Build Back Better’: Empowering the Ethnic and Indigenous Youth Network and Child Rights-focused CSO Coalition in Upper Northern Thailand (EE-CR), a project supported by Diakonia Thailand, is in its third year of operation from January to December 2023. It is a collaboration with the Lanna Children’s Rights Network, with the Rak Dek Foundation acting as the secretariat. It has continuously complemented and expanded the potential development and strengthened the Lanna Children’s Rights Network, resulting in three new civil society organizations joining as members, adding to the number of original member organizations of 18, seven government agencies, and 17 child and youth network groups, for a total of 42 organizations/groups.

The network work model is a mechanism to support children’s rights within the country, both in terms of capacity building and sharing knowledge. Action in the collaborative workspaces of the project and various child rights advocacy activities of the member organizations prioritizes the meaningful participation of children as rights holders, aiming to empower both networks to play a key role in advocating for children’s rights and to influence change in the practices, measures, budgets, and policies of those responsible for the rights of children and young people.

The Strengthen and Empower the Lanna Child Rights Coalition (SE-LCRC) as a network to advocate for Child Rights promotion and protection is a project supported by KNH Germany from January until September 2023. It has promoted the work of the Secretariat of the Lanna Children’s Rights Network to organize continuous seminars with member organizations. There have been seminars and discussions on issues and problems of children and youth in the upper north according to the rights they should have, and there is a unanimous opinion that it will focus on driving the issue of children’s rights so that children and youth have a better life.

Four issues are: 1) The issue of children’s rights to be protected from violence of all kinds and in all places, both at home, in schools, in communities, in shelters, and online. 2) The issue of children’s rights that must be developed as individuals, including access to health care and medical treatment. 3) The issue of children’s rights to live in a healthy environment, with an emphasis on climate change. 4) The issue of children’s rights to access education and the promotion of quality vocational skills equally, including learning about their own way of life, culture, and ethnic wisdom, resulting in the integration of plans, budgets, and resources among member organizations, especially jointly driving the campaign to promote the four children’s rights issues during November to December 2023 from the local, district, provincial, national, and international levels.