children and within the country there is not very much awareness about the laws so implementation is a challenge. South Sudan’s Practices on Cross Border Issues Affecting Children’s Rights: Challenges and Opportunities – Presentation by Mrs Mariam Betty Okech The presenter shared that South Sudan has a high rate of child marriage with 30% of girls marrying before the age of 15 years. Only 6.2% of girls finish secondary school and there are high rates of early pregnancies. This poses a lot of problems for children. Additionally, the ongoing conflict and displacement of persons is an issue that hinders the achievement of the rights of the children. There are many refugees in Country and also across borders. S. Sudan has a huge problem with unaccompanied children and orphans. The impact of the conflict has resulted in the weakening of institutions and rule of law. While the Government has put in place a Child Act and other policies to support and protect children there are a number of challenges still. One of the key challenges is adequate child protection and the lack of resources for this. On the other hand, opportunities do exist in the country as stakeholders have been coming together to meet and put plans in place to address these issues. Technical working groups have been set up and there is also a National Task Force to address child marriage. 5.4. Summary of key issues and plenary discussion: After the presentations, a summary was provided on the key issues that emerged from the Partner States presentations and included the following: a. One of the key issues is the implementation challenges across borders due to the lack of harmonization of laws, policies and practices. There is political will in most countries regarding child protection but there is a disconnect between what politicians say and what happens at the implementation level. One question is: are the mechanisms that are being set up resulting in the actual protection of children? How are children that are experiencing abuse being protected and achieving redress and justice? Resources are limited and not much has been allocated towards child protection. In all partner states, children’s issues are combined with many other issues and therefore do not get as much priority and we fail to see who is responsible for children. An example is the fact that there is not a specific ministry for children and that these are often combined with health, gender, elderly etc. b. It was clearly noted from the respective presentations that more coordination is needed along with the harmonization and that national and regional child protection systems have to be strengthened. However, it is not clear what coordination and harmonization involves. There are many structures that are put in place to enhance coordination, but they are not always effective. Where is the disconnect? If there is will then why don’t we see budgets for over 50% of the population? A participant made an observation that many interventions are addressing things from a poverty lens and therefore looking at fulfilling basic needs