Know Violence in Childhood Logo

Newsletter:

July 2016

 

About Know Violence in Childhood:

Investing in the prevention of violence experienced by children is key to minimising the enormous human and financial costs imposed by such violence on children, their families, communities and societies and strengthening human development.

 
 

Know Violence in Childhood is a global learning initiative aimed at leveraging available evidence from around the world to tell the story about violence in childhood – not just its forms, drivers, impacts and costs – but more importantly, what can be done to reduce violence effectively to contribute to the agenda of improving child well-being.

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For comments, feedback and to subscribe to our newsletter, write to us at info@knowviolenceinchi
ldhood.org

 
 

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Upcoming Events

UN High Level Political Forum on the SDGs,
New York, USA,
11 – 20 July 2016

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The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children launch event and Call-to-Action at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA,12 July 2016

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28th International Congress of Pediatrics in Vancouver, Canada,
17 – 22 August 2016

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21st ISPCAN International Congress on Abuse and Neglect in Calgary, Canada, 28 – 31 August 2016

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Partners

University of Delaware
FXB
PUBLIC HEALTH OF INDIA
 
 

Key Supporters

Unicef
Bernad Van Leer
Oak Foundation
Ikea Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
AGWS
 
 

Associates

End Violence Against Children
Twitter
 
Ramya Subrahmanian, Executive Director, Know Violence in Childhood
Ramya Subrahmanian
Executive Director

From the ED's Desk:

Since January 2016 we have made steady progress in our learning and advocacy objectives. Over 30 commissioned papers are now in and being finalised for publication over the next quarter. Preparations for our global flagship report, which will be completed by the end of 2016 for release in early 2017, are also underway. Workshops and

meetings organised by us and other partners have provided opportunities to sharpen our learning and strengthen our overall flagship report. We look forward to engaging with all of you as our work moves forward this year.

Highlights of violence against childhood

Know Violence meetings

In continuation of our efforts to reach out to partners across the world and learn from the diversity of experience and views on strategies that can end violence against children, we organised two more expert meetings this year, on Preventing Violence in Schools for the South Asia region, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 25 – 27 April 2016, and on Social Protection and Childhood Violence in Florence, Italy, 12 – 13 May 2016.

In Sri Lanka, we collaborated with the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) to explore the issue of violence experienced by children as part of the schooling process, and identify emerging lessons from work done across the region by governments and civil society organisations to prevent violence in schools. The summary of key messages agreed by participants of this meeting is available for download.

In Italy, we partnered with the Unicef Office of Research-Innocenti for a roundtable focusing on what we know about how social protection programmes can support violence reduction objectives. The roundtable identified some key pathways of impact for social protection programmes to reduce childhood violence but also highlighted the limitations in the available evidence and recommended further investment in developing better methodologies for measurement and impact evaluation.

The two events were attended by national and regional authorities, practitioners and academics, civil society representatives, child rights monitoring bodies, among others. Agenda, concept note, participant list and presentations from both the roundtables are available for download.

Plans are underway to organise two more regional roundtables, in East Asia and Africa in the next few months.

Our Participation in Global Meetings

Know Violence in Childhood in collaboration with the World Bank, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and UNICEF, organised a high-level panel, Childhood Violence, Fragile Societies: The Case for Investing in Violence Prevention at the World Bank Group Fragility, Conflict and Violence Forum in Washington, DC, USA on 3 March 2016. On the expert panel were Lieutenant-General, the Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire (Retd), Founder, the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative; Cornelius Williams, Associate Director, Child Protection, Program Division, UNICEF; AK Shiva Kumar, Global Co-chair, Know Violence in Childhood; and Susan Bissell, Director, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. The session was moderated by Charlotte Vuyiswa McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor - Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience, the World Bank Group. The event witnessed a packed house and was recognised by the conference organisers to be "one of the top 5" events (apart from the Plenary Sessions) from the 600 that were organised.

Know Violence in Childhood leadership participated in the Sixth High-Level Cross-Regional Round Table by UNSRSG on Violence Against Children on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Children in Stockholm, Sweden from 30 May – 1 June 2016. Ramya Subrahmanian, Executive Director, Know Violence in Childhood, presented some emerging findings from the Initiative's learning so far and emphasised the importance of regional bodies in strengthening measurement related to the prevalence, forms and drivers of violence in childhood as well as investing in effective monitoring and evaluation so as to learn from experiences within and across regions.

The Forum on Global Violence Prevention organised a workshop, Identifying the Role of Violence Prevention in the Post-2015 Global Agenda, in Washington, DC,USA, from 12 – 13 May 2016 to explore and illuminate the ways in which violence prevention efforts fit into the global agenda. At the Forum, Thomas Abt, commissioned author, Know Violence in Childhood, and Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, Boston, USA, presented on kNOwing & measuring community violence. The presentation and recording of the talk are available here.

At the invitation of the CPC Learning Network, AK Shiva Kumar shared his reflections on preventing violence in childhood from a human development perspective at the Network's first biennial meeting held on 21 – 22 June 2016 at the Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA. Representatives from Together for Girls, the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti and CDC Uganda were co-panellists at the event.

Robert Muggah, Learning Group 3 Co-chair, Know Violence in Childhood, participated as a speaker at the Chicago Forum on Global Cities, USA; the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Medellin, Colombia; and the TED Summit in Banff, Canada in June 2016. At the Chicago Forum he drew attention to the relationships between urban violence and the vulnerability of children and adolescents to perpetration and victimisation. His talk is available here.

In Other News

At the WEF, Robert Muggah released a new report focusing on innovations for making cities safer (available in English and Spanish). He also authored editorials with WEF and articles in the Guardian and Sin Miedos. The report has triggered a lively debate in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. This includes a tweet by the President of the Inter-American Development Bank as well as a mention by the President of Ecuador.

The Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP) in Cape Town, South Africa, recently launched the South African Optimus Foundation Study on Child Abuse, Violence and Neglect. The study, conducted by the CJCP and the University of Cape Town, is the first national incidence and prevalence study in the country, and included a national sample of 10,000 children between the ages of 15 and 17 years. Two of the three principal investigators of the study are Patrick Burton, Learning Group 2 Chair and Professor Cathy Ward, Learning Group 2 author, Know Violence in Childhood.

Finally, Know Violence has been recently featured by Twitter as one of its safety partners in International Child Protection alongside organisations and peers such as ECPAT. In addition, Twitter has accorded the Initiative's social media handle with a verified badge. This is an important development adding credibility to Know Violence as an evidence based learning and advocacy initiative.

As a featured partner, Twitter will help promote Know Violence workshops, roundtables and events; produce co-branded handbooks and safety manuals to prevent violence perpetrated online. In addition, closer to the flagship report launch (tentatively scheduled for early 2017), Twitter will help us promote the launch and our key advocacy messages. We take this opportunity to thank the Public Policy team at Twitter for making this possible!

Team

FXB USA has partnered with Know Violence in Childhood. to serve as the Initiative's management hub. This partnership will last until July 2017. Given our shared passion for improving children's lives, we are especially excited about this partnership and look forward to working together in advancing it. Read more about the partnership here.

Partners

The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and the INSPIRE package will be launched in the sidelines of the High-Level Thematic Debate on the UN's Role in Human Rights on 12 July 2016 in the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA. It is being organised as an invitation-only lunch time event; one of three debates that the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will hold during its 70th session this year.

The objectives of the event are: to demonstrate public commitment for ending violence against children; to showcase the evidence-based interventions and the ability of pathfinding countries to implement these solutions; to launch the Partnership Strategy and associated fund; and to emphasise that children play a prominent role as agents of change. AK Shiva Kumar, Global Co-chair for Know Violence in Childhood. is one of the members on the Interim Advisory Group of the Partnership.

We have a regular blog series where we invite expert practitioners to contribute articles on "childhood violence" prevention.

Connecting the dots between social protection and childhood violence: a neglected research agenda

Tia Palermo and Anastasia Neijhoft, 14 June 2016
Read More about the violence against childhood

From the field: A case study of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative

Shelly Whitman, 15 June 2016

Can social protection play a role in reducing childhood violence?

Matthew Morton, 29 June 2016*
*Reproduced with permission.

Youth and violence in Latin America

Daniela Trucco, 7 July 2016

© 2016 Know Violence in Childhood, All Rights Reserved.