertaining to the rights of the child; Promoting and reinforcing peace and political and social stability; Promoting education on human rights in general, and children’s rights in particular; Encouraging the engagement of civil society in the fight against all forms of child exploitation; and defending and promoting economic, social and cultural rights.

WAO-Afrique’s activities can be grouped in three priority areas: Increasing public knowledge about different forms of child exploitation through research, awareness raising campaigns, advocacy with relevant authorities, information exchange and training seminars; Improving the well-being of child victims through rehabilitation and reintegration; and promoting the strengthening of legislation to ensure its effective application through legal assistance, and advocating for the harmonization of national legislation with international and legal norms that have been ratified by the Heads of State and Government of West and Central Africa.

Track Record

WAO-Afrique has succeeded in making child trafficking and children’s rights priorities for the governments of the West and Central African sub-regions.

WAO-Afrique helped create a regional alliance against child trafficking and exploitation, bringing together 10 countries from the sub region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Gabon, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, and Togo.

WAO-Afrique has also been instrumental in organizing various training seminars which have helped build the capacity of local NGOs that work towards the protection and promotion of children’s’ rights across the two sub-regions.

At the national level, WAO-Afrique has succeeded in criminalizing all forms of child abuse and exploitation. Today, child traffickers and abusers are prosecuted in national courts. In order to achieve this level of public awareness WAO-Afrique mobilized the national media, women’s associations, students, social services workers, and parliamentarians.

WAO-Afrique’s work has contributed to the development of two national laws on children’s rights in Togo: Law No. 2005-009 of August 3, 2005 pertaining to child trafficking in Togo and; Code on the Rights of Children (June 2007).

In partnership with international actors WAO-Afrique has also developed several training tools including: Research document on children as domestic workers (1996); Sensitization and advocacy document on children’s rights (2002); Best practices in working with children domestic workers (2005); and Training Manual on how to provide psychosocial care to children who have experienced trafficking (2007). These have become reference documents for Togolese NGOs and other groups working with children’s rights across the West and Central sub-regions.

WAO-Afrique’s operating budget for these programs is approximately US$ 700,000 which is distributed as follows: Anti-Child Trafficking Program (US$ 280,000); Children as Domestic Workers Program (US$ 237,000); Children’s Rights Program (US$ 183,000). WAO-Afrique’s main donors include, Anti-Slavery International (since 1994), Save the Children Sweden (since 1995), Plan Togo (since 1998), UNICEF Togo (since 1990). Other donors include, United Nations Human Rights Fund, Agir Ensemble pour les droits de l’Homme and the United States’ Embassy in Togo.

Challenges

WAO-Afrique’s main challenges relates to its limited budget. In terms of personnel, WAO-Afrique has low staff retention due to the organization’s relatively low salaries. Often, experienced staff members will leave WAO-Afrique to join larger international organizations which can afford to pay higher salaries thus handicapping the work of WAO-Afrique. These seasoned staff members are subsequently replaced by personnel with limited experience.

The organization’s limited finances also circumscribe the extent of its programming in Togo and throughout the sub-region, particularly vis-à-vis the rehabilitation of children who have been victims of abuse and trafficking. More than 60% of the annual budget is spent on maintaining the secretariat.

The high cost of telecommunications in Togo also limits WAO-Afrique’s ability to maintain communication within its various networks and therefore limits their ability to work together effectively.

Opportunities

As a well established and respect organization that has achieved pioneering successes in the area of children’s rights in Africa, WAO-Afrique is well placed to continue the work it has been doing for over a decade. However, the organization will require substantial reinvestment in terms of staff salaries in order to retain qualified staff and maintain quality programming.

Due to its extensive experience in caring for children who have been victims of abuse or trafficking, the WAO-Afrique office would also like to establish a facility to respond to the needs of abused children. This facility would include medical equipment and psychological staff to care for the children’s physical and emotional ailments as well as legal assistance to pursue perpetrators of child abuse and trafficking in criminal court.