The Fund is helping UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina, Save the Children, and International Forum of Solidarity-EMMAUS to work as a consortium to support and advocate for online safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Mongolia, the Fund is supporting UNICEF Mongolia’s project to increase national-level commitment to ending online child sexual exploitation and abuse. UNICEF Mongolia is pushing to implement the Model National Response approach in Mongolia, which was created by the WePROTECT Global Alliance to help countries build programming and services around online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

In Rwanda, the University of East London partnered with 5Rights Foundation and the University of Rwanda to support to the Government of Rwanda in its development of a Child Online Protection Policy and its Implementation Plan.

Through support from the Fund, UNICEF Tanzania is strengthening its ongoing child protection work by establishing and supporting the national Child Online Safety Task Force, which seeks to enhance the capacity of frontline service providers in responding to cases of online exploitation. These service providers include those who directly interact with children who have experienced online abuse, such as social welfare officers, police and managers of the child helpline.

The Fund is helping UNICEF South Africa promote positive Internet use while deterring online violence, exploitation and abuse. From 2018-2022, the agency worked on creating tools on online safety and integrating them into existing programmes and platforms to create awareness among parents, children and communities. This included training religious leaders on children’s rights and violence against children and supporting faith-based organisations to establish child protection reporting mechanisms.

From 2018-2021, UNICEF Madagascar  used Fund support to educate children, youth and caregivers on online child sexual exploitation and abuse, ensuring families know how to report cases of violence and address online sexual exploitation.

UNICEF Ghana is using support from the Fund to develop a National Plan of Action to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The agency is also working closely with the National Cybersecurity Crime Centre to integrate online child protections into the country’s national cybersecurity strategy.

UNICEF Uganda is using support from the Fund to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The agency is working directly with the Government of Uganda to integrate mechanisms for prevention, reporting and response into the national child protection system. They are also making related resources available across the social welfare, education, health and justice sectors.

In Sri Lanka, Internet connectivity has skyrocketed: over the past 10 years, the country has seen a 600 per cent increase in connections, representing more than 25 million mobile phones. Though rates of online child sexual exploitation and abuse have increased, Sri Lanka’s ability to handle the issue is limited.