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Q: What about child and adolescent rights advocacy interests you?
A: From an economic perspective, various
classes at the University of Chicago taught me
that social investment in human capital, made as
soon as early childhood, was the most profitable.
In politics, children and adolescents usually do
not have a voice in policy discussions regarding
a number of issues that directly affect them…
Children do not vote, and in that sense they do
not make up a pressure group. Usually they do
not have an institutional channel to express their
opinions and defend their interests.
Q: You are helping to launch a new organization,
the Investing in Education Foundation
[IEF]. Why does this initiative interest you and
what is the organization about?
A: Among the different types of investment in
children, education is particularly important.
There are other urgent needs—such as health,
housing, poverty reduction—but, as many studies
suggest, education is the root for solving the rest.
IEF’s long-term goal is to encourage academic
achievement amongst disadvantaged children in
their initial years of education. We (IEF executive
director Manuel Felix, MPP’00; Maria de los
Ángeles Santander, MPP’00, a senior researcher
at the Libertad y Desarrollo Institute in Chile;
and Colombia-based activist Natalia Millán)
thought we could combine our expertise and
form an organization that could bring together effective, scaleable, and proven solutions, in
order to tackle some of the chronic problems
in Latin American education.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing
your work with child and adolescent rights
advocacy in Brazil?
A: According to the Brazilian Constitution,
children and adolescents are the absolute
national priority. Nevertheless, when it comes
to the distribution of public resources, policies
for this sector of the population do not receive
the necessary investments.
Politicians—leaders from the Executive,
Legislative, and Judiciary branches—need to
acknowledge the importance of respecting
children’s rights. This subject has to become
part of their political agenda.
Q: What has changed since you started?
A: Civil society organizations are increasingly
professionalizing…Activism is not enough,
policy suggestions have to be made. Activists
are, therefore, seeking more and more to prepare
themselves to present actual policy solutions.
Q: Since you’ve been working in this field,
you’ve become a mother. Has that changed your
perspective at all?
A: If I understood before that development
opportunities since early childhood should be
fostered, after Maria’s birth the urgency of
the investment became clear to me on another
level, more practical and less theoretical. When
witnessing a baby’s enormous potential and
learning capacity, and at the same time her
vulnerability, the sense of injustice that not
every child will have adequate development
opportunities is devastating.
Jenn Q. Goddu
For more information on IEF or the other alumni working there, visit www.investingineducation.org/.
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