Localizing Child Protection: Does the Local Council for the Protection of Children Matter?

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Child protection pertains to “preventing and responding to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children.” More specifically, it encompasses all processes, policies, programs, interventions, and measures that aim to prevent and respond to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the overall development of children to their fullest potential. The Local Council for the Protection of Children (LCPC) is responsible for planning and spearheading programs for children in the locality with the end in view of making the locality child-friendly. The LCPC matters but its current status in the country does not quite show it. The big challenge is how to convince all local government units to organize their own LCPC and, more importantly, how to encourage them to activate, strengthen, and sustain the already organized LCPCs.