End Violence Lab
The End Violence Lab was a collaboration between the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and The University of Edinburgh.
It worked with Pathfinding Countries and Cities in their mission to improve the lives of children by harnessing data, evidence and learning. The Lab helped build the data and evidence infrastructure towards the SDGs, through the INSPIRE Seven Strategies and with children everywhere – to ensure that national teams can deliver results and create impressive policy impact and momentum.
The Lab worked with national and local leaders to co-design solutions-oriented processes for change in the field of violence prevention. It supported senior-level influencers in government, national universities and civil society organisations to plan for the implementation and eventual scale-up of violence prevention interventions. It covered four broad areas – Co-design, Data, Evidence and Learning. Learn more about the Lab and its work below.
The End Violence Lab convened and coordinated planning for implementation courses at the global, regional and national levels. Course content was co-designed with in-country partners so that learning is contextually appropriate and features national and regional experts.
The core curriculum (and national modules) evolved into the INSPIRE Coordination Course, which aligns with the adaptation and scale-up process of the INSPIRE Seven Strategies.
REGIONAL: ADDRESSING THE CONTINUUM OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN
Malaysia | August 2019 | Regional
The objective of this masterclass was to convene multi-sectoral delegates from multiple committed Pathfinding Countries and Cities to strengthen and accelerate the work of ending violence against children. These objectives are guided by INSPIRE.
This one-week intensive learning opportunity aimed to equip participants with the expertise, skills and resources they need to develop, prepare and/or implement their interventions to end violence against children with a particular focus on interventions that span both online and offline harm.
NATIONAL: INSPIRE COORDINATION COURSE
Mexico | April 2019 | National
The primary objective of this nationally-led INSPIRE Coordination Course was to convene delegates for peer-to-peer learning – from within a single country – to strengthen and accelerate the work of ending violence against children using the INSPIRE technical package. The course also provided an opportunity to understand how to localise National Plans of Action to prevent violence. This week-long course provided delegates with opportunities to broaden and strengthen their skills in planning, co-learning, advocating and networking for violence prevention. At the request of course delegates, we created a "guide for organisers" who want to repeat elements of the course throughout the 20 different states of Mexico represented.
The Lab brokered access to data-driven methodologies to improve multi-sectoral engagement and measurement, supporting countries to understand and respond to violence against children through:
- Mapping of INSPIRE;
- Child-informed indicator development to complement the INSPIRE indicators; and
- Outcome mapping to help organisations understand the outcomes or impacts that matter.
These approaches naturally build upon existing coordinating bodies in both local and national contexts. Together, they help nationals prepare to generate data and evidence to understand the difference they are making. Read about these approaches below and click learn more to see our fact sheets.
The End Violence Lab also connected academics and practitioners to the data they need. At the University of Edinburgh, our work on violence against children aligned closely with the Data for Children Collaborative with UNICEF and the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
INSPIRE MAPPING
For Pathfinding countries, INSPIRE Mapping is a qualitative methodology that offers a rapid and low-cost approach for mapping the INSPIRE interventions. The approach is adopted from the INSPIRE mapping done by the Evidence for Better Lives Study (EBLS) in eight cities around the world. It is consultative, and as such, assesses an ‘all stakeholder’ vision of needs and resources.
Through interviews led by expert national consultants, it gathers information from a wide variety of stakeholders such as policymakers, academics and frontline practitioners, including the non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations that deliver services. The responses reflect national perspectives and are rated and collated and then assessed against the seven INSPIRE strategies.
OUTCOME MAPPING
Outcome Mapping ensures that countries have a robust monitoring and evaluation framework in place to understand how different approaches to ending violence work, and to what extent they are effective. This includes developing a theory of change approach based on contribution analysis and knowledge to action. Outcome Mapping aligns activities with outcomes to ending violence against children, and creates a framework for sharing learnings.
CHILD-CENTRED INDICATORS
Child-Centred Indicators capture local specificities while also reflecting up to global indicator standards. Child-Centred Indicators create qualitative measures to allow for a richer, deeper and more nuanced understanding of change for children over time, thereby complementing the suite of core INSPIRE indicators and generating real-time, child-centred data to iteratively guide the design, implementation and evaluation of strategies in the shorter term.
Read about how these indicators look in action by reading this piece, which describes a 2019 pilot project to develop child-centred indicators for violence prevention in the Philippines.
The End Violence Lab curated evidence-based solutions in policy and practice in what is now a rapidly growing field for violence prevention. We did this in two ways:
First, we coordinated the Global End Violence Against Children Knowledge Network: A forum for users and producers of evidence. The forum allowed for UN-mandated SDG monitoring processes to be discussed alongside findings from other violence against children data, monitoring, evaluation and research initiatives, with the aim to discuss and share findings, strengthen methodology and build consensus for practitioners everywhere.
Second, the End Violence Knowledge Platform provides a home to Knowledge Network products and beyond, documenting and celebrating frontline, on-the-ground organisations who are creating change.
THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
In April of 2017, a gap was identified: in the child protection world and other sectors, there was a disconnect between data and action. The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children (SRSG-VAC), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the End Violence joined forces to remedy that gap, convening a group of stakeholders to develop a solution. Together, these partners developed a platform for technical discussions on data, learnings and evidence, soon to be named the Global End Violence Against Children Knowledge Network. Learn more about the network.
March 2019 saw the kick-off and first consultative event for the Knowledge Network. The two-day event brought together 40 experts in data and evidence on ending violence against children at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti in Florence, Italy. This report presents a summary of key issues discussed at the Knowledge Network's first meeting and a vision for the future of the network.
PUBLICATIONS
The End Violence Lab also promoted the idea and practice that data can drive change. We facilitated and brokered research on a variety of topics including the drivers of violence, secondary analyses of existing violence data, costing and a variety of other relevant issues for countries working to contextualise and advocate for change.
On drivers of violence:
On secondary analysis of violence against children data:
On education:
On the online/offline continuum:
On the burden of violence:
On the intersection between violence against women and violence against children:
The Lab recognised peer-to-peer learning as essential and encourage knowledge exchanges through multiple types of participatory fora around national action planning and INSPIRE. It focused on building these exchanges among senior-level influencers while promoting inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral solutions. We also promoted national university hubs for violence against children research and training.
In all cases, our knowledge exchange events and the documentation generated from this work within countries, within regions, and across the world were designed to build a common dialogue around pressing issues in the field of violence prevention moving towards improved dialogue and impact.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
In September of 2019, the End Violence Lab held a Leadership Programme to convene an international, multi-sectoral delegation of senior-level influencers from committed Pathfinding Countries and cities to strengthen and accelerate the work of ending violence against children.
The week-long event provided delegates with opportunities for broadening and strengthening skills, thinking, planning, co-learning, resourcing and networking for this work. Delegates from the four countries who attended this event now play an active role nationally and globally — and maintain their role as leaders through an active community of practice. Read about the 2019 Leadership Development Programme.
DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR LEADERS
Our 2020 Leadership Development Programme was certified and entirely online to adapt to the COVID-19 context. We worked with multi-sectoral groups from Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Uganda, and the Philippines; access the final report and appendix to explore further.
This interactive, fully online programme focused on leadership, communication, and storytelling skills for an exclusive cohort of public servants committed to ending violence against children.
The 2020 programme explored how different policy areas can work together to maintain and adapt National Action Planning for violence prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included transitioning from crisis to long-term planning and programming, which is sensitive to new vulnerabilities and opportunities.
LOCALISING NATIONAL ACTION PLANS
Our guide offered a series of strategic approaches to build the data and evidence infrastructure needed to localise National Action Plans to end violence. In this document, we focus on the Pathfinding City approach and our initial experiences localising the Philippine Plan of Action to End Violence Against Children in the urban context. This approach can also be used wherever there is a need to adapt national action plans to end violence against children within any geographical unit – a community, a city, a district or a region.
SAFER CITIES FIELD GUIDE
The End Violence Lab worked with Apolitical to create a Safer Cities Field Guide. This resource aims to help participants gain a deeper understanding of the policies that promote safer cities. Using case study examples, the guide helps participants explore how a more economically and socially inclusive society can lower incidences of violence.
Access the field guide and visit Apolitical.
