Through our Free From Violence campaign, ChildFund has been a loud advocate amongst those calling for a world where all children are safe and child protection is a global priority.
We celebrated a win for our advocacy late last year when the new 2030 Global Goals for Sustainable Development were announced and included target 16.2 to “End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.”
Today, we celebrate another significant milestone with the launch of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Responding to the Global Goals, the Partnership will turn talk into action by advocating for, supporting and funding a coordinated approach to ending violence against children.
Violence against children continues to be an endemic problem, shared by every country in the world. In the past year, as many as 1 billion children globally have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence. Every five minutes globally, a child dies from violence. We know that a global problem requires a shared solution.
The Global Partnership will build and sustain political will to end violence against children. It will accelerate action by taking a globally coordinated approach, and it will strengthen collaboration between countries and actors.
By pooling resources and expertise, the Global Partnership will accelerate progress towards the 2030 target. The Partnership ultimately aims for commitments from every country on Earth to adopt national legislation, policies and programs to protect children and to achieve this, will support and feature €˜Pathfinder` countries who demonstrate a strong commitment to accelerating efforts to make children safe. Countries that have already initiated steps towards being Pathfinders include Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Romania, Sweden and Sri Lanka.
The Global Partnership will promote and fund strategies that are tried and tested through a multi-donor trust fund. Already, £40 million (AUD$70m) to catalyse the fund has been contributed by the UK Government and will be used for actions to address online violence and exploitation of children.
ChildFund has financially and technically supported the Global Partnership from its inception. We will continue our commitment through the ChildFund Alliance to advocate for and support a world where children can be free from violence.
ChildFund will also collaborate with key organisations, governments and the private sector to work with Pathfinder countries, and to encourage more countries €“ including Australia €“ to sign on to the commitments of the Global Partnership.