A/68/267 United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force, largely through the NATO training mission, have been jointly supporting the Government in the implementation of its action plan to prevent and respond to children associated with Government security forces. 52. Progress is ongoing in operationalizing the partnership of the Special Representative with the African Union. She has engaged with both the Peace and Security Department and the Peace Support Operations Division of the African Union to develop a partnership framework for streamlining child protection in its policies and operations, including through the development of guidelines and the provision of senior child protection capacity. 53. In October the Special Representative initiated a dialogue with the League of Arab States on child protection concerns. She intends to reach out further to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the need to protect children in armed conflict. 54. The Special Representative welcomes the support provided by the International Organization of la Francophonie for the translation and dissemination of technical guidance for French-speaking audiences and hopes that this initial step will lead to a broader partnership. 55. Throughout the reporting period, the Special Representative has worked closely with the full spectrum of departments of the Secretariat as well as the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system. As the global lead agency for the protection of children, UNICEF continues to be a privileged interlocutor for the mandate of the Special Representative and for the protection of children affected by armed conflict around the world. The Special Representative has sought to further strengthen her collaboration with UNICEF, including through joint high-level advocacy initiatives and technical-level assessments. She has also engaged regularly with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Special Representative on Violence against Children to leverage complementarities and build synergies across mandates. 56. In addition, the Office of the Special Representative continues to cooperate with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the area of economic reintegration activities of children formerly associated with armed forces or groups. The Special Representative will continue to strengthen her partnership with ILO, in particular to identify alternative youth employment and livelihood strategies. In Myanmar in particular, ILO has been deeply engaged in collecting and verifying information on child recruitment and use, in separating children from armed forces and groups and in supporting the implementation of the Government’s commitments to end child recruitment. 57. The Special Representative has continued to reach out to civil society at both the national and international levels on issues of common concern and to advance the children and armed conflict agenda. C. Mainstreaming child protection within the United Nations system 58. As an integral part of her mandate and building on the work of her predecessor, the Special Representative has continued to promote the mainstreaming of child protection in the activities of the United Nations. 10/18 13-41862