Published 3 November 2026 · Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP) · Author: Yashiba Sanil, Policy and Operations Manager · Editor: Laura Coburn, Global Coordinator and Head of Secretariat
Protection only works when a child can reach it safely, understand it, trust it and keep using it after the next move. That is the central finding of MYCP's 2026 Global Youth Consultation for Ending Violence Against Children (EVAC), which drew on written submissions, eight multilingual live rooms, thematic roundtables and a Youth On The Move focus group. This policy paper turns those findings into five priorities for the Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Manila, 18–19 November 2026.
Key findings
Children on the move are kept from protection less by missing services than by barriers around them: lost documents, fear that a school or clinic will report their family to immigration authorities, language exclusion, unaffordable costs and referrals that go nowhere.
A programme can exist, have a budget and still be invisible. One displaced university student spent more than eight months in a new area without knowing that support for displaced students was available.
Youth contributors from Haiti, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Mali and Rakhine State, Myanmar, described recruitment of children by armed groups, trafficking, early marriage and gender-based violence. In Haiti, a contributor reported recruitment through social media of children as young as 10 or 11 (contributor-reported, not independently verified).
Enrolment is not inclusion. Bullying, racism, language barriers, cyberbullying and the cost of uniforms and materials keep enrolled children out of school in practice.
Funding cuts hit prevention first. Materials from the consultation's financing roundtable cited a 23.1% fall in Official Development Assistance in 2025 (OECD), and Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action findings that 80% of surveyed practitioners said cuts significantly affected child protection, 1.1 million children were affected across more than 23 countries, and 70% of organisations reduced frontline staff.
Five priorities for the Ministerial Conference
Make children's participation consequential: include children and young people in agenda-setting, budgets, programme design and evaluation, and report back on what changed.
Build safe access into every service: remove unnecessary documentation barriers and create clear firewalls between essential services and immigration enforcement.
Protect continuity across movement: make education records, vaccination information, medication plans, case management and referrals portable and safely transferable.
Invest in prevention before crisis escalates: fund community-based child protection, trusted information, mental health and psychosocial support, safe reporting, family support and youth-led initiatives.
Make commitments measurable and accountable: publish accessible service information, monitor referral completion and safety, and provide predictable funding to local and youth-led organisations.
Who this paper is for
Member States and delegations at the Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children; donors and international organisations; education, health and child-protection providers; and youth- and survivor-led organisations. The paper sets out specific calls to action for each.
Coverage: contributions from young people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh (Cox's Bazar), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Goma, North Kivu), Haiti, Kazakhstan, Kenya (Dadaab), Mali (Timbuktu), Myanmar (Rakhine State) and Trinidad and Tobago, alongside published regional evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean. Consultation held 8 October 2026, with written responses received through 19 October 2026. Themes: youth and survivor participation, violence along the migration journey, education, healthcare and psychosocial support, and financing.
How to cite
Sanil, Y. (2026). Youth and survivor-led priorities to end violence against children on the move in humanitarian and climate contexts (L. Coburn, Ed.). Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP). https://mycpglobal.org/repository/evac-children-on-the-move-policy-paper-2026
