Data to Action for Protecting Children from Violence in Africa
New data-to-action partners recently initiated a set of activities to support government-led efforts to end violence against children in Kenya and Namibia: LVCT Health and World Vision Kenya in Kenya, and Project Hope Namibia (PHN) and LifeLine/ChildLine (LLCL) in Namibia. These organizations will support cross-sectoral stakeholder coordination at national and sub-national levels and dissemination of the countries’ respective National Action Plans to End Violence Against Children. The Action Plans respond to data from their Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS).
In Kenya, which is one of just two countries globally to have completed two VACS (the other is Zimbabwe), the partners’ objectives are to create visibility and public awareness of the findings from the most recent (2019) VACS, facilitate county-level planning on implementing the National Prevention and Response Plan on Violence Against Children (NPRP), and allocate resources to the most appropriate interventions. To this end, LVCT Health and World Vision Kenya are convening cross-sectoral workshops at county and national levels. In addition, LVCT Health is carrying out a retrospective qualitative analysis to explore what policy and program efforts stakeholders in Kenya consider most likely to have contributed to the reduction in violence measured between the first and second VACS. This analysis is co-funded by Wellspring Philanthropic Fund and USAID’s HEARD Project.
In Namibia, LLCL and Project Hope Namibia (PHN) are respectively focusing on two of the Government of Namibia’s key priorities in relation to ending violence against children: strengthening parenting and caregiver programming and making schools safer. LLCL’s goal is to consolidate a National Parenting Program in collaboration with relevant ministries and other stakeholders. PHN will be focused on responding to and preventing violence in school settings by designing interventions and capacity strengthening interventions for school personnel.
Kick-off events for both awards bring together in-country implementing partners with focal points from government ministries, USAID, HEARD, Together for Girls, CDC, and the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC). As a sub-regional anchor of the HEARD Partnership, ECSA-HC will be instrumental in supporting cross-country and regional knowledge sharing as the activities advance. The kick-off for Kenya partners took place in early June in a hybrid format (part virtual and part in-person). The kick-off for Namibia partners occurred in July.
