This contribution sketches the background and development of the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure for Children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It analyzes the additional value of the Optional Protocol for realizing children’s right to health. It does so by analyzing how children’s right to participation is integrated in the Protocol and how this influences the possibility to make complaints on deficits in realizing economic, social and cultural rights, most specifically children’s right to health. It concludes by suggesting ways to strengthen opportunities for children to become actively involved in advocating for their own right to health.

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International donors continue to prefer vertical programming over systems strengthening despite the universal health agenda. This study explored Dutch policy and practice towards health systems within sexual and reproductive health and rights‐focused partnerships between the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civil society, through a document analysis, 13 in‐depth interviews and a stakeholder workshop. The findings revealed that partnerships supported the Ugandan health system in unstructured ways and had difficulties finding synergies. To ensure sustained outcomes and respond to the renewed urgency of strong health systems in the face of crises, donors should incorporate systems strengthening as an explicit goal.

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