In its first two years, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children made significant progress in uniting the voices, actions and resources of various stakeholders in a unique public-private collaboration focused solely on ending violence against all children. The Partnership has: enrolled 21 governments as ‘Pathfinding’ countries; grown its membership to over 270 organizations; helped develop and promote the INSPIRE solutions to end violence; awarded $30 million in grants to tackle online child sexual abuse, and violence against children in conflict and crises; and galvanized those working to end violence through an inaugural End Violence Solutions Summit.
End Violence partners and stakeholders realize that at present there is no effective international forum in which countries as well as multiple stakeholders can work together to end violence against children. This has made it difficult to establish, strengthen and promote standards and norms; slowed dissemination of models and best practices from country to country and has left the child protection field fragmented. To address this vacuum - under Goal 3 Strengthen Collaboration of End Violence - the Partnership plans to take several initiatives. These include establishing a live, virtual platform for ongoing sharing including regional platforms and exchanges between pathfinding partners. For pathfinding partner exchange, the Secretariat is organizing periodic virtual exchange meetings between pathfinding countries for continuous dialogue that enables them to learn, share their experiences and lessons learned, and support standard-setting and mutual accountability.
The first pathfinding partner exchange was held between delegations comprised of government representatives, UNICEF, civil society and partners from Mexico, Sweden and Tanzania. Now Childhub and End Violence are hosting another exchange focused on Europe, aiming to foster learning and collaboration amongst partners and pathfinding countries in Europe, to capture the experiences, lessons learned, challenges faced, and promising practices in pathfinding countries, which can be shared with other pathfinding country partners. Speakers from Romania and Montenegro will discuss:
- Moving Policy to Action: How have the two countries brought systematic changes in addressing Violence Against Children?
- Data and Evidence: What type of data collection initiatives have been undertaken and have been most relevant?
- Coordination of the Partnerships in Countries - successes and challenges
- What is the next step at the country level and for End Violence?
About the presenters:
Dr. Howard Taylor is Executive Director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, a UN-hosted initiative to end all forms of violence against every child, wherever in the world they live. Howard has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US, where he has led a global corporate foundation, established a creative social enterprise, and built government teams – all to measurably improve the lives of millions of people. As Vice-President and Managing Director of the Nike Foundation, Howard led the development and delivery of the Foundation's strategy, programs, partnerships and advocacy. He was the driving force behind the successful spin-out of Girl Effect as an independent, creative social business that uses branded mass and social media, technology and data to change behaviors and tackle negative social norms. Prior to Nike, Howard held senior roles across the UK Government, including at the Department for International Development (DFID), Cabinet Office and Foreign Office. He was Chief of Staff to two Secretaries of State for International Development, and led DFID’s largest country programs, in India and Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, he co-chaired the Development Assistance Group, responsible for coordinating the most impactful investment of over $3 billion/year of official development assistance to Ethiopia. Howard is on the European Board of Mercy Corps. He is married with two children, and enjoys sports, music, politics, and pursuing inspirational ideas that can change the world.
Sabine Rakotomalala is a Senior Technical Adviser with the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, based in the World Health Organization. With an academic background in Child Psychology she has over a decade of professional experience in the fields of violence prevention, mental health and psychosocial support and child protection both in humanitarian and development settings. Since 2011 she has worked in the World Health Organization, Terre des hommes and UNICEF and spearheaded initiatives such as the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network and the development of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.
Liliana Roșu has 23 years of experience in the field of child rights protection, with expertise in programme and policy development. She is a member of the Romanian National College of Social Workers and a Board Member of the Romanian NGO Federation for Child Protection. Her experience includes working with the National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights Protection and Adoption, with local and international NGOs, as well as extensive collaborations with UN Agencies (UNICEF, WHO).
Raluca Zaharia is Communication for Development (C4D) Officer for UNICEF in Romania, coordinating behavior change and social mobilization campaigns and interventions, in partnership with the Child Protection, Education and Health Departments, such as the 2014 - 2017 campaign raising awareness on violence against children. For the past three years, she has acted as Focal Point for UNICEF Romania for the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children.
Nela Krnic has been a part of the UNICEF Country Office in Montenegro since 2004, and is since 2006 a Child Protection Officer in charge for the overall design, management, coordination and monitoring of UNICEF Child Protection programme in Montenegro. Apart from working on the protection of children from all forms of violence and exploitation, Nela has overseen several reform initiatives in the area of Social Welfare and Child Care System Reform - Enhancing Social Inclusion, Juvenile Justice System Reform and broader Access to Justice Agenda. She was engaged on short term assignment with UNICEF Regional Office for CEECIS in Geneva (Talent Mapping Initiative) and in 2016 on Surge mission in Slovenia to support UNICEF efforts in helping the country to adequately respond to refugee and migrant crisis and provide necessary assistance and support to concerned children and families.
Ida Ferdinandi has been a Child Protection Officer with UNICEF Country Office in Montenegro for 9 years, mostly working on the protection of children from violence including parenting support, the protection of the rights of children without parental care or at risk of losing parental care, including children with disabilities. She is the gender focal point in the Office. Previously she worked for the NGO sector. Her educational background is international and she hold a BA degree in Anthropology (Canada) and MA in Social Sciences – the Global Studies Programme (Germany/South Africa).
Vladan Jovanovic is Communication for Development (C4D) Officer in UNICEF Country Office in Montenegro. For the past six years, he has been providing technical support and assistance in the design, formulation, management, execution, monitoring and evaluation of a behavioral change and social mobilization strategy, plan of action and programme activities for “Every child needs a family”, “Preschool for All” and “End Violence” campaigns.
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