representatives from the member states of Rwanda and Burundi. She also made a request to the INGOs to work in all the 6 countries of the EAC so that children’s rights are protected. The meeting was officially closed after these remarks. 8.0. Analysis of issues that emerged: The presentations provided a good starting point on identifying some of the cross-border issues affecting children in the EAC as well as sharing some of the good practices in addressing these. There were many similarities amongst member states in terms of the issues that exist and also the challenges especially around lack of coordination and implementation. Something that clearly emerged is that there is no consensus around how we define what is a cross border issue. Does there have to be movement of persons for an issue to be considered a cross border issue? It would be important for our interventions and efforts to address both the factors and conditions that create and cause the cross-border issues as well as address the consequences from the movement of children across borders. An example of this is the fact that violence in general and violence against children, especially abuse, neglect and exploitation, often cause children to flee their homes and countries. It is necessary to also address how we can prevent and better protect children from such violence and also improve our response when children are violated. Many participants talked about the need to strengthen child protection systems within countries but also regionally. The EAC can play an important role in developing a regional child protection framework. If these systems are strengthened and work effectively, children will be protected from violations of their rights. In addition to there not being a clear consensus on what is considered to be cross border issues, we are missing data in this area. There is a need to research what the actual issues are and address these based on actual data. It will be important that through this process we also learn from good practice and promote these on the Continent. Efforts to re-invent the wheel should be minimized as this wastes a lot of resources. A key issue that emerged several times during this workshop is the lack of implementation of laws and policies, the lack of harmonization of these laws and how they impact child rights in country and cross-borders. Participants recognized that many Governments have made good progress in enacting laws and policies to protect children but implementation remains a challenge. A number of reasons were shared for why this may be such as poor resourcing of children’s rights, the “lumping” of children’s issues in Ministries with many other mandates, lack of capacity and awareness in the sector on the laws and good practice, lack of will and lack of effective coordination, lack of enforcement etc. It was felt that CSOs and Government work in silos and do not always address issues holistically. It would be important to further understand what causes the poor implementation and coordination so that these factors can be addressed. Coordination and implementation efforts should be across all the levels of grassroots, national, regional and where needed, continental.