Evaluation

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Evaluation ] [ Legislation ]

EVALUATIONS

Given the scarcity of resources in all countries for promoting children’s rights, it will be important to ensure that independent offices arrange evaluations of their work, including independent evaluations, to inform development and to justify their existence and funding, or to make the case for increased funding. Two of the existing offices in Europe - in Norway and Denmark - have been evaluated.

Evaluation could be carried out through an appropriate academic/research body or by forming an evaluation committee with independent members, including perhaps NGO representatives and children.

An evaluation could include some of the following:

interview research (opinion polls) to determine knowledge/popularity of the office among representative groups of -

	children
	the public
	those working with children/parents
	politicians.

knowledge of the Convention and human rights of children among representative groups of -

	children
	the public
	those working with children/parents
	politicians.

knowledge of where children should go with a problem or complaint among -

	children (including particular groups - eg in detention, in state care)
	parents
	those working with children and parent.

studies to determine whether various departments of government, legislation and so on have been usefully influenced by the office;

studies on the availability of information on the state of human rights of children

review of action taken as a result of contacts/complaints from children to the office (and analysis of the number and content of appeals).

Evaluating the world’s first children’s ombudsman law: Norway

In 1993 the Norwegian Parliament asked the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs to set up an evaluation of the Ombudsman for Children; the institution had been in place for 12 years without any studies of its objectives or impact. The Ministry appointed a committee to evaluate the office, and also organisational structures concerning children and adolescents in Norway. Its report was published in 1995, and circulated for comment to about 650 advisory bodies.

Amongst the Committee’s findings were:

	the Ombudsman for Children has helped to throw the political spotlight on children and their situation, thereby putting children on the political agenda;
	Norwegian children appear to be well acquainted with the office and its functions;
	the office has been instrumental in developing a greater general acceptance that children are entitled to be heard and have their own rights;
	work on disseminating information about children’s rights has helped to make the rule of law more effective, and improved the position of the child in law;
	internationally, the office has been important "as an export item and as a practical model for other countries... Furthermore, the Ombudsman for Children has helped to put children on the international agenda".

For the future, the Committee believes that the Ombudsman "could have an important function as co-ordinator and initiator of professional and political processes and could help to form more holistic policies related to children and adolescents". The Committee also proposed that in general the Ombudsman should concentrate his or her efforts on general cases and questions of principle, and work to a lesser extent on individual cases; the UN Convention may be a useful tool for the Office in its task of ensuring that legislation on the protection of children’s interests is complied with (The Ombudsman for Children and Childhood in Norway, Norwegian Official Report (NOU) 1995:26, A summary of the Committee’s conclusions, Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, Oslo, 1996).

In 1989 UNICEF’s International Child Development Centre in Florence commissioned a poll of a random nation-wide sample of adults aged 15-plus. The survey showed that the Office of the Ombudsman was well-established in public opinion. Seventy-four per cent named the ombudsman as an institution protecting the interests of children. Over 80 per cent thought the office useful and only two per cent thought it should be abolished. Even among adherents to political parties which had been opposed to its establishment, between 65 and 88 per cent were by 1989 in favour of it, with only 3 to 10 per cent advocating abolition. Factors such as age, gender, income, family size and region of residence were unrelated to opinions about the Ombudsman Office (for full results see Appendix 2, "Poll Regarding the Ombudsman for Children, November 1989", in A Voice for Children - Speaking Out as Their Ombudsman, Malfrid Grude Flekkoy, UNICEF/Jessica Kingsley 1991).

Last edited by Barneombudet March 22, 2004
Site hosted by The ombudsman for children in Norway