A virtual panel featuring leading experts on data and child marriage in humanitarian settings. 

IDLO is hosting a webinar that will focus on GBV-specific justice responses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath and aims to catalyze exchange and learning from global and national experts on lessons, entry points and emerging solutions available to ensure access to justice for GBV survivors.

GWI Director Mary Ellsberg will be speaking on this panel. She is joined by the following panelists and moderator:

• Caroline Meenagh, Policy Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Section, UN Women
• Justice Henrietta Wolayo, President of the National Association of Women Judges of Uganda
• Chiara Adamo, Head of Unit “Gender, Human Rights and Democratic Governance”, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), European Commission (TBC)
• Tara Neal, Country Manager, IDLO, Mongolia
• Dr Ilaria Bottigliero, Director Policy, Research and Learning, IDLO (Moderator)

Plan International is hosting a webinar that explores the ways in which adolescent girls experience and navigate the crisis in the Sahel based on research conducted by Plan International, the Institute for Risk and Disaster and United Nations Population Fund.

The research seeks to amplify the voices of girls and their perceptions of life under the crisis and presents their recommendations on how the international community might respond.

A panel discussion will be hosted by Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen (CEO Plan International), and engage the following speakers:

• Professor Maureen Fordham and Dr Virginie le Masson, Directors at the Centre for Gender and Disaster at the Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction, University College London
•  Yaouba Kaigama – Country Director – Plan International Burkina Faso
• Auguste Kpognon – Country Director -United Nations Population Fund Burkina Faso.
• Lazare Charle Djibode – Interim Country Director – Plan International Mali
• Lotte Claessens – Technical Advisor: Adolescents in Emergencies – Plan International Sweden

As the world grapples with the health crisis and changes to everyday life caused by COVID-19, a shadow pandemic of violence against children is quickly emerging. Calls to child helplines and domestic violence hotlines point to a spike in levels of violence, trends that are consistent with data from past humanitarian and economic crises. Faced with limited data, we must rely on existing data to estimate levels of violence during COVID-19 and inform prevention and response efforts now and after the pandemic.

The Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS), led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of the partnership with Together for Girls (TFG), provide data from 20 countries that show the high rates of physical, sexual, and emotional violence children and youth were experiencing before COVID-19, often with devastating immediate and long-term consequences.

In this webinar, Daniela Ligiero of Together for Girls will give an overview of VACS and the publicly available datasets; Greta Massetti of the CDC will discuss methodology and implementation and the Data to Action process; and Clare Bangirana of Africhild Centre will describe the VACS process and outcomes in Uganda and the resulting government policies and actions.

At this event. speakers will be covering the impact of COVID-19 on children’s rights, including the emerging findings from the #COVIDUnder19 consultation, the perspectives on the UN Committee’s 11th recommendations, the issues affecting some extremely vulnerable groups of children and young people, and how COVID is likely to influence the UN Committee's work going forward.

• Laura Lundy, Professor, School of Social Sciences, Education, and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast and Co-Director of the Centre for Children's Rights
• Patricio Cuevas-Parra, Director, Child Participation and Rights, World Vision International
• Kay Tisdall, Professor of Childhood Policy, MHSES, University of Edinburgh and Co-Director of the Childhood & Youth Studies Research Group
• Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children • Ann Skelton, Professor, University of Pretoria, Member UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
• Alex Conte, Executive Director, Child Rights Connect

Part II: Panel discussion and moderated Q&A of the first-ever Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020. This event includes a presentation of the report by Alexander Butchart, Violence Prevention Unit, WHO, along with speakers including Dr Daniela Ligiero, Together for Girls; Dr Santi Kusumaningrum, PUSKAPA, Indonesia; Ms Stella Ayo-Odongo, African Partnership to End Violence Against Children; Ms Daniela Buzducea, World Vision; M Iain Drennan, WePROTECT; Ms Frederique Seidel, World Council of Churches; Dr Lucie Cluver, University of Oxford; and Dr Susan Hillis, Centers for Disease Control, among others.