Priorities and values

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is central to our work. Honouring and reflecting te Tiriti is one of the core values that drives us. We have a tikanga framework with four principles:

• Aroha: Mokopuna are taonga. They are born with their own inherent mana. We will always act with compassion and empathy, adapting readily to respond to their needs.
• Pono: We believe honesty and integrity are key to doing our job well. We will always report things as we see them and never as how others want them to be seen. We stay true to one important thing: we do as we say we will.
• Tika: We are always about the best results for mokopuna. We empower others to bring about the best for them. We’re independent and will always speak out for their interests. We consider the range of needs we have to meet, and make every attempt to get it right. We never shy away from the hard stuff.
• Mātauranga: Mokopuna are our reason for being. They are involved, participate, and have input into things we do. We act from a place of knowledge, we work from evidence and advise others based on the things we learn.

Over the next four years, we intend to prioritise four proactive strategic advocacy areas for and with mokopuna:

Strong start in life

Close to 60,000 babies are born in Aotearoa New Zealand each year, and they should all have the strongest start. Evidence shows that investing in whānau, both before a child is born and in their early years – with a particular focus on their first 2000 days – makes the biggest difference to lifelong and intergenerational wellbeing.

Thriving families and whānau

Mokopuna have told us that the most important thing to them is their families, whānau, and the people that they have significant relationships with. When these are thriving, mokopuna can thrive too. The social, economic, and environmental impacts on mokopuna are not felt in isolation – we see and hear mokopuna in the context of whānau, hapū, iwi and the communities and groups wrapped around them, and all mokopuna should grow up experiencing an adequate standard of living.

Growing up safe and well

We know there are areas that impact heavily on ensuring children grow up experiencing their full and flourishing potential, are loved, safe and well, with hope for the future. Our focus will shine a light on these issues including preventing child maltreatment, eliminating family violence, child and youth mental health and inclusion, and care and protection and youth justice.

Participating in what matters to me

Mokopuna have a right to be heard and participate fully in society. We have heard from mokopuna themselves that education, our environment, and culture and recreation are some key areas they want to see us support them in. We will continue to listen deeply to tamariki and rangatahi about the issues that matter to them to ensure their experiences, ideas and aspirations continuously inform our advocacy. Our proactive, strategic advocacy will be complemented by our reactive advocacy on key issues affecting mokopuna.