but in doing so we are missing out on addressing the other root causes of these cross-border issues. c. There was further discussion about the fact that people working in the Ministries and other agencies that are responsible for children’s issues often do not have the specialized skills and the capacity to understand what is needed to protect children. Interventions and programs are not always evidence based and having a department or ministry responsible for women, children, elderly, disabilities etc. cannot realistically have experts in all these areas. Why don’t we have a designated ministry for children? No budgets are allocated only for children because they are lumped with all these other issues. We need to insist that the ACERWC advocate with RECs that each Partner State has a designated children’s ministry. This will enable better implementation and accountability. d. A suggestion was made that perhaps the African Court can be used as an opportunity to make binding decisions regarding harmonization of laws and implementation of these for children. One of the main challenges is also engaging the decision makers and building their knowledge and capacity so that they make decisions that are in the best interests of the child. For example, in Uganda there has been some allocation of funding for street children from Government as a Minster advocated for this and now there are fewer children on the streets. e. In Kenya coordination is an issue although there are structures in place. Government officers are a challenge as they get transferred and weaken the coordination as you have to start again. There is an info management system in place but agencies are holding on to data and not sharing it so the data cannot be used to inform what is being done and how. There is also a challenge related to a lack of awareness of who is responsible for what. Budgets are requested but we rely on aid agencies to cover these lines and decisions are made in ad hoc way to then re-allocate money to other priorities. Although we take children as right holders we see them as subjects of charity. That is why we see inadequate budgets being allocated for children. We make public statements that we protect children but it does not happen in reality. Sometimes Government officials are the challenge as they don’t fulfill their role and uphold laws. Consequently, effective protection of children remains a challenge. 5.5. Panel Discussion of Good Practices on Cross Border Issues affecting Children in EAC – Partner Organizations – UNICEF, UNHCR, EGPAT International, Plan International, Save the Children, and GIZ 5.5.1. Presentation by Ms. Aichatou Tamba from the GIZ- African Union Border Programme The presenter shared that the AU has a border program in place but very few people are aware of it. She emphasized the need for coordination between the departments within the AU so that cross border issues affecting children are being addressed. GIZ supports