We worked with 17 international Key Partner organisations, across 22 countries, in 5 continents to deliver this innovative digital project during COVID to better understand the ways policymakers and practitioners from around the world were working to support children’s wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, by protecting children, providing for their unique needs, enabling their participation in decisions that affect them, and preventing harm.

See more about the project here!

Read the project’s publications here!

We were delighted to work in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde to explore the role and impact of human rights law in specific areas of legal and public policy practice in Scotland.

Click here to read more about the CSHRL’s Royal Society of Edinburgh Funded Workshop Series: ‘Integrated Implementation of Scotland’s New Human Rights Framework’

Working in partnership with the One Ocean Hub, an international programme of research for sustainable development, we supported the Working Group on Children’s Rights & a Healthy Ocean to promote fair and inclusive decision-making for a healthy ocean whereby people and the planet can flourish.

Publications from this project include:

1. Strand, M., Shields, S., Morgera, E., McGarry, D., Lancaster, A. M. S., Brown, L., & Snow, B. (2023). Protecting Children’s Rights to Development and Culture by Re-Imagining “Ocean Literacies”. The International Journal of Children's Rights, 31(4), 941-975. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-3104000

2. Shields, S., Longo, A., Strand, M., & Morgera, E. (2023). Children’s Human Right to Be Heard at the Ocean-climate Nexus. The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, 38(3), 545-580. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718085-bja10140

In March 2022, we hosted a Special Continuing Professional Development Course on Children’s Human Rights.

This course was led by Visiting Professor and former Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ann Skelton, in partnership with Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland, and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde.

With thanks to the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland for their generous support from the Impact Acceleration Grant from the ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant awarded to the University of Edinburgh (grant reference ES/T50189X/1)

We worked in partnership with The Poverty Alliance and the University of Strathclyde's Fraser of Allander Institute, with funding from The Robertson Trust, as part of a partnership project to end low-paid and insecure work for families.

Serving the Future worked with hospitality employers and related public services, as well as with people working in the hospitality sector, to identify and implement meaningful change so that paid employment can provide families with protection against poverty.

We joined this partnership project to affirm the impact of poverty on children, particularly considering the link between child poverty and family income, and the proportion of families experiencing poverty who are in paid employment.

See the project page here!

Commissioned by the OECD to lead a public governance evidence review applied uniquely to the distinct nature of children, we developed a Whole-of-Government Approach to Advance Child Well-Being.

The Approach draws on the existing literature – both academic and the applied strategic and policy documents of many governments – and is informed further through interviews with a range of expert government policymakers to present the primary elements of a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach with and for children, and future generations.

Read our Learning Report here!

Established in 2021, initiated through the generous support of University alum, Leslie Stretch, we drew together world-class scholars to study across disciplines, on complex problems requiring insights from multiple perspectives.

Driven by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and focused on children who experienced the greatest marginalisation, we generated new knowledge and applied this to policy, professional practice environments, and to children’s lived realities.

Our applied, real‑world impact was a bold aim, achieved through collaborative, multi‑sectoral internal and external partnerships, both within the UK and internationally.