Launching our Evidence Review
As the Coalition for Good Schools charted a course towards emergence onto the global stage, we identified an evidence gap. Effective solutions to preventing violence against children in schools in the Global South exist. There is simply a void of published proof.
We wanted to close this gap.
In partnership with the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town and the International Center for Research on Women in India – the Coalition developed an evidence review: Prevention of violence against children in and through schools in the Global South.
For the review, we analyzed 151 publications about 93 distinct interventions. Then we classified 20 programs as successful, 29 as promising, 30 as emerging, and only 14 as ineffective. We focused our attention on five key thematic areas of the INSPIRE framework:
- Building life-skills and knowledge
- Building safe environments
- Addressing harmful gender norms
- Providing psycho-social support
- Promoting a whole school approach
The review highlights the importance of multicomponent, integrated interventions that address an expansive school environment and group-based learning. It calls attention to the need for offering leadership opportunities to school staff and learners alike. And it underscores the value of fostering an iterative attitude towards intervention development.
Notable interventions from the research are those developed by Coalition founding members Aulas en Paz (Classrooms for Peace) and Raising Voices (for their Good School Toolkit).
Review launch
We debuted the review alongside UNICEF’s Office of Research, Innocenti, in their webinar: Evidence Matters – taking stock of the evidence on preventing and responding to violence against children. Over 500 participants from diverse regions attended the event and heard from Coalition founding members Enrique Chaux and Shanaaz Mathews. Coalition co-founder and Raising Voices co-director, Dipak Naker, also co-facilitated the event with UNICEF’s Ramya Subramanian.
