Logo UNICEF Innocenti
Office of Research-Innocenti
menu icon

Link between social protection and violence prevention to be explored

06 May 2016
Know Violence 1

Every year, as many as one billion children experience physical, sexual, or emotional violence. The impact of childhood violence spreads far beyond the individual victim. Efforts to address the problem to date have largely centered on fixing the damage caused after violence occurs. However, the global community is starting to come together to understand what a more prevention-focused approach should look like.

To this end, there is increasing interest in understanding how social protection programmes can mitigate the risk of violence against children. Social protection programming is on the rise globally and is broadly defined as interventions aimed at preventing, reducing and eliminating the economic and social harm caused by poverty.

UNICEF Innocenti and the Know Violence in Childhood Initiative are convening an expert round table to examine evidence and research gaps on the linkages between social protection and childhood violence in Florence, Italy.

As child-sensitive safety nets are designed and scaled up around the globe, the question of how social protection can play a role in decreasing victimization has high relevancy for international child protection efforts. The intersection between social protection (specifically cash transfers) and youth outcomes is a key component of the Adolescent Wellbeing programme, led by Innocenti.

The round table will gather 25 experts from around the globe for two days to discuss new research linking social protection to childhood violence outcomes, including young child and adolescent sexual, physical and emotional violence. Some key questions to be discussed include:

  • What is the potential for social protection to affect childhood violence?
  • What rigorous evidence exists on the impact of social protection on childhood violence?
  • Where have the range of social protection programmes actively tried to address childhood violence, and what modifications or strategies have been pursued?
  • What are some of the key research questions and gaps looking forward?

This round table is part of a larger Know Violence strategy which convenes sectoral expert round tables to bring together global leaders on key topical issues to review evidence on the importance and possibility of integrated actions to prevent childhood violence.

Participants will identify evidence gaps to prioritize further research and produce a summary report and paper outlining the evidence to date, gaps, challenges and promise in linking social protection to efforts to address the risk of childhood violence.

(5 May 2016)