children — Publications

ADSP: Challenges Faced by Afghan Women and Children in Iran and Pakistan

December 2023

Samuel Hall collaborated with the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform (ADSP) to contribute to two significant research briefs addressing pressing issues Afghan communities face. The first, "Forced to Migrate: Afghan Women Waiting for Protection in Iran and Pakistan," explores the reduced protection space and obstacles confronting Afghan families in the same regions The second, "Afghan Children’s Access to Education in Iran and Pakistan," sheds light on the challenges experienced by Afghan girls in Iran and Pakistan post-2021 migration.

These research briefs are pivotal in understanding the complexities of education rights and forced migration challenges in these regions. Our studies emphasize the urgent need for international support and a rights-based response. A key recommendation emerging from our research is the call for increased global solidarity and responsibility sharing to address the rights of Afghan women, children, and families.

Read the briefing note on Forced to Migrate: Afghan Women Waiting for Protection in Iran and Pakistan, here

Read the briefing note on Afghan Children’s Access to Education in Iran and Pakistan here

Middle East &North AfricaSamuel HallJanuary 11, 2024ADSP, women's safety, children, migration, displacement, Education

War Child UK: Children in Distress - An Afghan Child Focused Needs Assessment

July 2023

Samuel Hall in collaboration with War Child Afghanistan conducted a needs assessment in Herat, Ghor and Badghis to contribute towards closing the knowledge gaps on the situation of children’s rights and well-being in western Afghanistan. The study brings to light, new evidence – including from children – on the challenges they face in previously inaccessible districts.

The findings show that children need informed and trained advocates to access support and overcome negative coping mechanisms. It is also important for households to address risks and bad choices while also creating safe spaces for children. The research underlined the potential for informal forms of support within the household. Home-centred models of support hold a potential for broader reach benefiting at risk children. It further suggests the need for safer home environments to facilitate these.

We suggest integrating child protection services into existing health and other programming, with a focus on child-friendly PSS work. There is an urgent need to influence local decision makers and build their understanding of children’s rights and also revive the Child Protection Action Network (CPAN).

Download Research Brief Here

Samuel HallJuly 28, 2023Afghanistan, children, CPAN, Child rights

IOM - Development of a Monitoring Toolkit and Review of Good Practices for the Sustainable Reintegration of Child Returnees

August 2021

This study was commissioned in the framework of the EU–IOM Knowledge Management Hub under the “Pilot Action on Voluntary Return and Sustainable, Community-Based Reintegration” project, funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM. The two recognized that while understanding of and evidence around the sustainable reintegration of adults has been growing, the same is not true for children – despite the fact that children are returning, alone or with families, to the very same reintegration contexts. Building on a monitoring approach for adult returnees developed in a 2017 Samuel Hall – IOM research project, this study addresses the information gap around children’s reintegration experiences.

Download Executive Summary

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Download Toolkit

Street Child – Building Alternatives: Supporting Afghan Women & Children in Conflict with the Law

December 2020

This report generates evidence regarding the effectiveness of AtDs, rehabilitation, and reintegration measures, intended for stakeholders currently in a position to implement AtDs, as well as the broader sector working with children and women in conflict with the law. The Children in Crisis (CiC) project titled Support to Afghan Women and Children in Conflict with the Law: Diversion, Rehabilitation and Reintegration is a series of programmatic interventions that began in December 2017 and will conclude in 2020. It seeks to address the major structural barriers to the implementation of the Alternatives to Detention (AtD) and Alternatives to Incarceration (AtI) measures added to the Afghan Penal Code, and the growing evidence base for positive outcomes in reintegration, rehabilitation and recidivism that are connected to successful implementation of such alternatives in other contexts, for children specifically and for adults more broadly. Specifically, the goal of the work is to enable vulnerable children and women in contact and conflict with the law to avoid detention, reduce reoffending through rehabilitation, and reintegrate into their families and communities. This research falls under and addresses the third objective of the project, "Objective 3: Developing an evidence base to influence and advocate for future justice sector reform for women and juveniles."

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War Child - Coming Back to Afghanistan: Deported Minors' Needs at a Time of COVID-19

July 2020

Unaccompanied children on the move have become more common. This demographic shift calls for a transition to child-sensitive return programmes and policies – yet despite increased returns and deportations, support has decreased over the last decade in Afghanistan. COVID-19 has increased the risks of returns, and the response to the pandemic remains insufficient to meet the needs at the border - especially for children and women. This research was conducted by Samuel Hall for War Child UK and UNICEF to assess the impact of COVID-19 on minor deportees and returnees. It provides actionable learning to inform more effective and relevant design, implementation, and adjustment of future interventions targeting minor deportees.

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World Bank - A Qualitative Assessment of Pathways to Youth Inclusion in Afghanistan

April 2020

The World Bank commissioned Samuel Hall in 2019 to conduct field research to explore Pathways to Youth Inclusion in Afghanistan. The objectives of this research were twofold: 1) To understand the issues, barriers and challenges faced by Afghan youth in terms of their inclusion in the social and economic processes that make up Afghan society and 2) To understand the perceptions of the Youth Subcommittees (YSCs) of local Community Development Councils (CDCs) established by Citizens’ Charter (an initiative of the Government of Afghanistan introduced in late 2016, to improve the delivery of core infrastructure, emergency services, and social services to participating communities), in terms of their impact, capacity, strengths and weaknesses, and attitudes toward them and their work.

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Download Executive Summary in Dari

Download Executive Summary in Pashto

War Child - Coming Back to Afghanistan: Study on Deported Minors’ Return and Reintegration Needs in the Western Region

December 2019

Samuel Hall was commissioned by War Child to conduct a study that provides a comprehensive understanding of the existing Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) regarding the unsafe migration of unaccompanied children to Iran. Primary data collection was conducted in Herat and Badghis provinces. The study also targeted parents and communities of children at risk of unsafe migration or experienced unsafe migration. This study contributes to charting a path forward for a post-deportation protection framework adapted to the protection profiles and needs of unaccompanied minors, their families and communities of return.

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EUTF/Samuel Hall - Mid-Term Review of the EUTF Regional Development and Protection Programme in Kenya: Support to the Development of Kalobeyei

November 2018

In 2018, Samuel Hall in collaboration with the EU reviewed the Kalobeyei Integrated Socio-Economic Development Plan (KISEDP) project to assess whether objectives had been achieved, and where obstacles and opportunities exist to inform future iterations of the project.

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Save the Children - From Europe to Afghanistan: Experiences of child returnees

October 2018

This report assesses the impact on children of being returned from Europe to Afghanistan. Through interviews with individual children, their parents or guardians, and with governmental and non-governmental actors, it builds a picture of children’s material, physical, legal and psychosocial safety during the returns process.

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Save the Children - Durable Solutions For Returnee Children: What Do We Know?

September 2018

This report addresses a gap in knowledge about the often-difficult conditions of children’s return to the areas of (their parents’) origin. It gives an overview of what is known (and what is not) about the return of displaced children to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria, four of the most important contexts of return today.

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Dubai Cares - Improving Access to and Quality of Early Childhood Education in Zanzibar

September 2018

This study assesses the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the Watoto Kwanza project, designed to address some of the key challenges facing Zanzibar’s pre-primary education sector as of 2013.

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Dutch MFA/NWO - Aspirations and Youth programming in Somalia and Afghanistan

April 2018

We undertook data analysis and primary data collection in Afghanistan, Somalia, Greece and Italy to understand the commonalities and differences in decision-making processes – whether to migrate or to stay – among youth in conflict-affected settings.

Download Aspirations Research Brief

Download Youth Employment Research Brief

UNICEF/UNESCO - A Global initiative on Out-of-School-Children

June 2018

Samuel Hall has prepared this Country study in order to provide recommendations to key stakeholders on how to address the significant challenge of an estimated 3.7 million children aged 7-17 being out-of-school in Afghanistan.

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UNICEF - Improving Street-Working Children's Access to Education and Livelihoods Support for their Families

September 2017

The primary objective of this project has been to conduct an evaluation of the project itself and provide recommendations for key stakeholders to support street-working children moving forward. In order to do so, it has also gathered information on the context of child labour and protection issues in Afghanistan as needed.

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Children in Crisis - Hope Behind Bars: The Boys of the Kabul Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre

August 2017

This research offers a pragmatic view of the lived experiences of children in the Kabul Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre (JRC) and situates detention within their life events, where neglected needs and incurred stresses impact their later adult lives and life opportunities

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Dubai Cares - Strengthening Early Childhood Education: Programme Evaluation

January 2017

The overall goal of this research was to conduct an evaluation of the programme considering its effects after conclusion using the OECD-DAC criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability) to inform Dubai Cares’ design, development and investment in potential future programme iterations, or similar programming in the Afghan context.

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UNICEF - Evaluation of the Youth Education Pack Programme in Somalia

January 2017

Based on the requirements of Global Outcome 5, an evaluation of the UNICEF YEP programme has been commissioned by UNICEF to understand lessons that can be learnt from providing informal education in Somalia, both in the terms of delivering relevant skills that can improve the lives of beneficiaries, and the impact a tailored curriculum can have on peace building in Somalia when drivers of conflict are taken into account. The central question of this evaluation is therefore: ‘Has the implementation of YEP in Somalia had an impact on conflict drivers among marginalised youth by reducing reliance on negative coping and strategies and improving access to sustainable livelihoods?’

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UNICEF – Social Protection System: An Afghan Study

September 2014

UNICEF is considering the development of a social protection programme with a specific focus on children, within the already existing framework developed by the World Bank and MoLSAMD. With the end goal of articulating children-sensitive programming with the World Bank’s own safety net programme in mind, the first step in this direction is for the organisation to launch a pilot programme in Balkh to test the best modalities of programming to cover children’s needs for social protection in the country.

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ILO/UNICEF - Breaking the Mould

April 2015

The new study compares the health of children working in brick kilns with their siblings and other children who do not work in the kilns. Guided by the World Health Organisation’s conceptual framework on the social determinants of health, it examines mental and social well-being as well as physical health.

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GoodWeave - Assessing Child Labour in Afghan Carpet Production

July 2014

Child labour is an inescapable reality in Afghanistan with a recent study reporting that 25% of children aged 5 to 14 participate in labour activities. Carpet-weaving is a sector that particularly lends itself to child labour and Goodweave aims to combat this practice.

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