How Are Countries Thinking About Violence Against Children?

Earlier in November, representatives from more than 100 countries attended the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence against Children. The event marked a significant milestone, reflecting a strong global commitment to the prevention of violence against children.

Throughout the event, speakers consistently communicated key messages on progress towards ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against children (SDG 16.2), the role of community, youth and survivor voices in addressing violence, and the importance of achieving impact at scale.

The conference introduced a pledging platform and emphasized the need for ambitious commitments to end abuse against children. As a result, 101 countries submitted pledges to action. What were the main pledges? Were they bold enough? Here, we review the pledges made by governments and organizations, noting that if translated into action, they could lead to significant progress in the fight against violence toward children.

1. The creation of response and support services was the top pledging priority across countries    

Conference conveners urged countries to prioritize three breakthrough topics: 1) universal access to parent and caregiver support, 2) universal access to safe and enabling school environments, and 3) response and support services integrating justice, health and social welfare systems. Notably, 80 percent of the 101 countries that submitted pledges committed to working on at least one of these areas.

65 countries committed to actions related to the creation of response and support services, followed by legal and policy frameworks, parent and caregiver support, and safe school environments. These top priorities remain similar when broken down by region or income level (Figure 1). Actions towards data collection and monitoring received less attention with only 30 percent of countries prioritizing this topic.

Figure 1. Number of Country Pledges, by Income/Region

2. Global organizations priorities are mostly consistent with countries, with some additional focus areas

We also reviewed the pledges of global organizations, including the WHO and UNICEF, given their role in 1) facilitating knowledge exchange in evidence-based and adaptable interventions, 2) driving strategy and international standards to measure and respond to violence, and 3) providing technical and financial assistance to support countries to address violence against children.

Global organizations made an average of four commitments. As expected, most international agencies committed to the three breakthrough topics, with response and support services, and safe school environments being the most commonly flagged topics across the board (Figure 2).

Interestingly, child participation and community engagement pledges were more popular among global organizations than with countries. Comparatively, only 17 countries committed to the topic—which shows us that additional efforts are needed for more countries to incorporate civil society into violence prevention frameworks.

Figure 2. Pledges by Organizations

3. Education commitments are good news as the education sector is a key entry point to end violence against children

Most global organizations, along with 44 out of 101 countries, pledged to create safe and enabling school environments. Activities outlined in this priority area touch on existing evidence-based interventions such as the implementation of whole-school approaches that entailed comprehensive actions involving the entire school community to achieve structural change. Another frequent action under this category included commitments to reduce corporal punishment, which was also highlighted in pledges covering the enactment of laws and regulations for violence response and prevention.

These commitments are good news as the education sector is a key entry point to address violence against children. As highlighted by the Good School Coalition the education sector is a salient system in the lives of children and it is of strategic importance to “invest resources in addressing how the education sector can prevent violence against children”.

4. Strengthening data is not a priority for all

We would have liked to see bigger commitments towards strengthening data systems. CGD analysis shows important gaps in violence data, highlighting, for example, that only one in six countries have survey data to measure sexual violence perpetrated by school staff, and none of the international surveys captures how much violence occurs on the way to and from school. Data is essential to monitor progress and act effectively to address violence against children and only 31 governments pledge to strengthen data collection and monitoring systems. Greater efforts must be made to support governments’ implementation of regular and systematic data collection on violence indicators in a standard way and following ethical and safeguarding practices.

5. Despite prioritizing key topics, some commitments remain too broad, making it challenging to drive action or measure progress

The pledges signal a strong commitment to ending violence against children. The specificity of the pledges varied across the pledges, and only some included measurable time-bound goals or stated the budget associated with a given pledge. Jamaica is one of the countries with quantifiable pledges, for example, committing to “Expand school-based violence prevention programmes to 75 percent of all public schools and institutions by 2030. This will include impact assessments of all existing programmes and scaling up their most effective components. The estimated value is 115 million Jamaican dollars.”

Overall, across all topic areas, we find that 60 of the 101 pledging countries were time-bound (including a target year), and only 19 countries attached an investment amount to the commitment. A snapshot of this pattern can be seen when looking into specific topics (Figure 3). For example, all the low-income countries that pledged to improve data collection systems committed to achieving this within a specific timeframe, but only a third mentioned an estimated budget to achieve the goal. While differences in the scope and specificity of the commitments do not diminish their significance, pledges with time-bound goals and allocated budgets can be better tracked and are more likely to translate into concrete actions.

Figure 3. Share of Countries with Measurable Commitments

Moving forward: ensuring pledges translate into action

The year 2024 has demonstrated stronger global engagement in ending violence against children worldwide. The year began with the Wilton Park Conference on Addressing Violence in and Through Education. In May, seven Education Ministers signed a declaration to end violence in schools on the sidelines of the Education World Forum, and the year concluded with the First Ministerial Conference on Violence Against Children. The event in Colombia showed a global consensus on the importance of strengthening response and support services, and the public pledges signalled governments’ commitments to addressing violence against children.

To achieve meaningful progress, it is essential to hold governments and organizations accountable for their commitments and to mobilize financial support and investment to ensure coordinated and concerted efforts across sectors. It is also essential to increase the prominence of the education sector as a key entry point to address violence against children and to invest in better data systems to respond effectively and make informed decisions to reduce violence against children at scale. Policymakers and practitioners must act now to translate these promising pledges into concrete laws, policies and interventions.

Note: If you would like to explore the systematised list of commitments, you can access the raw dataset here. The dataset includes all the submitted pledges available at the Global Ministerial Conference Pledging Platform (pledges downloaded on November 21, 2024).