Child abuse and neglect affect children in every country, with consequences that can last a lifetime and ripple across families, communities, public services and economies.
Despite this, child protection systems remain persistently underfunded and skewed towards a focus on response over prevention.
It is not enough to say people should care about children and the cost of violence; we need to show people the money gained, quality of life, increased GDP and productivity of a nation to drive real change.
Each pillar in the public health system strengthening wheel needs to be led with a multisectoral lens for all the elements to work together effectively across the lifespan of a child. There must also be a strong focus on prevention rather than reaction to problems after they cause a lifetime of issues. Assessment via data, policy development and assurance loops over time create a long term, sustainable public health model that is coordinated and effective in reducing abuse and neglect.
ISPCAN has created an Advocacy Toolkit that provides a roadmap for policy makers, practitioners, civil society and researchers on how to build the political will for a multisectoral approach with the necessary financial investments in prevention and response.
This Toolkit focuses on the evidence, messages and approaches most likely to build support for strong child protection systems where children can grow up safe and supported, free from abuse and neglect. It includes specific suggestions of messages and data that will resonate with specific government departments and includes template Advocacy Briefings to use in your outreach.
Advocacy Briefing Templates tailored to each of these sectors are included in the full Advocacy Toolkit.
“No single actor can prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect alone.”
Progress depends on a multisectoral approach, with sustained commitment and action across government.
A key way to get the attention of governments is by understanding the cost of child abuse and neglect, and the benefits to investing in child protection systems.
Investment cases serve to support rights-based arguments on child protection by demonstrating the pervasive burdens of child abuse and neglect, estimating the significant economic costs of inaction, and promoting prevention and response as a strategic investment with large positive returns.
“This may be our greatest tool to shift the narrative and get more funding and prioritization of child protection.”
In partnership with ISPCAN, Cornerstone Economic Research have created two innovative new tools to help us make the finance case — the cost of inaction and the return on investment — to drive political will.
While these tools do not replace a full investment case study for a nation, they aim to bring forward the need to prioritize this issue, and to give anyone from any resource environment a way to begin to make the case.
Supplementary to the tools, this brief explains how investment cases are developed and used to inform policy, advocacy, planning and budgeting. It provides further detail on the two new ISPCAN tools for generating indicative estimates of the economic costs of child abuse and neglect and the potential benefits of prevention.
For any questions, or to request further information, please reach out to Amanda at advocacy@ispcan.org .
