Viva’s Cutting Edge: Working with the Government for Change
“If a city fails to protect its children, it fails with its own future.” - Andréa Pereira Araújo
Working with the Government for Change Summary
This session explored how civil society can influence government to create child-friendly cities. Uganda’s Children at Risk Action Network (CRANE) demonstrated collaboration with authorities to protect children and promote family-based care. Elizabeth Caballero from Paraguay shared strategies for advocacy, including clear objectives, strategic representation, and building trust through partnerships. Andréa Pereira Araújo from Brazil presented a national law proposal mandating child protection policies in institutions, highlighting advocacy as a bridge to systemic change. The speakers stressed humility, persistence, and evidence-based approaches to overcome challenges like corruption and mistrust. The discussion underscored that advocacy is not politics but a strategic effort to ensure justice, dignity, and safety for children.
Training and resources sharing – CRANE, Uganda
A video showcased Uganda’s CRANE network, which works with authorities to protect children, train leaders, and implement alternative care models. The development of a learning identification tool, adopted by the Ministry of Education, helps identify children with additional needs and provides appropriate support. Another tool developed was for monitoring school activity, with a particular emphasis on corporal punishment in schools. The vision is collaboration: churches, schools, families, communities, and agencies working together to protect and empower, using engagement with authorities and police as a critical strategy to support children at risk.
Building Trust – Elizabeth Caballero (Red Viva Paraguay)
Elizabeth Caballero from Red Viva Paraguay explained the network’s strategies for advocacy, stressing the importance of setting clear objectives, choosing the right representatives, and building trust with government bodies. “It will be key to choose the right people, or the right profile that will be the representation of our NGOs in these tables or decision makers, where we will influence the city. We are looking for the profile of the people who will represent us, so we can choose which table? Because, on the contrary, either it is not effective, or it is not practical to want to take too many.”
One success story she shared was on the issue of addiction, which they struggled to address until they “discovered that, in one of the central cities, we could have a secretary of addictions and mental health.” They were also able to establish Red Viva Paraguay as a benchmark in the formation of Municipal Councils. “We have achieved the objectives of the new council and strategically convened local institutions to belong and contribute from their roles to the fulfilment of common objectives.”
Systemic change - Andréa Pereira Araújo (Brazil)
Andréa Pereira Araújo from Rede Viva Protege Brasil, Viva’s partner network in Brazil, discussed advocacy as a tool for systemic change, presenting a national law proposal that required child protection policies in institutions. “We, from the Brazilian network, together with our Coach, Isaac, created an opportunity to establish as national law the obligation of all institutions that care for children and adolescents to build a protection policy.” The work to get the law passed was a collective effort, with young people and the network, as a Christian organisation, working with the government “because we understand that, as Christians, we need to influence all spheres of society, to influence public policies through data, experience and, above all, active analysis, giving voice to the vulnerable context of children.” Based on Biblical principles that promote justice and dignity in God’s Kingdom, she emphasised the need to build trust between the government and Christian organisations.
Towards the end, several questions were asked, and the discussion centred on building trust and cohesion between the organisations and the government. It was explained that inviting government officials to events is important: “It could be a minor event. But inviting these people is really creating that relationship. We are here as partners.” On the issue of whether you need to be a political person to interact with politicians, Andréa noted that “I personally have no party affiliation. I prefer to position myself as a technician.” Andrea also addressed the issue of corruption, which can be a real and prevalent challenge: “So we really have to ask for strategies, because it is God who gives strategies. But in relation to corruption, it exists. I believe that, unfortunately, in any country. But we need to understand that corruption cannot stop us.”
These sessions were from a Cutting Edge conference in July 2025, organised by Viva, an international charity that inspires, equips and connects networks of churches and community-based organisations to work together to make a bigger, better and longer-lasting impact in the lives of children. For more information about Viva or Cutting Edge, please visit viva.org.