The study for the baseline report was undertaken primarily as a situation analysis able to guide future programming. The methodology was inspired by participatory action research (PAR)as a way of engaging people living in difficult circumstances as agents of change and as actors in their own development. Brief field research was undertaken in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria to identify key protection issues, the existence of formal and informal child protection actors and how adolescent migrants navigated family relationships, labour markets and education.