Several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers across the globe are attempting to find out how the health and socioeconomic crisis brought about by the coronavirus is affecting children’s exposure to violence. Four articles published in the Child Abuse and Neglect Journal provide valuable insights. The findings will be presented in a series of webinars. This first webinar will discuss the use of social media data for assessing children’s exposure to violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Childhood USA and WePROTECT Global Alliance, in partnership with DeafKidz International and the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, present WePROTECT's Intelligence Brief: The Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Deaf and Disabled Children Online, as compiled by DeafKidz International.

The webinar will consist of a situational analysis of current perspectives and evidence on the sexual exploitation and abuse of children with disabilities online. This conversation holds space for further discussion to amplify our joint goal to encourage the international child protection sector, civil society and tech community to address this often neglected area. 

American and British Sign Language and International Sign Interpretation will be provided, along with closed captioning. 

For millions of children, the extent to which the world delivers on the promise of the Global Goals will determine the course of their lives – and their lives determine the future of this planet. But five years in and with COVID-19 reversing much progress, are we on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for children?

This event will take place in the form of a short panel followed by break-out sessions on topics such as poverty, gender, digital connectivity, monitoring nutrition and WASH in schools – all with a COVID-19 focus. Speakers include Chief Statisticians, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director and UNICEF staff working on child-related indicators.

Eradicating modern slavery is a moral imperative. But is there also a powerful economic argument to ending it? This is the central argument of the new UN University Developing Freedom report which asks how fighting modern slavery can contribute to sustainable development. It invites us to consider how maximising people’s economic agency will unlock development gains for victims and the global economy and calls for wide-ranging development sector engagement with the anti-slavery agenda.

Join us as we bring together leaders in the anti-slavery community and the global development sector to unpick the report’s claim, explore what the development benefits resulting from addressing slavery look like from diverse perspectives and learn what needs to be done to ensure that economic empowerment leads to sustained, continuing freedom for survivors.

Speakers: 
Jennifer Townson - UK Government Migration and Modern Slavery Envoy
Sara Pantuliano - Executive Director, Overseas Development Institute
Prof. James Cockayne - Senior Fellow at UN University Center for Policy Research
Sophie Otiende - Regional Operations Manager, Liberty Shared
Sameer Digal - Project Manager, Duncan Hospital
Nick Grono - CEO, The Freedom Fund

Moderator:
Maggie Gardner - Managing Director, Development and Partnerships, Freedom Fund

The INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children technical package is a collection of evidence-based recommendations on how to prevent and respond to violence against children, including Implementation and enforcement laws; Norms and values; Safe environments; Parent and caregiver support; Income and economic strengthening; Response and support services; and Education and life skills.

The webinar, fourth in a series of eight webinars covering the INSPIRE strategies, will present the strategy “safe environments” in more depth and will include reflections on how they can be adapted for implementation in the time of COVID-19.

On 19 February 2021 from 15h30-17h00 (GMT+1) the fourth webinar will cover:

• Overview of the strategy and brief overview of findings from the Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020
• Addressing “hotspots”: Cardiff Model
• Interrupting the spread of violence: Cure violence
• Q&A session with the experts

Confirmed speakers for the webinar include Alexander Butchart (WHO), Jonathan Shepherd (Cardiff University), and Gary Slutkin (Cure Violence). The webinar will be moderated by Sabine Rakotomalala (End Violence).

Part of the 2021 Research-in-Progress Webinar Series on Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences and Child Maltreatment

Presented by: Andres Villaveces, MD, MPH, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

All webinars are one hour, free and open to prevention professionals and researchers in child maltreatment prevention. Presenters will describe research in progress and take questions from attendees.

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action is hosting a webinar on how to adapt capacity building activities and deliver them remotely, based on the real-life experience of colleagues from across the sector. This webinar will be offered in English with Spanish translation. A French version of this webinar will occur on 5 March.