The North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) is the most impoverished area of Nicaragua. Over 70 percent of RAAN’s population lives in extreme poverty. The severity of underdevelopment is further compounded by rough geography that makes the delivery of core health and education services exceedingly difficult. The diversity that gives RAAN its vibrancy creates another hurdle to successful policy. While Nicaragua’s Pacific coastal regions are overwhelmingly Mestizo, Spanish-speaking, and Roman Catholic, RAAN is home to a variety of indigenous and non-indigenous cultures, who speak different languages, practice different religions, and hold distinct views on child rearing.

So we asked…

“Given the complex context of this region, what opportunities exist to support children’s rights through regional policy?”

Recognizing that a successful policy would need to address the full range of experiences of children and families in RAAN, we spoke with and joined the daily lives of more than 350 residents. These included children, mothers and fathers, teachers, school directors, health providers, and public servants. Facilitating an exercise in co-creation, we taught policymakers and UNICEF staff to identify priorities, aspirations, and pain points as perceived by the people of the region. Our goal was to help channel the empathy built during this process into concrete ways that the policy could improve the lives of children and families in the region.

We learned that…

A regional policy can create tangible and sustained improvements in children’s lives by transforming key services and supporting core relationships.

Mothers, for example, are often discouraged from seeking vital prenatal and infant care due to poor facilities, as well as linguistic and cultural barriers. They rely heavily on informal social networks to help fill the gaps. Still, the absence of key services heightens the health risks to both mother and baby.

Additionally, economic, social, and other environmental factors weaken parent-child relationships, leaving children without the nurturing adult support, positive role models, and guidance they need. With few extracurricular activities or community programs, children in RAAN lack opportunities to foster a sense of agency, creativity, and responsibility to confront the challenges of adolescence and adulthood.

And here’s what we’re doing about it…

We are empowering UNICEF staff and the regional autonomous government to translate human insights into a policy built to fit the realities of life in RAAN. We are providing recommendations on policy framework and potential programs that will directly inform the final policy. We are helping to connect UNICEF and regional officials to community members to support their collaboration in the next stages of policy design and implementation. By including local government officials in every stage of our research, design and synthesis process, we are equipping them with the tools and perspective to pursue people-centered policymaking moving forward.