Tick 4 Kids

Summary of Election 2014 Toolkit

Summary of 2014 campaign

o Designed to make children’s rights and interests a central focus of the election campaign.

o Driven through local community-based action and activities o Supported by various organisations, Inc. New Zealand College of Public Health

Medicine, Health Star Pacific, UNICEF NZ and NZ Council of Christian Social Services.

Campaign strategies

Overarching message:

“It takes a child to raise a country!” References African proverb made famous by Hilary Clinton: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Holding campaign events:

- To demonstrate public interest in political commitment to make changes. - To encourage political candidates in this debate- To achieve local media coverage

Strong social media presence:

- Twitter: Encourage use of hashtag (#tick4kids) and trend that indicates that movement is afoot and people are engaging with the issue.

- Posts: E.g. “Launch day for Tick for Kids! A campaign with people around New Zealand… because it takes a child to raise a country! Check out www.tick4kids.org.nz.

- Media statements

Key messages from campaign:

“Universal provision of ante-natal services”, “Paid parental leave”, “Positive parenting”

Pre-selected questions to ask political candidates:

Do you agree that all children have the right to a healthy start to life? If so, what will you do to protect children’s rights and ensure support for families to provide the best start to children?

- Highlights rights-based advocacy approach- Encourages candidates to engage with international standards, laws and examples of best practice.

Various policies and laws for enabling the campaign objective

E.g. Flexible working hours; Community development and strong neighbourhoods

- Can be administered at a local and central policy level to improve campaign objectives

Proposal of a comprehensive plan: A Child Poverty Act

o Act would include targets, measures and accountabilitieso Would require cross-government responsibility o Establishing official measures (poverty) – e.g. material deprivation.

Reflection: In the case of Tick4Kids their Act is embedded in numerous policy proposals (Extending the Warm up NZ Insulation programme, introduction of Capital Gains Tax).

Intention is to promote law changes and policies that would support and assist administration and successful response to Act’s measures and objectives.

Key statistics

“More than 10% of children are in the most severe poverty.”

- Highlights scale and structural nature of issue whilst being striking and memorable.

o Also include ranking data – E.g. OECD rankings.

- However, research like this can vary in the conclusions reached depending on the indicators used.

Key issue: Considering responsible actors from rights based approach

Tick4Kids acknowledge parents as main actors with primary responsibilities.

Government policy (central and local) impacts the socioeconomic determinants of wellbeing.

Campaign thereby highlights importance of government investment in families and services.

Highlights Government obligation to meet the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments

Highlights how Government leadership informs social and cultural understanding

Campaign lessons

o Campaign has extensively researched potential socioeconomic and political barriers which may delay or prevent the implementation of a comprehensive plan.

o In turn, the campaign has promoted numerous laws and policy suggestions which would improve the social, economic and political context for the uptake of the Act.

o Campaign is backed by a range of government and non-governmental organisations.

o Campaign has a clear target group, audience and social media presence.

Source: Tick4Kids (2014) ‘It takes a child to raise a country’ – Election 2014 Toolkit. Tick4Kids. Auckland, New Zealand: Tick4Kids. Available: http://www.pha.org.nz/documents/408-tick-for-kids.pdf