2021

ANNUAL
REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: 2021 AT-A-GLANCE 8
About the End Violence Partnership 2 Investing for Impact 9
End Violence Partnership 2022-24 Strategy 6 2021 Key Moments 10

PART TWO: PROGRESS AGAINST 12 PART THREE: COUNTRY

PRIORITIES ENGAGEMENT CASE STUDIES 28
Together to #ENDviolence 13 Cambodia 30
Pathfinding 15 Costa Rica 32
Safe at Home and in Communities 19 Japan 33
Safe Online 20 Jordan 34
End Corporal Punishment 23 Kenya 36
Safe to Learn 25 Sweden 38

PART FOUR: BUILDING A PART FIVE: LOOKING AHEAD 53

PARTNERSHIP FOR ALL 39 The Power of Partnership and Knowledge 54
Challenges and Opportunities 54

PART SIX: GOVERNANCE 59

End Violence Board 60
End Violence Executive Committee 61
Executive Committee Working Groups 62
People 62
2021 Financial Summary 63
Expression of Thanks 67
Annex: Safe Online Portfolio Results 2021 68
INTRODUCTION

1
INTRODUCTION

About the End Violence Partnership

The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children (End Violence Partnership) is the only global
partnership and the largest fund dedicated solely to ending all forms of violence against children. Launched
by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2016, the End Violence Partnership is a global coalition of more
than 700 organisations across every continent and from every sector.

The Partnership brings together governments, UN entities, civil society organisations, faith networks, private
sector, philanthropy, research and academic institutions, children and young people and adult survivors
of childhood violence – all united to stop childhood violence, abuse and exploitation. Over 80 per cent of
partners are civil society organisations, large and small, working to protect children in their communities. The
Partnership is supported by:

The End Violence Secretariat (End Violence): A small team based mostly in New York and Geneva that
manages the day-to-day delivery of the Partnership’s mission and priority strategies.

The End Violence Fund: A flexible funding channel that enables donors to invest in new strategies that
protect children and build a stronger evidence-base to guide future policies and programmes. Since 2016,
the Fund has awarded over US$62 million to 52 organisations with impact in over 70 countries. The Fund
has three investment priorities:

Safe Online: preventing and responding to child online violence, abuse and exploitation.

Safe to Learn: reducing violence in and through schools.

Safe at Home and in Communities: promoting positive parenting programmes, ending corporal
punishment and ensuring that children are safe wherever they live, learn and play.

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INTRODUCTION

Letter from the Board Co-chairs

Building on years of tireless effort and progress
by so many individuals and organisations, the
movement to end violence against children grows
stronger every year. Partners, networks and
advocates are working together like never before,
and recent commitments offer hope – including G7
leaders’ recent commitment to accelerate action to
We are living through a turbulent time for humanity. tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The world is grappling with the simultaneous crises
of COVID-19, climate change, conflicts and rises Violence against children can no longer be ignored.
in the cost of essential commodities that will push We can and must end the pain and suffering that too
large numbers of people into hardship and poverty. many children have experienced for too long, so that
Many of these crises are interrelated; all of them it will not be experienced by future generations.
put children at greater risk of violence, abuse and
The End Violence Partnership and community
exploitation.
are building on the foundations laid, awareness-
Around the world, half of all children have raised and momentum generated by all of us in
experienced violence in the last year. It takes place recent years.
in every country: at home, at school, online and in
Together, we must seize or co-create new
communities. Violence against children is a silent
opportunities to accelerate evidence-based action
epidemic that does not discriminate. It often has
to prevent and respond to child violence – and in
devastating consequences for each and every one
doing so reimagine and shape more just, inclusive
of the 1 billion children directly impacted each year,
and peaceful societies.
and for their family, community and the economy.
Let’s seize this moment together – with and for the
We know that violence against children is wrong,
world’s children.
and that it undermines all other investments in
children’s health, education and development. We
know that it makes economic sense to prevent Helle Thorning-Schmidt & Joy Phumaphi
it. We also know what works to stop it – and that End Violence Board Co-chairs
our actions must be informed by listening to and
working with children and with adult survivors of
childhood violence and abuse.

Let’s seize this moment

together – with and for
the world’s children.
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INTRODUCTION

Letter from the Executive Director

The Together to #ENDviolence campaign
continues to provide a platform for our many
partners to convene, share solutions, and drive
collective advocacy and action. For the first time
the end violence community aligned behind
In 2015, over 190 world leaders made an ambitious a set of policy proposals and is using them to
commitment to end all violence against children by advocate with one voice. And government-led,
2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 16.2). Multiple national policy dialogues were held around the
global crises now threaten to stall or even reverse world to assess progress, gaps, challenges and
recent progress to end violence against children. opportunities and agree on priorities, all informed
We must not let that happen. by the growing evidence-base of global best
practice to end violence against children; and
Building on five years of collaboration and
progress that has created an enabling environment Development of a new Partnership Strategy
for change, the End Violence Partnership and that recognises the urgent need to mobilise the
community are well-positioned to not only help collective strength of partners large and small in
prevent a reversal of recent gains, but to find new protecting children during an era of heightened
ways to sustain and accelerate progress. risks. The strategy includes a renewed
Partnership vision, mission and impact statement,
By showcasing progress across the priority initiatives as well as an updated theory of change and
of the Partnership during 2021, and the related core values.
achievements of partners, this report shows us how
progress happens. Highlights include: We were also encouraged in 2021 by other
significant developments and signs of progress,
Five more governments committing to including:
comprehensive national action to end all violence
against children as Pathfinding countries; China, home to more than 300 million children,
publishing a new plan committing to prevent all
Support to set up two innovative national Safe forms of violence against children;
Online centres; new research to inform some of
the world’s largest technology companies design Australia’s announcement of a 10-year plan to
safer products/platforms; and $21 million of new tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse, with
funding to tackle online child sexual exploitation allocated funding for the first 4 years;
and abuse through scaling technology solutions,
strengthening systems, and funding research to Traditional, religious and civil society leaders
fill the evidence gap; across Africa collaborating with the African Union
Commission and UN Women’s Spotlight Initiative
An ambitious new Safe to Learn strategy to take bold action to end child marriage, female
underpinned by a World Bank investment case genital mutilation and other harmful practices;
setting out the economic returns from ending
violence in schools; G7 Interior Ministers’ groundbreaking
commitment to tackle child sexual exploitation
A new interagency Global Initiative to and abuse; and
Support Parents;
A nascent movement of adult survivors of
23 million more children protected by law from childhood sexual violence, organising to
corporal punishment in Colombia and the advocate for Prevention, Healing and Justice
Republic of Korea; (launched in 2022 as the Brave Movement).
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INTRODUCTION

All told, we’re starting to see the sort of leadership

attention, traction and action that the end violence
community has long sought and called for. There is,
of course, a long way to go. But with a Partnership
of more than 700 organisations aligned around a
shared vision, informed by a common strategy built
on evidence of what works, and speaking powerfully
with one voice, we have what it takes to bring about
the step-change we all want for children.

A very big thank you to all our partners, donors

and governing body members for their continued
support, collaboration and tireless efforts to end
all violence against children. We look forward
to working with and supporting you until every
child grows up in a safe, secure and nurturing
environment.

Dr. Howard Taylor

Executive Director, End Violence Partnership

Every child
safe at
home, at
school,
online and
within their
community UN0539121

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INTRODUCTION

End Violence Partnership

2022-24 Strategy
CORE VALUES
Rights focused | Child centred | Universal and inclusive | Gender transformative | Evidence-based

VISION IMPACT MISSION

A world in which every girl Significantly reduced levels Power the global movement to
and every boy grows up in of violence against children, end violence against children,
a safe, secure and nurturing including the most vulnerable, driving progress towards the
environment in all settings by 2030 SDGs and contributing to the
success of Agenda 2030

KEY RESULT AREAS

Strategic pillars that anchor our work as a Partnership for all

Collective, Collective, evidence- Significant and

focused advocacy based action sustained financing

CHILD-CENTRED ENVIRONMENTS
The daily settings where children need protection so they can grow up:

Safe to learn Safe at home and in Safe online

communities*

DRIVERS OF CHANGE
Key factors necessary for the Partnership to succeed:

Greater global attention Enhanced cross-sectoral Improved collection,

and awareness on the collaboration and whole- management and use
issues of VAC society approach of VAC evidence,
research, evaluations and
prevalence data

Strenghtened government Capacity building for more Sustained investment from

accountability and effective and coordinated governments, philanthropy
ownership evidence-based solutions and the private sector,
including through a flexible
End Violence Fund

*Includes a child’s physical community, institutions (other than school) and religious, sporting and other such communities.

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INTRODUCTION

In the 2019-21 strategic period, the End Violence Partnership saw a growth in demand for evidence-based
solutions for ending violence against children. This is illustrated by the steady stream of countries wishing to
become Pathfinders, stronger visibility of the issue in high-level policy discourse and leadership events, the
wider reach of our communication assets, and the surge of membership applications.

By the end of 2021, the End Violence Fund had invested more than US$62 million in projects with impact
in over 70 countries since the Partnership’s launch in 2016. Additionally, the End Violence Partnership
continues to make the investment case for significant new domestic and international finance to end
violence against children. To date, just 12 Pathfinding countries have fully funded national action plans to
end violence against children.

With the launch of the End Violence Knowledge Platform in 2020 and the implementation of innovative
child protection solutions by our grantees, the Partnership has helped to equip practitioners in the field
of violence prevention with tools and resources and provided opportunities for capacity building. During
the COVID-19 pandemic, the Partnership’s role as a global collaboration hub and a credible source
of information and resources became critical in addressing the heightened safety needs of children
and families.

New 2022-24 Strategy

The Partnership’s new strategy for 2022-24 prioritises collective, evidence-based advocacy, action and
financing to end all forms of violence against children. Grounded in the Partnership’s mission and core
values, the new strategy sets a compelling vision of “a world in which every girl and every boy grows up in
a safe, secure and nurturing environment.” The environments where childhood violence occurs – in homes,
schools, communities and online – provide a practical framework for legal, policy and programmatic
solutions relevant to each environment.

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PART ONE
2021 AT-A-GLANCE

8
PART ONE

Investing for Impact

Over 700 organisations are now partners of the End Violence Partnership,
up from 550 in 2020.

86 partners convened 77 affiliate events through the End Violence

Partnership’s Together to #ENDviolence campaign and Solutions Summit Series. As part of the
campaign, End Violence convened global experts to develop six evidence-based
policy proposals to accelerate progress and enable the Partnership to
advocate with one voice.

37 countries are now Pathfinders, up from 32 in 2020. Of those, 21

countries have convened national policy dialogues to further their
commitment to comprehensive action to end all forms of violence against children.

US$21 million in new grants will help build capacities across the globe to
protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse via
the Safe Online initiative.

14 major organisations align around an ambitious new Safe to Learn

strategy and a compelling investment case for keeping children safe in
and through schools.

23 million more children are now legally protected from corporal

punishment with Colombia and the Republic of Korea introducing new laws banning
corporal punishment in 2021.

63 countries have now fully prohibited corporal

punishment and a further 26 countries have committed to a full prohibition.

Positive parenting programmes were scaled up in Uganda and

Kenya to keep children safe during COVID-19.

End Violence website traffic grew by 50 per cent, Instagram followers by 36 per
cent, Twitter and Facebook followers by 21 per cent, newsletter subscribers by 20
per cent and and LinkedIn was launched.

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PART ONE

2021 Key Moments

Despite heightened risks to children due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the End Violence
Partnership celebrated some critical gains in 2021 that demonstrate growing global momentum and
progress to end all violence against children by 2030.

Governments, civil society organisations, UN agencies, donors, children and survivors of violence took
collective action and made new commitments to ensure that children can grow up safe, secure and nurtured.

January The Republic of Korea becomes the 62nd country to fully prohibit corporal punishment.

The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is launched to fund innovative research
that can impact relevant policy and product development to tackle online child sexual
abuse and exploitation.

March The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child incorporates children’s rights in digital
environments into its larger framework by adopting ‘General Comment 25’ – for the first
time placing responsibility on countries and business to address online risks to children.

April Papua New Guinea and Kenya become the 33rd and 34th Pathfinding countries.

Colombia becomes the 63rd country to fully prohibit corporal punishment.

May Jordan, Ethiopia and Guinea become the 35th, 36th and 37th Pathfinding countries.

End Violence launches a Country Dashboard to showcase Pathfinding countries’

commitments towards ending violence against children and monitor progress made
under critical areas.

The World Health Assembly passes a resolution on ending violence against children
through health systems strengthening and multisectoral approaches, with support
from over 60 member states. The resolution emphasises that the health sector is key to
identifying, preventing and responding to violence against children across the world.

June The Global Initiative to Support Parents is launched, with a Call to Action urging
increased investment and scale-up of evidence-based initiatives to support caregivers.

July End Violence partners align around six game-changing policy proposals supported
by a leaders’ statement endorsed by over 50 international leaders and 289 partner
organisations. The policy proposals cover multiple forms of violence against children
and the varied environments in which violence occurs. Partners are collaboratively
promoting these policy proposals to secure their adoption and implementation by
national governments and other key actors.

The World Bank and End Violence launch Ending Violence in Schools: An Investment
Case, demonstrating the fiscal benefits of investing in interventions to prevent violence
in and through schools.

A new three-year Safe to Learn strategy is launched with endorsement of 14

collaborating partners working on a shared vision and path for creating safer
learning environments.

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PART ONE

September G7 ministers make a groundbreaking commitment to tackle child sexual abuse

and exploitation, including through investment in and support for the End Violence
Partnership and Fund.

In Wales, the government invests £2.2 million in a national campaign to raise public
awareness about corporal punishment and support positive parenting. The country’s law
prohibiting corporal punishment came into effect in March 2022.

October ASEAN states adopt the Regional Plan of Action for the Protection of Children from
All Forms of Online Exploitation and Abuse in ASEAN and the Declaration on the
Elimination of Bullying of Children in ASEAN to enable collaborative evidence-based
action in addressing various forms of violence across the region.

November Australia announces a 10-year national strategy for the prevention of child sexual
abuse and pledges AU$146 million for the plan’s first four years, which will include
strengthened law enforcement measures and support for survivors.

December The United States Department of Justice announces grants of over $140 million
to help protect children from exploitation, trauma and abuse, including funding
improvements in the judicial handling of child abuse and neglect cases.

By end-2021, Australia, Cambodia, Ghana, Nepal and Ukraine had passed legislative
acts to strengthen online safety and protect children from online abuse and exploitation.

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PART TWO
PROGRESS
AGAINST PRIORITIES

12
PART TWO

The End Violence Partnership is a unique public-private coalition that works to strengthen countries and
organisations across the world to achieve the global goal of ending all violence, abuse and exploitation of
children by 2030. It does this through collective advocacy, action, and investment to ensure that every girl
and boy can grow up in safe, secure and nurturing environments.

Together to #ENDviolence
The Partnership works to catalyse the political and financial commitments needed to end violence
against children by 2030. The Together to #ENDviolence campaign and Solutions Summit Series was
launched in December 2020 to raise awareness, share solutions, and accelerate action and investment
to end all violence against children.

The Together to #ENDviolence campaign provides our 700 partners with a global platform to elevate ending
violence against children on the global agenda, showcase solutions, bring together diverse capabilities and
agree on strategies to drive collective advocacy and action.

2021 Achievements
One movement, one voice

An important achievement during 2021 was the alignment of the Together to #ENDviolence partners
around six policy proposals to end violence against children, a first for the end violence community. These
proposals are backed by evidence, research and experience of what really works, and they will guide the
partnership’s 2022-24 strategy.

The six policy proposals are to:

1. Ban all forms of violence against children by 2030.

2. Equip parents and caregivers to keep children safe.

3. Make the internet safe for children.

4. Makes schools safe, non-violent and inclusive.

5. Protect children from violence in humanitarian settings.

6. More investment, better spent.

To support the policy proposals, a Leaders’ Statement was signed by over 50 international leaders and
endorsed by 289 organisations. A Children’s Manifesto developed by child networks was also launched.
Delivered by 15-year-old Thiago from Brazil, it speaks on behalf of children everywhere.

As my friends and child leaders from Kenya, Yemen and Uganda shared…
children and adolescents in many countries around the world suffer
violence. It ruins our lives and our futures – and is not acceptable
Thiago, 15, Brazil

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PART TWO

Strengthening the movement, accelerating change

Since its launch in December 2020, the Together to #ENDviolence campaign has sparked national
dialogues on evidence-based solutions, inspired new leadership commitments and built global momentum
for new investment. In 2021 alone, 21 government-led national policy dialogues were held and 15 formal
statements were submitted to prioritise ending violence against children on national government agendas.

Also in 2021, 77 affiliate events were convened by 86 partners, including over 40 civil society organisations,
12 United Nations agencies and 11 governments to build momentum across all regions of the world.

One such event was the Together to #ENDviolence spotlight session at the Global Forum for Children
and Youth in December 2021, that brought together compelling testimonies from children and survivors of
violence alongside international leaders from government and civil society – all united by a shared vision of
a world without violence and a commitment to work together to accelerate progress.

UN0528348

The virtual nature of the events enabled inclusive participation, connecting people across borders,
encouraging collaborative action and building enduring networks and knowledge bases. The many affiliate
events hosted via the Together to #ENDviolence campaign, supported by ongoing advocacy, helped
achieve the following objectives:

1. Prioritise the issue of ending violence against children globally for COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 policy,
planning and financing.

2. Showcase cost-effective, evidence-based solutions that can be scaled up as governments and societies
build back better and safer for children.

3. Secure new political and funding commitments to begin closing the political and financing gap to end all
forms of violence against children by 2030.

4. Bring the End Violence community together to strengthen and unite the movement.

The Together to #ENDviolence campaign culminated in a Leaders’ Event in June 2022 at which heads of
government and other stakeholders shared commitments to end violence against children.

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PART TWO

Pathfinding
The End Violence Partnership helps Pathfinding countries to transform their commitments to end
violence against children into tangible progress.
Pathfinding countries are those whose government leaders make a formal, public commitment to
comprehensive national action to end all forms of violence against children. This includes committing to five
actions within the first 18 months of becoming an End Violence Pathfinding country:
1. Appoint a senior government focal point to lead the process.
2. Convene and support a multi-stakeholder group.
3. Collect and analyse data on violence against children.
4. Develop an evidence-based, budgeted national action plan that sets commitments for three to five years
and a related resource mobilisation plan.
5. Consult with children and adhere to partnership standards on child participation.
The End Violence Partnership helps Pathfinding countries to achieve key milestones, providing them with
a platform from which to learn, and supporting their scale-up of INSPIRE, a suite of seven evidence-based
solutions to guide policies and programmes.

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PART TWO

What are the INSPIRE strategies?

INSPIRE is a set of seven evidence-based strategies for countries and communities working to
eliminate violence against children. Created by 10 agencies with a long history of child protection work
— including WHO, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control — INSPIRE serves as a technical
package and guidebook for comprehensive programming to combat violence against children.

1. IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS

INSPIRE encourages laws that ban violent punishment of children by parents, caregivers,
teachers and other adults, along with laws criminalising perpetrators of sexual abuse and
exploitation of children. INSPIRE also shows that laws preventing alcohol misuse and youth
access to firearms and other weapons are proven to decrease violence.

2. NORMS AND VALUES

INSPIRE emphasises the importance of changing harmful societal norms, which can target
gender, ability level, age and other indicators. INSPIRE provides examples of effective
community mobilisation and bystander intervention programmes.

3. SAFE ENVIRONMENTS
INSPIRE demonstrates that addressing “hotspots” in communities leads to reductions in
violence against children. Making environments safer can halt the spread of violence throughout
a community.

4. PARENT AND CAREGIVER SUPPORT

To truly stop violence against children, parents and caregivers must be engaged. INSPIRE
provides ways of doing so, including home visits, group activities in community settings, and
other evidence-based programmes.

5. INCOME AND ECONOMIC STRENGTHENING

Violence can often be prevented if a family’s financial status improves. INSPIRE outlines
interventions that strengthen families’ economic standing, including cash transfers, group
savings and loans, and microfinance. Combining economic programmes with gender equity
training leads to stronger results.

6. RESPONSE AND SUPPORT SERVICES

INSPIRE provides examples of effective counselling and therapeutic approaches, treatment
programmes for juvenile offenders, and screening combined with interventions. It also includes
foster care interventions for existing social welfare services.

7. EDUCATION AND LIFE SKILLS

INSPIRE provides recommendations to increase enrolment in preschools, primary schools
and secondary schools, and relays the importance of safe, enabling school environments. By
increasing children’s knowledge about violence and sexual exploitation, children are less likely
to become victims of abuse.

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 PART TWO

2021 Achievements
Despite the pressing priorities that vied for government attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Partnership made solid progress in securing political commitments to end violence against children. This
was achieved by promoting the issue as relevant, relating it to multiple development outcomes, and
demonstrating that it is a cost-effective investment.

Five new Pathfinding countries

In 2021, five new Pathfinding countries – Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Jordan and Papua New Guinea –
joined the End Violence Partnership, bringing the number of Pathfinders to 37. Of these, 21 convened
government-led national policy dialogues to further their commitment to comprehensive action to end
all forms of violence against children. With a steady demand from governments to become Pathfinding
countries, the End Violence Partnership continues to expand its impact, turning government commitment
into tangible progress1 and sharing lessons-learned between Pathfinding countries so that each benefits
from others’ experience.

INSPIRE Working Group

The End Violence Partnership worked with the INSPIRE working group2 to develop and launch new tools to
help accelerate violence prevention, support country implementation and document progress.

The INSPIRE Adaptation and Scale-Up Guide aims to ensure that in the adaptation and scale-up of
violence against children prevention programmes, interventions are aligned to existing evidence and are
part of each country’s national action plan. In developing the adaptation and scale-up guide, the INSPIRE
Working Group engaged intensively with government officials in Cambodia, Colombia, Philippines and
Uganda to ensure that the content is relevant and engaging.

The INSPIRE Training of Trainers package is designed to help people to implement key approaches from
the INSPIRE strategies within their work.

The INSPIRE Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is freely available online to everyone and provides
an interactive approach to learning about the seven strategies and the interventions within each one.

In 2021, the End Violence Pathfinding team together with partners3 created new episodes for an End
Violence Podcast series entitled Inspiring Ways to End Violence Against Children with a focus on
implementing solutions and protecting children during COVID-19. The series was originally launched
in 2020 featuring experts from Honduras, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa describing the gains
and challenges related to implementing programmes mentioned in INSPIRE. Throughout the COVID-19
pandemic, to help partners in their efforts to reduce violence against children, the INSPIRE Working
Group and WHO also initiated a series of eight training webinars (December 2020 to April 2021) to give
all INSPIRE stakeholders an opportunity to get detailed insights into each of the seven strategies and the
cross-cutting elements.

In order to reflect on the ongoing progress, WHO also published INSPIRE: seven strategies for ending
violence against children: uptake between 2016 and 2021 which documents 140,000 downloads of the
technical package and activities in 67 countries.

1
In Pathfinding countries, UNICEF country offices provide technical support to governments while civil society organisations collaborate with various partners on
the ground.
2
Working group members representing more than 200 organisations meet regularly to discuss their efforts to scale up use of the seven strategies identified in the
INSPIRE framework within Pathfinding countries.
3
End Violence Pathfinding team and host Dr Catherine M Maternowska teamed up with Save the Children, Terre des hommes’ COVIDunder19 initiative, and the Institute
for Inspiring Children’s Futures, COVID 4P Log project from the University of Strathclyde to launch six new episodes.

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PART TWO

East Asia and Pacific countries strengthen commitments to end violence

In November 2021, government leaders and representatives from 25 countries in East Asia and the
Pacific identified actions that must be taken to end violence against children following a five-day INSPIRE
conference. Another five countries launched their national action plans to end violence against children.
A highlight of the conference was the young participants who convincingly declared that ending violence
against children must be an integral part of the COVID-19 recovery plan.

INSPIRE Regional Conference in South America

More than 120 partners from 10 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay,
Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) came together to exchange and learn from promising practices to end
violence against children being implemented in the region. Through a series of participatory webinars,
partakers also discussed the challenges, opportunities and achievements from their respective countries.

The objective of the Conference was to increase local uptake of INSPIRE strategies by strengthening the
capacity of practitioners from government, civil society and international organisations to choose, adapt and
implement key approaches.

The workshop was organised by the members of the INSPIRE LAC group UNICEF LACRO, End Violence,
PAHO, Save the Children, Plan International, CDC, Together for Girls, UNODC, USAID and World Bank.

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Pathfinding Learning Exchange Series

A webinar series provided technical guidance to Pathfinding countries seeking to develop and implement
National Action Plans to end violence against children. The learning exchanges connected Pathfinding
countries with each other and with experts, researchers and civil society organisations, to enable the
exchange of experiences and solutions.

National Action Plans

Developing, implementing and evaluating a national action plan are key milestones of the Pathfinding
process. In 2021, four existing Pathfinding countries launched their national action plans: Colombia, Finland,
Honduras and Japan, with more countries to follow. End Violence supported the UNICEF Cambodia office
and the Government of Cambodia in evaluating Cambodia’s National Action Plan 2017-21.
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PART TWO

Safe at Home and in Communities

End Violence focuses on investment in parent support programmes and the prohibition of corporal
punishment to keep children safe at home and in the communities.
Families want the best for their children, but they face many challenges including a lack of resources,
support and accurate information, which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the
End Violence Partnership invested in new efforts to help parents and caregivers to adopt positive parenting
strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This included ending corporal punishment – the
widespread use of violent forms of child punishment.

Parenting
The End Violence Partnership aims to increase investment in evidence-based parent support programmes
across the globe to help end violence against children in low-and middle-income countries.
The End Violence Pathfinding team collaborated with Parenting for Lifelong Health4 to develop, test and
evaluate positive parenting programmes. Results from control trials in various countries indicate this
approach to be highly effective. The focus in 2021 was to adapt and widely disseminate the programmes in
Uganda and Kenya during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In Kenya, the programmes are being adopted
by the government as part of the national Parenting Programme and incorporated into development plans at
subnational levels.

2021 Achievements
Global Initiative to Support Parents
End Violence is a founding member of the Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP), an interagency vision
established to increase global support for parents and caregivers. It aims to push forward a collective action
framework that calls for increased investment in evidence-based parent support initiatives across the globe.

Positive Parenting in Kenya and Uganda

Uganda and Kenya are two End Violence Pathfinding countries committed to ending violence against
children. To implement the positive parenting programme, the End Violence Partnership and Parenting
for Lifelong Health worked closely with UNICEF Uganda, UNICEF Kenya, Makerere University and other
organisations. Implementation occurred in two phases:
Phase one (up to December 2021) focused on strengthening government coordination and leadership to
develop a national parenting manual and associated training materials. This phase secured the necessary
consensus and harmonised national policies with the positive parenting programmes, paving the way for
phase two.
Phase two (from January 2022) will focus on disseminating parenting programmes to provide caregivers
with the tools and strategies they need to build positive parenting skills. This is achieved through frontline
workers – from government, faith-based and civil society organisations – that reach deep into communities.
This work was made possible with generous support from the Government of Japan.

A collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Clowns Without Borders South Africa, Mikhulu Trust, and the
4

Universities of Oxford, Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Bangor.

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PART TWO

Safe Online
The End Violence Partnership’s Safe Online initiative is placing online child safety at the heart of key
policy debates and investing in technology solutions and national capacities to address online harms
to children.

Currently, one in three internet users globally is a child. Of all the risks children face in the digital world,
the most critical is online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). At any given moment, an estimated
750,000 individuals are looking to connect with children online for sexual purposes. With 800 million
children actively using social media, this can have devastating consequences. There are currently more
than 46 million unique images and videos of child sexual abuse material in EUROPOL’s repository alone. Of
these, 92 per cent depict children under 13.

Very few built-in safeguards exist to protect children in digital environments. That’s why End Violence
invests in building capacities, systems and technology solutions to tackle online harms to children,
generates knowledge and evidence on what works, and raises awareness and advocates for policies and
regulations to make the internet safe for children. For more details, see Annex 1: Safe Online Investment
Portfolio Results.

2021 Achievements
G7 Governments commit to protecting children from child sexual abuse online

It was a pivotal moment for the End Violence Partnership when in June 2021, G7 Governments committed
to accelerate action and increase investments to tackle online CSEA. The governments highlighted the End
Violence Partnership as key to maximising collective impact to make the internet safe for children.

Children’s rights in the digital environment

In March 2021, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted General Comment
25, a landmark step towards ensuring children’s rights in the digital environment. This places responsibility
on countries and businesses to take action to address online risks to children and is a historical achievement
for all those working to protect children online. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified
by 196 countries, more than any other human rights treaty. End Violence and partners jointly issued a
statement calling on all countries to implement the CRC’s General Comment 25.

Experts united to protect children online

During 2021, End Violence elevated the issue of CSEA at over 30 public forums, including the RightsCon
Summit and through technical panels at the ISPCAN Milan Congress 2021. At these forums, experts, such
as those from INTERPOL and the Council of Europe, shared the latest developments in all aspects of child
safety online. These events and technical meetings influence professionals and policymakers to prioritise
child online safety in policies, regulations, budgets and business practices.

Safer Internet Day: Social media campaign reaching millions

The End Violence Partnership celebrated Safer Internet Day on 9 February 2021 with a social media
advocacy campaign that reached millions, creating a 380 per cent surge in visitors to the End Violence
website. The campaign used visual materials and statistics to raise awareness of increased online violence
against children during COVID-19. The campaign offered solutions and shared resources to keep children
safe online and encouraged people to spread the word.

20
PART TWO

Disrupting Harm in Uganda and Kenya

Disrupting Harm is a large-scale research project, funded by End Violence, which aims to better understand
how digital technology facilitates the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. The centrepiece of
Disrupting Harm is 13 detailed national assessments, one for each participating country. In 2021, Kenya and
Uganda launched their national assessments, including a roadmap and initiatives to tackle the issue. The
remaining 11 studies drafted in 2021 will be launched throughout 2022. Critical findings are emerging from
the research that challenge long-held assumptions. For more details, see Annex 1: Safe Online Investment
Portfolio Results.

Safe Online grantees

Since its launch in 2016, the End Violence Fund has supported 60 projects working to protect children
from sexual exploitation and abuse online. This has had a direct impact in over 70 countries and was made
possible by contributions from the UK Home Office, Oak Foundation and Human Dignity Foundation. For
more details, see Annex 1: Safe Online Investment Portfolio Results.

Building Safe Online National Centres in Cambodia and Colombia

End Violence contributed US$3 million to enable Cambodia and Colombia to establish the first Safe Online
National Centres in Southeast Asia and Latin America. The centres build on a European model and will
potentially serve as regional models. Both projects aim to strengthen the countries’ capacity, capability
and infrastructure to adopt technology solutions and ensure international and cross-sector collaboration,
including the engagement of industry.

UNI313406

Researching actionable solutions for the technology industry

The Tech Coalition (Project Protect) and End Violence teamed up in 2021 to establish the Tech Coalition
Safe Online Research Fund. The Fund has awarded grants to five organisations conducting innovative
research that will inform product and policy development to protect children online. Specifically, research
will help inform the technology industry’s approach to combating online CSEA by increasing understanding
and tools for grooming detection, supply-side offending, offender help-seeking behaviour and support
to content moderators. Three of the research projects have a global reach, and two of them focus on the
Philippines and Colombia.
For example, one project led by the Universidad de los Andes in partnership with Programa Aulas en Paz
will use artificial intelligence strategies and tools to study the language and patterns of interactions between
potential and current offenders of online CSEA and current or potential victims of such violence.
End Violence will conduct a second round of research funding in 2022 to further support actionable
research that will lead to real and lasting change for children’s digital safety.
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PART TWO

Launch of new investment round to build capacity in three important areas

In 2021, the End Violence Safe Online initiative launched three new grant opportunities totalling US$21
million. These will fund organisations working to tackle online CSEA through:

Open-source technology solutions: The development of open-source technology solutions, such as

artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science, to make the internet safer for children.

Systemic change: Building national capacity to make the internet safe for children focusing on two
regions: Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia.

Evidence: Collaboration to scale up data collection in three additional regions to better understand how
digital technologies facilitate the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and how countries are tackling
the issue along with targeted roadmaps to improve national practices.

Providing COVID-19 assistance to our grantee community

End Violence hosted its 12th Global Knowledge Exchange Webinar in 2021, convening 60 Safe Online
grantees to discuss the latest data and trends regarding online CSEA during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Safe Online work was made possible with generous support from the United Kingdom Home Office,
Oak Foundation and Tech Coalition.

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22
PART TWO

End Corporal Punishment

End Violence is making prohibition of corporal punishment a priority on the global agenda and assisting
governments to implement corporal punishment prohibition.

Corporal punishment is the most common form of violence a child will face with four in every five children
aged 2-14 years experiencing violent punishment at the hands of their caregivers.5 Corporal punishment
is not limited to the home but takes place in schools and other institutions and settings as well. Prohibiting
corporal punishment in legislation removes any grey area about whether physical punishment of children
is acceptable. In most countries, this gives children equal protection under the law on assault as adults.
Worldwide, 63 countries have banned all corporal punishment of children, but entrenched attitudes and
practices continue to put children at risk, and 86 per cent of the world’s children are still not protected
by law.

The goal of the End Violence Partnership is universal prohibition of corporal punishment by 2030. End
Violence is working to achieve this through:

Generating and sharing evidence to support prohibition of corporal punishment.

Providing nations with technical support to implement the prohibition of corporal punishment.

Advocating to ensure that ending corporal punishment remains a priority on the global agenda.

In 2021, the End Violence Partnership made significant progress towards the goal.

2021 Achievements
Growing support for universal prohibition of corporal punishment

Over 600 organisations and individuals have endorsed the #EndCorporalPunishment Call to Action. This
statement supports universal prohibition of corporal punishment by calling for urgent national action.

International Day to #EndCorporalPunishment

The End Violence Partnership celebrated the first International Day to #EndCorporalPunishment in April
2021 with a high-level conference co-sponsored by the Governments of France, Japan and Tunisia.
The event brought together 430 individuals from 75 countries to share evidence from academia, learnings
from governments, experiences of young people and insights from civil society. End Violence ran a social
media campaign to amplify the call to #EndCorporalPunishment, involving 79 countries and reaching 24
million people.

The tradition of violence has been passed down from generation to

generation. This needs to be stopped and redefined – right now.
Ericka, an 18-year-old youth activist from the Philippines

5
Hidden In Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, UNICEF, 2014, p.96

23
PART TWO

Sharing evidence and technical guidance through public forums

The End Violence Partnership shared evidence at public forums throughout 2021 to support the prohibition
of corporal punishment, and presented technical guidance on prohibiting corporal punishment of children at
the ISPCAN World Summit 2021.

Knowledge exchange

During 2021, the End Violence Partnership published four new resource materials to share with policymakers
and partner organisations to help achieve the prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment:

1. Prohibiting all corporal punishment of children: A country-by-country analysis of corporal

punishment laws.

2. Implementation guidance: Five steps from the prohibition of corporal punishment through to its practical
elimination.

3. Corporal punishment of children: A summary of its impacts and associations.

4. Ending corporal punishment in the early years of childhood: Consequences of violence on the cognitive
and socio-emotional development of young children.

Colombia and the Republic of Korea prohibit corporal punishment

In 2021, Colombia and the Republic of Korea prohibited corporal punishment, protecting by law an additional
23 million children from violent punishment in all settings, including at home and school. The US Virgin
Islands and the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, also prohibited corporal punishment in schools. A total
of 63 countries have now fully prohibited corporal punishment, up from 61 in 2020. Another 26 countries,
including China and Mexico, have committed to a full prohibition, demonstrating global momentum towards
ending corporal punishment against children.

The Partnership’s End Corporal Punishment initiative is leading advocacy for legal prohibition to eliminate
violent punishment of children, and was pleased to support these governments through the process
with technical advice, campaign support, translated resources, commentary on the new laws and their
implementation, and by publicising the new prohibition internationally.

A ban on the corporal punishment of children by their parents is the most

fundamental stipulation preventing child abuse.
Government of the Republic of Korea

Implementing the INSPIRE strategies in East Asia and the Pacific

In November 2021, the End Violence Partnership together with the Government of Mongolia, Terre des
Hommes and Love Does Not Hurt delivered a technical workshop, titled Ending corporal punishment:
creative and cultural approaches to upholding children’s human rights, to strengthen the implementation of
INSPIRE strategies in the East Asia and Pacific sub-region and encourage countries’ commitment towards
the prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment of children. A briefing published by the End Violence
Partnership, Progress towards prohibiting corporal punishment of children in ASEAN member states,
provided attendees with a summary of the progress made by each ASEAN state towards the prohibition and
elimination of corporal punishment. It demonstrated the breadth of the problem, identified opportunities and
laid out five steps for moving from the prohibition to complete elimination of corporal punishment.

24
PART TWO

Safe to Learn
End Violence and the Safe to Learn coalition advocate for violence prevention to be embedded in
education systems. End Violence partners lead by example and work together to help countries create
and sustain the conditions for safe learning for all girls, boys and children in all their diversity.

An estimated 246 million girls and boys experience violence in and around school every year. That violence
takes many forms, including peer-to-peer bullying, attacks on schools, sexual exploitation, including by
teachers, and corporal punishment. Almost half of all school-aged children (about 720 million) live in
countries where corporal punishment in schools is not prohibited.6 End Violence cross-functional teams
work to build synergies to ensure the full prohibition and elimination of violent punishment against children,
whether at home, in the community or in schools and other learning environments.

End Violence is dedicated to ending violence in and through schools and other learning environments. It is
backed by a powerful coalition of partners representing education, child protection, violence prevention and
health communities that are working together to have violence prevention mechanisms embedded within
education systems worldwide. The Safe to Learn initiative builds political will while supporting local level
action by raising awareness, supporting diagnostic exercises, convening national dialogues, and financing
evidence-based interventions that support the implementation of the Safe to Learn Call to Action.

2021 Achievements
New Safe to Learn strategy (2021-24)

In May 2021, 14 Safe to Learn partners endorsed a new three-year strategy which leverages the diverse
expertise of the partners. Aligning the Safe to Learn coalition in this way enables it to work collaboratively
to build safer learning environments. The strategy focuses on two areas – country engagement and global
advocacy – and aims to create systemic change by strengthening the authorising environment to prioritise
violence prevention and response mechanisms in education systems worldwide. It includes a Gender
Technical Note promoting a common understanding of the gender transformative approach of Safe to Learn
in the context of the new strategy, and a results framework with which to assess Safe to Learn progress.

UN0347937

6
An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in schools, UNICEF, 2018, p.3

25
PART TWO

An Investment case for ending violence in schools

Developed with technical support from the World Bank, Ending Violence in Schools: An Investment Case is
a cost-benefit analysis demonstrating that violence in and around schools negatively impacts educational
outcomes. Society pays a heavy price as a result with a global estimate of US$11 trillion in lost lifetime
earnings. The investment case was launched with a supporting document, Selected Findings, at the Global
Education Summit in July 2021. This report provides much-needed evidence and will strengthen advocacy
and action towards safer learning environments.

ASEAN commits to eliminate bullying

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a Declaration on the Elimination of Bullying
of Children in October 2021. End Violence presented the importance of adopting a whole school approach
at a Regional Workshop on Elimination of Bullying of Children. As a result of End Violence and other
speakers’ contributions, participants concluded that a whole school/whole education approach is a critical
way forward.

Safer schools in Uganda and Nepal

The End Violence Fund supported five Safe to Learn projects across Nepal and Uganda to strengthen
education systems by incorporating violence prevention and response policies and mechanisms to create
safer learning environments. The five grantees were Mercy Corps, Voluntary Services Overseas, and World
Education in Nepal, and Raising Voices and Right to Play in Uganda.

In Nepal, more than 55,000 students and young people were reached with messages and training about
prevention of and response to bullying, early child marriage, gender empowerment and life skills. In
Uganda, over 1,000 schools were equipped with new tools and approaches in preventing and responding to
violence. These included the development of codes of conduct and updating child safeguarding policies.

Global advocacy for safe learning environments

End Violence organised a range of global, regional and local events with partners and grantees to raise
awareness of violence prevention and response within education systems, and to provide guidance on how
to create safer and more inclusive learning environments. For example, a virtual event co-hosted with the
Coalition for Good Schools, on Preventing Violence Against Children In and Through Schools presented
research demonstrating the magnitude of violence against children together with guidance on how to
address it.

Knowledge exchange

During 2021, in addition to hosting regular Grantee Knowledge Exchange Webinars, End Violence published
four new resource materials. They included:

1. Lessons Learned Reports for South Sudan and Uganda that analyse the diagnostics process conducted
in those countries.

2. Qualitative research reports on three Safe to Learn projects in Nepal, assessing how the projects
accelerated progress towards the Call to Action.

3. Role of Children’s Clubs in Safeguarding of Children in Schools research report.

4. Are Schools Safe to Learn?, an event to raise awareness of the benefits of undertaking the Safe to Learn
diagnostics exercise and present the Global Programmatic Framing and Benchmarking Tool.

26
PART TWO

COVID response

Under the technical guidance of End Violence, each Safe to Learn grantee developed COVID
adaptation plans as part of their project implementation. Adaptations included the use of mass media
to amplify messaging, the shift of in-person training to online delivery or social distance modalities,
enhancing complaint and response mechanisms in communities and schools and the development of
a mobile app to enable continued monitoring and evaluation of project activities.

In East Asia and the Pacific, End Violence co-hosted with SEAMEO, UNICEF and UNESCO a
virtual session at the Regional INSPIRE Conference to raise awareness of violence prevention and
response in and through schools as an imperative for regional COVID-19 back-to-school and learning
recovery agendas.

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27
PART THREE
COUNTRY
ENGAGEMENT
CASE STUDIES

28
PART THREE

The hard work of building systems, implementing programmes and transforming social norms to protect
children from violence largely happens at the country level. It is here that the work of the End Violence
Partnership, working closely with governments and other partners, becomes real and tangible in the lives of
children. Each country faces its own unique challenges and opportunities on the journey to ending violence
against children. This section looks at how six countries gained traction in keeping children safe at home, at
school and online in 2021, with support from the End Violence Partnership and Fund.

Cambodia Costa Rica

Japan
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Jordan Kenya
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Sweden
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PART THREE

Cambodia
Violence against children was identified as a serious issue in Cambodia during a 2014 survey7 which found
that more than half of children were physically abused. A following study8 found that Cambodia lost at
least US$168 million in 2013, or 1.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), as a result of some of the
negative health impacts caused by violence against children.

The Royal Government of Cambodia became a Pathfinding country in 2019, committed to ending all forms
of violence against children. In 2021, the End Violence Partnership and UNICEF supported the Government
of Cambodia in evaluating the progress it has made in implementing the Cambodian Action Plan to Prevent
and Respond to Violence Against Children 2017-2021. The evaluation will inform development of the next
five-year Action Plan to end violence against children.

Following the evaluation, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation of Cambodia
organised a national policy dialogue via the Together to #ENDviolence campaign and Solutions Summit
Series. This provided an opportunity for other Pathfinding countries to identify key areas of progress, gaps
and priorities in scaling-up evidence-based strategies to end violence against children as informed by the
Global Status Report On Ending Violence Against Children 2020.

UN0367770

In addition to supporting Pathfinding in Cambodia, the End Violence Partnership is working to end corporal
punishment, make schools safe to learn, and end online child sexual abuse and exploitation.

7
Cambodia Violence Against Children Survey (2014).
8
The Economic Burden of the Health Consequences of Violence Against Children (2015).

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PART THREE

Although corporal punishment of children in Cambodia has been prohibited in schools, penal institutions
and as a sentence for crime, it is still lawful in the home, childcare and alternative care settings. According
to a study,9 most parents in Cambodia accept corporal punishment for children. Acceptance of corporal
punishment correlates with acceptance of intimate partner violence, particularly against women. Law reform
prohibiting corporal punishment in all settings was included in the Cambodian Action Plan to Prevent and
Respond to Violence Against Children 2017-21, however full prohibition is yet to be achieved.

In 2021, the End Violence Fund invested US$1.5 million to tackle online CSEA in Cambodia. The aim of the
project is to strengthen the country’s capacity to tackle the issue and ensure regional and cross-sector
collaboration, including the engagement of the tech industry, in addressing this problem.

End Violence also supported two technology focused projects aimed at building tech tools to prevent and
respond to online CSEA in Cambodia:

iCOP, an artificial intelligence (AI) software that detects child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is being
enhanced by a team of researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Lancaster. In collaboration with
the Cambodian Anti-Corruption Unit, iCOP2.0 will extend its reach in Southeast Asia and will support
law enforcement agencies to use the software and strengthen their response to online CSEA cases in
the country.

The University of Kent is using our grant to design two digital games for children to prevent online
CSEA and trafficking in Cambodia and Thailand. Both games will be piloted across schools in Cambodia
in 2022.

The End Violence Fund supported UNICEF Cambodia to provide technical assistance to the Cambodian
Government in the development of their National Action Plan to Prevent and Respond to Online Child Sexual
Exploitation 2021-25. In addition, Cambodia’s first Child Protection Information Management System was
launched in June 2021 and will track the country’s progress in child protection service delivery and provide
invaluable data that will inform new policy and action.

Through the End Violence Fund, Safe to Learn continues to support a safe learning project implemented by
Save the Children and its partners10 in Cambodia. Working closely with the Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sport (MoEYS), progress includes:

Strengthening of the Cambodian child protection policy framework through development and
dissemination of the Operational Manual on Child Protection in School (OMCP).

Support to the MoEYS in piloting the OMCP in target primary schools to establish school-based child
protection mechanisms.

Development of the INSPIRE technical training package and curriculum.

Support for the development of a data monitoring system.

Empowerment of girls, boys, non-binary students and children with disabilities through implementation of
self-protection and violence prevention activities, and the development of referral pathways.

9
The 2017 study found that 74 per cent of mothers and 57 per cent of fathers accepted corporal punishment of sons, while 70 per cent of mothers and 47 per cent of
fathers accepted corporal punishment of daughters.
10
Save the Children is working with a consortium of partners, including World Vision and Plan International.

31
 PART THREE

Costa Rica
The End Violence Fund is supporting the Fundación Paniamor to implement the CR-NEXST Initiative
(Costa Rica dice NO a la Explotación Sexual de niñas, niños y adolescentes en Tecnologías) to address
online CSEA. The initiative is under the leadership of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Science, Technology and
Telecommunications.

Progress in 2021 includes:

The launch of the 2021-27 National Strategy Against Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

A review of Costa Rica’s legislative framework to address the prevention and response to online CSEA.
The findings will be presented in 2022 to the National Commission of Online Security and will inform
the design of a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy that includes the right of children to be
protected in digital environments.

The development of the “Code E-mentores” in close partnership with key authorities and Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) providers. The Code establishes clear standards to ensure that digital
platforms are safe for children, not as an afterthought, but from the design stage.

Eight companies (six Internet Service Providers and two ICT companies) in Costa Rica are already part of
the E-mentores educational programme on child online safety. Since the start of the project in 2017, 1,733
public officers (1,200 in 2021) graduated as ‘E-mentores agents’ by completing a course on child online
safety and 11,588 children (3,898 in 2021) have access to child-friendly resources about online safety.

UNI322653

The End Violence Partnership’s Corporal Punishment initiative has also partnered with the Fundación
Paniamor to promote understanding of the prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment in the Latin
American region. Corporal punishment of children has been prohibited in Costa Rica since 2008. A 2009
study11 involving over 1,000 parents and carers found that 86.6 per cent knew of the ban on physical
and other humiliating punishment of children and nearly two thirds (64 per cent) agreed with the law. In
November 2021, End Violence shared the Costa Rican experience with other national governments during a
session at the ISPCAN World Summit.

11
Consejo Nacional de La Niñez y la Adolescencia & Pani (2009)

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PART THREE

Japan
The Government of Japan is committed to ending violence against children, not just within their own
borders, but globally. In 2018, Japan became a Pathfinding country, became a board member of the End
Violence Partnership, and contributed US$5.9 million to the End Violence Fund to assist with projects in
humanitarian settings.

In 2021 the Government of Japan with support from the End Violence Partnership:

Launched its National Action Plan to End Violence Against Children. It incorporates evidence-based
INSPIRE strategies and was developed collaboratively with a powerful multi-stakeholder12 partnership.

Committed US$1.39 million to help Pathfinding countries Uganda and Kenya to protect children
from violence by adopting evidence-based and cost-effective parenting programmes in the context
of COVID-19. The End Violence Partnership implemented the project in collaboration with UNICEF,
Parenting for Lifelong Health, Makerere University and others.

Co-hosted a high-level international webinar about prohibiting corporal punishment via the Together
to #ENDviolence campaign. This provided an opportunity for governments to share lessons from their
experience, for our partners to present evidence, for civil society organisations to share insights and
importantly, for youth to share their experiences. The event aimed to accelerate progress towards the
universal prohibition of corporal punishment and urged participants to view its elimination as an essential
step toward ending violence against children once and for all.

UNI104421

Corporal punishment against children was explicitly prohibited in Japan in 2020. Prior to the prohibition,
a 2017 survey conducted by Save the Children Japan found that 56.7 per cent of adults approved of
corporal punishment in Japan. By January 2021, that figure had dropped to 41 per cent. Most of those who
had changed their mind did so partly because they had learned about the negative impacts of corporal
punishment on children.

Participants included representatives from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology; the Ministry of
12

Justice, the National Police Agency, international and national NGOs, United Nations Agencies, the private sector and independent experts.

33
PART THREE

Jordan
The End Violence Partnership’s engagement in Jordan focused on the Pathfinding process, and the Safe
Online and Safe to Learn initiatives. 2021 was a year of great progress.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan made a formal and public commitment to end violence against children,
becoming the 35th End Violence Pathfinding country. This marks the beginning of the Pathfinding process in
Jordan through which the Government, supported by partners, will transform its commitments into tangible
progress towards ending violence against children.

To this end, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (SRSG-
VAC) Najat Maalla M’jid visited Jordan. During her visit, in coordination with the Partnership, the Government
launched a national study on violence against children to highlight community practices and attitudes on
the issue and to assess the most recent data on the prevalence of violence.13 The results of the study were
presented at a launch event. Both the launch event and the study were supported by UNICEF.

Currently, child corporal punishment is common and socially condoned in Jordan, with eight out of ten
children subjected to violent punishment. End Violence is monitoring prevalence and social attitudes in
Jordan, as well as progress towards ending corporal punishment in all settings. Corporal punishment is
prohibited in schools, penal institutions and as a sentence for crime, however it is still lawful in the home and
childcare settings.

Jordan’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention Unit (UPOCSE) continued their activities in 2021, in
partnership with UNICEF Jordan and with financial support by End Violence. This is the only unit of its kind
in the Arab world and is officially accredited by INTERPOL and linked to the International Child Sexual
Exploitation database. As the implementing partner, UNICEF Jordan has supported the introduction
of new technologies for obtaining forensic digital evidence. They also supported communications
campaigns to raise awareness of the online CSEA issue and to enable volunteers and community members
to identify them.

UNI227273

13
The study found that 75% of children aged 8-17 experienced at least one form of physical violence and 59% experienced at least one form of emotional violence.

34
PART THREE

The Ministry of Education of Jordan, UNICEF and End Violence finalised and launched the ‘Diagnostic Study
of National Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Violence in Schools in Jordan’, made possible thanks to the
generous support of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Key findings were
presented and discussed at a national roundtable attended by the Jordan Government, UNICEF, the UK
FCDO, End Violence and national and international civil society organisations. The study identifies best
practices, gaps and priorities, and establishes a baseline for tracking Jordan’s progress in implementing the
Safe to Learn Call to Action. It provides evidence on where Jordan stands at both the national-level and the
school-level in achieving progress under all five areas of the Call to Action and provides evidence-based
recommendations for each area.

UN0582439

Findings were also presented at a Together to #ENDviolence campaign affiliate event in November, where
the Governments of Uganda and South Sudan shared findings from their national Safe to Learn diagnostic
studies. The collaboration between End Violence, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and UNICEF Jordan
also resulted in the publication of the Safe to Learn diagnostic tool and interview guides in Arabic.
These were adapted to the Jordan context and can support other Arabic speaking countries in
conducting diagnostics as part of their efforts to prevent and respond to violence against children in
and around schools.

The global Safe to Learn diagnostic tool is a joint tool published by End Violence, resulting from a
meaningful collaboration between all Safe to Learn members under the technical leadership of UNICEF and
with significant contributions from UNESCO, the World Bank, UNGEI and UK FCDO.

35
PART THREE

Kenya
Kenya was one of the first countries to complete a Violence against Children and Youth Survey (VACS),
in 2010 and again in 2019. The VACS are led by national governments, with technical assistance from the
U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of the Together for Girls (TfG) partnership.
Since 2010, Kenya has worked to address risk factors for violence across multiple sectors. This resulted in
significant decreases in sexual, physical, and emotional violence against children between 2010 and 2019.14
However, the prevalence is still too high with 50 per cent of youth experiencing violence.

Based on these surveys, the Government of Kenya aims to reduce violence against children by a further
40 per cent. To achieve this, it has developed and launched a new National Prevention and Response Plan
on Violence Against Children in Kenya 2019-23 which is based on learnings from the previous response
plan and evidence-based strategies such as INSPIRE. Its implementation includes the development of a
monitoring and evaluation plan, cost estimates, a resource mobilisation plan and a communication strategy.
It will also provide parenting education.

In 2021, as part of this strong effort and commitment, Kenya became a Pathfinding country and is already
sharing its best practices and experiences with other Pathfinding countries.

In 2021, End Violence supported Kenya’s progress by:

Scaling up parenting programmes: The End Violence Partnership, with support from the Government of
Japan, supported the Government of Kenya, UNICEF and other partners to strengthen national systems
to adapt and scale up evidence-based, cost-effective parenting programmes. A multisectoral Technical
Working Group on the National Parenting Programme was established and has drafted National Parenting
Programme Guidelines and a National Parenting Manual.

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14
Sexual violence decreased by 50 per cent for girls and 66 per cent for boys. Physical violence decreased by 40 per cent for girls, 25 per cent for boys. Emotional
violence decreased by 50 per cent for girls, 80 per cent for boys.

36
PART THREE

Tackling online CSEA: The End Violence Fund invested US$1 million in Kenya through its Safe Online
initiative to tackle online CSEA, with UNICEF Kenya as the implementing partner. The project supports the
capacity of the national child helpline to respond to cases of online CSEA. The project also strengthened
Kenya’s collaboration with the National Council on Administration of Justice and the Anti-Human
Trafficking and Child Protection Unit. As a result, 52 magistrates and 28 prosecutors enhanced their
knowledge on child online safety and the role of the judicial officers in the successful prosecution of
cases.

Equipping the criminal justice system: The End Violence Fund provided financial support to its Safe
Online partners15 to deliver training to more than 30 Kenyan police officers, detectives, prosecutors and
judges, working on cybersecurity and child online safety. The training focused on the identification,
investigation and prosecution of online CSEA. Professionals from Kenya and around the world presented
good practices on how to navigate issues around child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the deep and dark
net, tech industry efforts and how they are working with law enforcement agencies to ensure children’s
safety online.

Generating evidence of online CSEA: The Disrupting Harm research project generated evidence
on the scale and nature of online CSEA in 13 countries across Southeast Asia and Africa, including
Kenya. Analysis of the data was discussed at a national consultation in Nairobi in June 2021. The
Disrupting Harm in Kenya country report, launched in October, includes a series of evidence-based
recommendations that cover legislation, law enforcement, social services, public awareness, and
education programmes to disrupt online harm to Kenyan children. The findings show that the country
needs to invest in capacity building of law enforcement, justice and social support systems to respond to
cases of online CSEA and in enacting important online CSEA-related legislation, policies and standards.

Turning government commitment into progress: Kenya’s National Plan of Action on online child protection
has been developed and is set for launch in 2022.

Monitoring progress on eliminating corporal punishment: Kenya prohibited all corporal punishment of
children in 2010. Although the practice is declining, social acceptance remains high in some places. End
Violence continues to monitor progress on eliminating corporal punishment in Kenya and to support the
work of the Kenyan Government. Partners include UNICEF and civil society organisations.

UNI250608

15
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in coordination with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC)

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PART THREE

Sweden
Sweden is a leader in the child protection space. In 1979, Sweden made history by becoming the first
country in the world to prohibit all corporal punishment of children. It serves as a model for how to not only
prohibit but eliminate corporal punishment of children. Research shows that public support for prohibition
of corporal punishment is high (92 per cent) and use of violent punishment is low (3 per cent). The law
prohibiting corporal punishment continues to be widely disseminated in society, through the school
curriculum, citizenship education and information for parents. Sweden provides substantial support for non-
violent parenting, including free parenting classes, pre- and post-natal support for new parents, generous
parental leave and financial support.

Sweden has also played a critical leadership role in ending violence against children beyond its borders. It
hosted an intergovernmental conference on prohibiting and eliminating corporal punishment, and played
a central role in the Baltic Sea States Non-Violent Childhoods project. Sweden has funded international
projects supporting the prohibition and elimination of violent punishment. In 2018, the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child was incorporated into Sweden’s domestic law, with the change taking effect from 1
January 2020.

UN0665018

Sweden became one of the End Violence Partnership’s first Pathfinding countries in 2016. The Government
of Sweden granted funding to the Children’s Welfare Foundation to carry out the Violence Against
Children 2016 Swedish National Survey, deepening its understanding of children’s experiences of corporal
punishment, sexual violence, psychological violence, neglect, domestic violence and bullying.

Various agencies and authorities, such as the Linköping University (the national knowledge centre on
violence against children), the Children’s Welfare Foundation, the Ombudsman for Children and the
National Board of Health and Welfare, conduct research and share knowledge on the issue of violence
against children.

In 2018, Sweden hosted the End Violence Partnership’s first Solutions Summit that showcased proven
solutions to end violence against children across the world, and in 2021 Sweden contributed over US$1
million to support the work of the End Violence Partnership. In May 2022, Sweden adopted its latest national
strategy to combat violence against children.
38
PART FOUR
BUILDING A
PARTNERSHIP
FOR ALL

39
PART FOUR

Global Partners, Local Impact

Throughout 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to expose children to higher risks of violence and
abuse and undermine recent progress. The End Violence Partnership proved to be an invaluable platform
to enable the global network to share experiences, disseminate tools and train partners to adapt. With
resilience and agility, partners pivoted their strategies to meet the needs of children facing heightened risks
of violence and newly isolated from the support structures provided by school, friends and social services.

Individually, our partners carry out the critical day-to-day work of ending violence in multiple ways, from
on-the-ground service delivery to global advocacy. Collectively, as part of the End Violence Partnership, our
partners collaborate to address four key gaps in the global effort to protect children:

Evidence and insights: Stronger data and analysis of what’s working – and why – to improve programmes,
shape policy and drive investments.

A networked community: Better channels to speed the uptake of proven solutions across borders
and sectors.

A loud and unified voice: Joint advocacy campaigns and thought leadership so children’s concerns are
heard, political will is forged and leaders held to account for their commitments.

Finance: More consistent funding to scale proven, evidence-based solutions and test new innovations.

End Violence partners operate in nearly every country and bring diverse perspectives, expertise, networks,
and ideas to the table. While it is impossible to highlight the work of all partners, below is a sample of their
critical contributions to protecting children in a year unlike any other in recent history.

African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)

ACPF has been at the forefront of generating knowledge on the phenomenon of

violence against children accused of witchcraft, mutilations and killings of children in
order to harvest body parts and infanticides of children with disabilities and children
with albinism. So far, progress across the continent has been inadequate. Robust
data and evidence that can break the invisibility of such heinous crimes against
children and challenge its social acceptance is still lacking in the region. What is
often available is anecdotal evidence which is insufficient for countries to inform or
reform their laws, policies and mobilise their communities.

It is in light of this significant gap in evidence on the scale, drivers and existing
protective aspects of social practices that can support the abandonment of crimes
and extreme violence in Africa that ACPF 2021 initiated a continental study. This
study investigates what African countries are doing to end crimes and extreme
violence against children, particularly those related to witchcraft accusations and
ritual attacks. The study aims to explore ways in which national child protection
systems can be strengthened to prevent witchcraft accusations and ritual attacks and
prosecute offenders, and is complemented by an in-depth analysis of efforts in five
African countries; Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Morocco,
and Tanzania. ACPF will launch the continental report in May 2022.

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PART FOUR

African Partnership to End Violence against Children (APEVAC)

One of the important achievements of APEVAC is that it has galvanised the
shared goal of an “Africa Free from Violence against Children” by engaging the
most relevant and knowledgeable leaders and organisations, catalysing high-
level dialogue towards enhancing African Governments’ commitment, leadership,
resourcing and multi-sectoral action. In 2021, APEVAC in collaboration with the
African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), organised a Pan-African Conference on Violence
against Children, the first in its biennial series of such conferences, under the
theme “Towards an Africa Free from Violence against Children” - Virtual High
Level Conference Proceedings. The conference convened champion leaders and
countries including, His Excellency Dr Lazarus Chakwera, the President of the
Republic of Malawi, H.E. Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Chairperson of the
African Union Commission, Thematic Rapporteur on violence against children of
the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC),
ministers from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Namibia and Tunisia, and more than 500
participants across the continent.
In the conference, three reports were launched:
1. Violence against Children: A Report on Progress and Challenges;
2. National Capacity to Address Violence against Children: Assessment in Ten
African Countries;
3. Here to Stay: Home-Grown Solutions to Violence against Children.
As a follow up to the high-level conference, APEVAC in collaboration with Regional
Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) and West African Civil Society Forum
(WACSOF) organised two regional dialogue forums aimed at enhancing national
government accountability for the agenda to end violence against children among
the 31 member states of Economic Community of West African States and Southern
African Development Community collectively.

Arigatou International
Arigatou International’s World Day of Prayer and Action for Children launched the
first Wear My Shoes Campaign and Award calling attention to grassroots efforts and
the remarkable actions co-led by children and adults aimed to mitigate the global
learning crisis. At the invitation of Arigatou International and together with UNICEF
and members of the Global Network of Religions for Children, 18 organisations
working for children’s rights and well-being, including End Violence, joined forces in
solidarity to draw world attention to the urgency of getting children back to school.
The Wear My Shoes Award was launched on 19 November at EXPO-2020 Dubai,
with the support of the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities. Each of the five
winners, who were selected for their outstanding practices carried out during the
global pandemic in 2020-21, received US$5,000 to continue their work. The winning
practices were found in Ecuador, Cuba, Mexico, Myanmar and Serbia and focused
on the most vulnerable and most excluded children whose education was deeply
affected by the pandemic.
Ending Violence Lab: The Ending Violence Lab is one of the pilots that Arigatou
International’s Prayer and Action for Children initiative supported in 2021 in Chile,
Nepal, Serbia and Tanzania to strengthen local efforts to advocate for children’s
rights and well-being using an interfaith approach. This process is based on the
findings and recommendations of the 2019 multi-religious study Faith and Children’s
Rights and the 2020 Advocacy Guide and Toolkit.

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PART FOUR

ChildFund
ChildFund Alliance members, ChildFund International and ChildFund Korea
embarked on a study conducted from August to December 2021 in the Philippines
to assess vulnerabilities of children and youth with special needs (CYSN) related to
online sexual exploitation and abuse. This study used a convergent parallel approach
across five cities with 50 primary respondents and 36 key informants.
Key findings indicated that while CYSN did possess awareness about acts that
led to online sexual abuse and exploitation, they were still vulnerable and had
unregulated use of online media. There was a communication gap between parents,
caregivers and CYSN, and training should be offered with a focus on establishing
good relationships between both parties. Training would also address the gap of
unregulated use of online media. Government should integrate lessons about online
sexual exploitation and abuse of children (OSEAC) into the school curriculum and
orient parents and caregivers to raise awareness about laws and policies that govern
and regulate OSEAC. To address the lack of guidance and counselling services
available to CYSN, government and other relevant stakeholders should invest in
curriculum development on OSEAC as well as train special education teachers who
would specifically provide these services to CYSN.

Child Helpline International

Child Helpline International works collectively with child helpline members to support
and protect children and young people through counselling, referral and intervention
at times of crisis. Child helplines are also uniquely positioned at the intersection of
national child protection systems and participation of children themselves, a low
threshold mechanism and entry point to protective services.
As a network, Child Helpline International advocates achieving SDG 16.2 and other
global goals to end violence against children through annual data reports and by
building expertise and capacity on the issues that are affecting children in line with
WeProtect’s Model National Response and the End Violence Strategy. In 2021, the
organisation partnered with members in Burundi, Ethiopia and Malawi to expand
services across social media channels and to increase capacity to respond to cases
of online CSEA and the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
This e-learning module is a combination of definitions, evidence-based good
practices and interactive activities to strengthen Child Helpline’s knowledge
of counselling skills during emergency situations, and specifically the
COVID-19 situation.
Through a strategic partnership with the African Union, Child Helpline will harmonise
helplines across the continent, and address online CSEA, female genital mutilation
and early and forced marriage, as well as many other interventions globally.

Civil Society Forum to End Violence Against Children (CSO Forum)

Civil Society Forum
Ending violence The CSO Forum advocates achieving SDG 16.2 and other global goals to end
against children violence against children. In 2021, the CSO Forum produced the CSO Call to Action
on the Voluntary National Reviews prior to the UN High-Level Political Forum.
Working with the End Violence Partnership, the CSO Forum also delivered three
regional webinars to support joint advocacy on the Together to #ENDviolence
campaign, serving as advocacy planning sessions for civil society partners, allowing
the sharing of advocacy experiences in various country contexts.

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PART FOUR

The CSO Forum further launched a new CSO Forum Working Group on Children
and Youth Participation in the Together to #ENDviolence campaign to facilitate
meaningful and inclusive participation of children and young people during the
Together to #ENDviolence campaign Leaders’ Event.
On Pathfinding, The CSO Forum helped expand CSO Focal Points beyond the initial
pilot of five countries to identify and engage CSO groups leading on EVAC in a total
of 12 Pathfinding Countries: Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire,
Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Romania and Uganda.
The Safe to Learn Working Group also hosted an Affiliate Event to the Together
to #ENDviolence campaign on CSO Adaptations to Support Safe Learning Spaces
in the context of COVID-19, building on the CSO Forum’s ongoing efforts to help
parents and educators keep children safe.

ECPAT
In recent years, it has become apparent that we lack a comprehensive understanding
of how sexual exploitation affects boys. Despite a growing global awareness
that boys do experience sexual exploitation and at greater rates than previously
recognised, there is limited research available to fully tell this story. To meet this
challenge, in 2019 ECPAT launched the Global Boys Initiative to shed light on the
scale and scope of this issue and to understand what programmatic response
is required for better prevention and protection of boys and for more and better
services specifically for male victims.
In 2021, with financial support from the End Violence Fund through its Safe Online
initiative, ECPAT International managed and participated in the collection of
qualitative data from government stakeholders, frontline service providers, justice
professionals, as well as children and their parents who had experienced online
sexual exploitation and abuse for the Disrupting Harm project. The resulting national
reports are already being used to strengthen national systems to prevent and
respond to CSEA.
During 2021, ECPAT, in partnership with McMaster University and others, published
a first Global Systematic Literature Review on sexual exploitation of boys. In
collaboration with network members from the respective countries, ECPAT launched
specific country reports on sexual exploitation of boys for Thailand, South Korea,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Hungary. The country reports include the results of surveys
conducted with frontline social service providers about services available to boys
subjected to sexual exploitation, analysis of how well the legal framework protects
boys from sexual exploitation and recommendations for immediate and future action.
Additional reports for Gambia, Bolivia, India, Morocco and Belgium will be launched
in 2023 and ECPAT is currently working towards the first-ever global summit on
sexual exploitation of boys to be organised next year.

Global Coalition to Protection Education from Attack (GCPEA)

On 9 September, GCPEA celebrated the second anniversary of the International
day to Protect Education from Attack. To commemorate this day, the Government
of Qatar and Education Above All, together with UNICEF and UNESCO, held a high-
level event that included interventions from GCPEA Executive Director Ms. Diya
Nijhowne, United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres, and many others.
Both Senegal and Togo endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration ahead of the event.

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PART FOUR

Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP)

To urgently increase awareness and action to support parents and to scale parenting
support programmes to families around the world, the GISP was launched, consisting
of five core partner agencies.16 This time-bound consortium aims to build on the
Call to Action launched in 2021, in support of a collective action framework that
urges increased investment in evidence-based parenting support and intervention
across the globe. To date, the call to action has garnered the support of over 50
organisations from more than 25 countries, and over 60 individuals from over 35
countries.
The strategy includes the following collective actions:
1. Scale: Invest in proven, cost-effective parenting interventions while building
capacity to sustain and scale-up delivery of the services.
2. Innovate: Design new digital approaches to support more parents and reach
underserved populations.
3. Generate Evidence and Exchange Knowledge: Test innovation through real-
world trials, optimisation studies and implementation research.
4. Advocate: Invest in advocacy for the uptake of parenting interventions through
policy advocacy and public and private financing.
GISP was shaped in response to the high demand for parenting support emerging
from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasing recognition of the critical
importance of supporting parents and caregivers to secure a range of human
development outcomes. The increased awareness of the importance of parenting
support, coupled with the reality that most parenting programmes are delivered in
fragmented, sectoral siloes without any cohesive platform to bring together parenting
initiatives across the life course and sectors, positions GISP to fill a critical gap in the
global, regional, and national ecosystems.

Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

In July 2021, GPE hosted the Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025;
a key moment for the global community to come together and support quality
education for all. As a result of the summit, GPE secured over US$4 billion for
reforming Education Systems, and governments pledged over US$96 million in
domestic funding for education. In addition, leaders across the world made 5-year
pledges to support GPE’s work to transform education in up to 96 countries and
territories. Violence in education emerged as a common issue during the summit.
GPE is collaborating with the End Violence Safe to Learn initiative to build on the
summit’s achievements and to elevate the prioritisation of ending violence in and
through schools in GPE’s new framework.

The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
(ISPCAN)
ISPCAN empowers frontline practitioners across all disciplines to lead in the global
effort to protect children by providing the latest information, best practices and a
worldwide network to create a community of learning. The organisation’s goal is to
take cutting edge data and research into action in all regions of the world and across
all types of abuse. In 2021, ISCPAN hosted a virtual World Summit bringing together

16
The Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), the End Violence Partnership, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH), UNICEF, and the World Health
Organisation (WHO)

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12 global organisations to highlight new emerging research and programmes in a

post lockdown world, with over 1,900 delegates from 54 countries. The ISPCAN
Milan International Congress in June hosted INSPIRE workshops and released the
14th edition of World Perspectives with 62 country profiles. ISPCAN also hosted over
35 webinars, 12 online trainings, and 5 regional and language-specific Circles of
Learning. ISPCAN sits on the Board of Directors for GpeV and produces the monthly
Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal.

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

In 2021, IWF worked with partners across the globe to remove 252,000 webpages
containing child sexual abuse imagery from the internet. This includes more than
182,000 URLs containing images or videos of “self-generated” material, a 374 per
cent increase on pre-pandemic levels.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of reporting child sexual abuse
material (CSAM), and for all to have access to a reporting mechanism. Thanks to
the End Violence Fund, IWF launched 30 reporting portals in least developed, low
income and lower middle-income countries, including five new ones in 2021, marking
the success of the project. Thanks to this grant, more than 2 billion people have
access to a reporting portal, at no cost to their nation.
The pandemic also exposed the huge demand for CSAM, with the UK’s National
Crime Agency estimating that between 550,000 and 850,000 people in the UK
posed a sexual risk to children in 2021. In response, IWF launched its reThink
Chatbot in partnership with The Lucy Faithfull Foundation and with financial support
from the End Violence Fund. This automated chatbot aims to engage internet users
who are at risk of viewing CSAM, to make them realise the dangers of their online
behaviour and signpost them to the intervention and counselling support they need.
Working with The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, IWF has designed a conversation flow
which leads to services that could help prevent people from offending. This project
could act as a deterrent while also curbing the demand for CSAM to make the
internet safer for children.

Plan International
Plan International has been working to implement a gender-transformative approach
to violence protection through programmes that target the root causes of violence
against children, especially girls, by challenging harmful gender attitudes and
patriarchal norms. In Cambodia, Plan International has worked with children, young
people, parents, and caregivers to increase their knowledge on positive parenting,
gender equality and children’s rights, and to raise awareness of the negative impacts
of child marriage and intimate partner violence. In addition, Plan International
Zimbabwe has implemented the 18+ project to end child marriages by promoting
behavioural changes and strengthening the legal framework related to children’s
rights. For this, Plan International has engaged with traditional leaders and youth as
champions of change in their communities who are involved in awareness-raising
activities, developing mechanisms to report and respond to child marriage cases,
and monitoring and reporting cases of child marriage. Traditional leaders have been
heavily involved in building the capacity of their communities to implement action
plans to end child marriage, including leading community awareness meetings,
supporting birth registration activities, and engaging in advocacy efforts.

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Save the Children

Save the Children continued to create space for children in national and international
forums, empowering them to share their views and solutions on ending violence
against children to key decision makers. These efforts included supporting children’s
inputs into OHCHR’s report on COVID-19 recovery and, with key partners, hosting
a panel of children to participate in the Global Forum for Children and Youth 2021.
Save the Children also supported a child speaker at the Global Protection Cluster
End of Year Annual Event to illustrate the reality of children’s experiences in conflict
and reinforce the urgent need to fund response mechanisms to protect them.
Save the Children continued to support efforts to achieve a universal ban on corporal
punishment, helping organise two End Violence high-level conferences amplifying
the importance of enacting laws that ban corporal punishment and
sharing experiences in putting prohibition into practice by eliminating violent
punishment of children.
Save the Children also worked towards strengthening child protection systems
through building the capacity of the social welfare workforce. Together with
the National Council for Further Education in the United Kingdom Save the
Children has developed COMPAQT – a scheme of evidence-based standards
on what it means to be a leading-edge, accomplished or skilled child protection
professional. At the 4th Biennial Conference on Alternative Care for Children in
Asia, Save the Children staff shared their experiences and lessons on developing
the social welfare workforce and improving the quality of alternative care through
legislation and practice.

The Lutheran World Federation

Since September 2020, the Lutheran World Foundation has embarked on its
pledge of updating its global child protection guidelines and make prevention of
violence against children a key theme. LWF has started to increase programming
in this respect, and looked at how to integrate preventing violence against children
in existing operations. LWF has also worked on developing a LWF member church
and LWF World Service led programme in the Latin American and Caribbean region,
however, this pledge is still under development. Lastly, LWF has more strategically
engaged in the child development and protection space at large, focusing on early
childhood development and quality service approaches. Internally LWF is updating
its safeguarding policy and designed a new code of conduct, both to be adopted in
2022 and implemented throughout all of LWF’s World Service country programmes.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Violence Against Children

(SRSG-VAC)
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) engaged in strong
mobilisation and advocacy to end violence against children through more than
250 online and in-person meetings with Member States – 38 presenting Voluntary
National Reviews (VNR) in 2021 – intergovernmental regional organisations, civil
society, faith-based organisations, the private sector and academia. The SRSG
continued to share evidence-based actions and develop tools to support Member
States, including a briefing on the enormous returns of investing in integrated
services for children promoted through a dedicated VNR lab during the 2021 High-
Level Political Forum and bilateral engagement with Member States.
At the regional level, the SRSG mobilised entities of the United Nations system

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and others to promote the adoption of integrated approaches to prevent and end
violence against children and its drivers across the 2030 Agenda.
At the country-level, the SRSG participated in the National Policy Dialogue on Ending
Violence Against Children in Nigeria and in the Philippines, which took stock of the
countries’ achievements since they became End Violence Pathfinding countries,
and held an inspiring interactive dialogue with the Children’s Parliament of Namibia.
Country visits were also conducted to Chad, Niger, Lebanon and Jordan.
The SRSG partnered with children and child-led organisations from all regions
supporting children’s involvement in decision-making processes and, for the first
time, reported directly to children.

Terre des Hommes International Federation (TDHIF)

TDHIF works in around 70 countries around the globe to put child rights into practice,
to protect children from harm as well as to influence agendas and strategies that
affect children and youth at all levels.
The Voice for Change programme provides knowledge and skills to youth advocates
in several countries to increase awareness of commercial sexual exploitation of
children. With a focus on child sexual exploitation, the programme aims to empower
children and young people to improve child protection systems by influencing
decision-makers.
In Southeast Europe, TDHIF has created with its partners the Child Protection Hub,
a vibrant community of child protection actors committed to transforming the lives
of the most vulnerable children. The Child Protection Hub empowers and connects
professionals to learn, advocate and collaborate in the fight against child abuse,
trafficking and exploitation.
In nine countries in Africa and the Middle East, the She Leads Programme works with
girls and young women to increase their sustained influence on decision-making and
the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions. For example,
grassroots organisations and movements raise awareness and provide free legal
support to women in rural areas on gender-based and domestic violence. The
programme also supports girls to escape situations of violence, including early and
forced marriages.

Together for Girls

Together for Girls is a global partnership working to end violence against children
and adolescents, particularly sexual violence against girls. The partnership pays
special attention to the gendered dimensions of violence, and its impact on health,
education and human rights. Together for Girls uses an innovative model of data,
advocacy and action to drive lasting change and create a safer world for all.
In 2021, Together for Girls catalysed the Brave Movement, a global survivor-centred
advocacy movement working to end all forms of sexual violence against children and
adolescents. The Brave Movement is led by 15 survivor leaders and allied partners. It
demands bold and transformative action to mobilise billions for programmes focused
on prevention, healing and justice worldwide, abolish statutes of limitation in every
nation, and develop a child-rights-driven approach to online end-to-end encryption.
Together for Girls and partners also created a sister movement in the US, Keep Kids
Safe, which aims to end sexual violence against children and adolescents through

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federal-level advocacy. In 2021, Keep Kids Safe released the U.S. National Blueprint
to End Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents, a roadmap outlining steps
the US Federal Government can take to prevent sexual violence against children and
adolescents and ensure that those who experience sexual violence have access to
healing and justice.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued into its second year, UNICEF’s violence
against children programming focused on mitigating the pandemic’s impact on the
protection and well-being of children. Around the world, efforts were made to bolster
multisectoral response services for children experiencing violence; scale up support
provided to parents and caregivers; help schools implement basic child protection
measures as they reopened; and address risks for children in digital environments.
In 2021, over 4.4 million children who experienced violence were reached by
UNICEF-supported services across 129 countries, a growth of 80 per cent since 2017.
UNICEF also accelerated the scale-up of parenting programmes around the world,
reaching 3 million mothers, fathers and caregivers with interactive curriculum and
face-to-face support across 94 countries, a four-fold increase to those reached in
2017.
UNICEF country offices in all regions continue to support the strengthening of
multisectoral national responses to combat violence against children facilitated by
digital technologies. In 2021, with financial support from the End Violence Fund,
UNICEF closed gaps in evidence around online CSEA. For example, 13 UNICEF
offices supported the delivery of national cross-sectoral programmes to prevent
and respond to online sexual exploitation and abuse. Drawing on learning from
programming in 29 countries, UNICEF published critical findings in its report,
Ending online child sexual exploitation and abuse: Lessons learned and promising
practices in low- and middle-income countries. The report sets out the current level
of implementation of the WeProtect Model National Response, gaps and challenges
across countries, and promising practices and lessons learned.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office of Research – Innocenti

In 2021, with financial support from the End Violence Fund, UNICEF Innocenti
collected extensive survey data from children and their parents regarding online
sexual exploitation and abuse for the Disrupting Harm project. The resulting national
reports are already being used to strengthen national systems to prevent and
respond to CSEA.
UNICEF Innocenti also generates evidence on violence against girls, boys and
women to support UNICEF’s programming and the end violence movement more
broadly by:
Synthesising violence evidence and developing global shared research priorities.
Exploring emerging issues in the violence against children and women fields, such
as the intersections between these forms of violence and the need for gender
transformative approaches.
Building capacity for generating and using evidence.
Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on violence.

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UNICEF Innocenti hosted two evidence events via the Together to #ENDviolence
campaign focused on the importance of data to guide action on violence against
children, as well as on intersections of violence against children and violence against
women. The events gathered hundreds of researchers, practitioners, policymakers
and activists worldwide to take stock of what is known about addressing both
forms of violence, pinpoint knowledge gaps and discuss opportunities to increase
coordination across these fields.
The identified need to improve coordination between these fields also led UNICEF
Innocenti to establish a collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and
the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) to develop shared research priorities
for the intersections of VAC and VAW.

Information session with learners on keeping safe online facilitated by LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia with
UNICEF support. Namibia is an End Violence Pathfinding country. © UNICEF Namibia

UNICEF Venture Fund

The UNICEF Venture Fund, in partnership with the Global Partnership to End
Violence Against Children, invested in two new start-ups developing open source, AI-
powered solutions to address digital risks to children - tilli and Talk2U.
The new cohort will receive equity-free investments through the UNICEF Venture
Fund and a year-long mentorship with UNICEF’s technical and programme experts
and partners. End Violence is a technical partner and will provide programmatic
expertise for the portfolio management of this cohort and enable access to key
networks focusing on child online protection.
Technological solutions are a crucial element in efficiently responding to online
threats to children. This cohort has been selected through a call for applications
focused on software solutions that respond to four broad categories of digital risks to
children: Content, Contact, Conduct and Contract Risks.

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Tilli (Sri Lanka) is a game-based, AI-powered social-emotional

learning tool that teaches 5-10-year-olds the skills needed to
stay safe and healthy.

Talk2U (Brazil) is a behavioural micro-intervention chatbot to

impart strategies to users for child online safety, as well as
trainings on different types of abuse.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)

UNESCO, together with the World Anti-Bullying Forum, hosted a series of
international webinars about school bullying in the lead up to the World Anti-
Bullying Forum in November 2021. The four webinars that took place from March to
September covered:
The Whole Education approach to bullying prevention (including cyberbullying)
Revisiting the definition of school bullying
Bullying involving children with disabilities
The role of teachers in preventing and addressing bullying and cyberbullying

WeProtect Global Alliance

The WeProtect Global Alliance launched its latest Global Threat Assessment in
October 2021. The report highlighted the increase in both the scale and complexity
of child sexual abuse online. It showed how COVID-19 has had a huge impact on
children and their online exposure. Alongside the threat assessment, the WeProtect
Global Alliance published the findings from the Economist Impact Global Survey and
Survey Of Tech Companies. The former was a study conducted by Economist Impact,
surveying more than 5,000 18-20-year-olds in 54 countries worldwide to find out
about their experiences of sexual harms online. The survey of 32 tech companies
was carried out by WeProtect Global Alliance and the Techn Coalition to understand
the scope of activities by technology companies to combat the issue of child sexual
abuse online.
Another notable achievement in 2021 was the WeProtect Global Alliance Executive
Director’s intervention at the Paris Peace Forum 2021 highlighting the need for
a global coordinated response to CSEA online. In 2021, the Alliance also carried
out research on survivors’ perspectives, in partnership with ECPAT International,
culminating in six country-level reports and a global report. The Alliance also
published a briefing paper with FrameWorks UK on how to talk about child sexual
abuse in the digital world.

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PART FOUR

World Health Organization (WHO)

In 2021, WHO’s African office launched the regional status report on preventing
violence against children in English, French and Portuguese. The report, based on
the findings of the Global status report on preventing violence against children
2020, collates inputs from decision-makers in 33 countries in the region who
assessed their violence prevention status against the evidence-based approaches
set out in INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children. WHO
brought together some 100 violence prevention focal points from the African region
to discuss the report findings, provide an overview of INSPIRE and share experiences
around its implementation in the region, and highlight the unique role of health
systems in preventing and responding to violence, particularly in the context of
COVID-19. The forum also encouraged the implementation of the 74th World Health
Assembly resolution on “Ending Violence Against Children through Health Systems
Strengthening and Multisectoral Approaches” and served as a platform to showcase
the WHO documentary featuring victims of violence which was subsequently
selected for an international short film festival. Furthermore, as part of ongoing
support to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire in its efforts to prevent violence against
children, WHO played a lead role in organising a week-long workshop that aimed to
strengthen multi-sectoral coordination, move from data to action, discuss adaptation
and scale-up of existing programmes, build capacities at country level, and discuss
the upcoming National Plan to End Violence Against Children and Women. In
Uganda, WHO similarly supported the National Policy Dialogue as well as efforts to
strengthen the capacity of health care workers. Finally, WHO funded and organised
the INSPIRE Training of Trainers, bringing together over 50 trainers from around
the world, and training over 60 journalists on solutions-based reporting on violence
against children.

World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM)

In 2020-21, World Scouting saw the true strength and resilience of its movement as
it managed through the challenges of a global pandemic, celebrated some major
milestones and continued to make progress towards achieving Vision 2023, its
Strategy for Scouting.
WOSM continues to make child and youth safety and protection a top priority across
the movement. To date, more than 50 trained WOSM consultants have helped to
deliver Safe from Harm services to 100 National Scouting Organisations (NSOs).
This past year, a series of Safe from Harm resources and e-learning courses was
launched for use at world and regional events, along with a Safe from Harm Self-
Assessment Tool for NSOs and a set of accessible materials for Scout Leaders to
adopt within the youth programme.
In August 2021, the 42nd World Scout Conference voted to change the WOSM
constitution, making it a requirement for member organisations to implement
policies and procedures that ensure a safe environment for children, young people
and adults in Scouting. The Conference also reaffirmed the Scout Movement’s
commitment to continue to strengthen the implementation of the World Safe from
Harm Policy at all levels of Scouting, making this a key priority for the current
triennium. World Scout Conference also worked with the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General for Violence Against Children on two key events, one during
the UN General Assembly on involving young people in decision-making around
child protection policies, and another launching a child-friendly human rights report
ahead of the 49th Human Rights Council.

51
PART FOUR

World Vision
World Vision mobilised supporters to carry out over 2 million advocacy actions
to end violence against children in 2021 as part of its It Takes a World campaign.
The global effort across 87 countries has reached 268 million children and
contributed to 265 policy changes that address violence against children.
Critically, 65 of these changes were related to allocating, increasing or defending
government funding to address violence against children. World Vision and the End
Violence Partnership gathered 300 specialists to participate in three Together to
#ENDviolence campaign affiliate events. Participants were from local, national, and
global levels and included academia, policymakers and donors. More than 87 faith
leaders and their spouses from three countries and diverse faith contexts actively
worked on child protection in their communities after participating in World Vision
Channels of Hope Child Protection workshops (Faith Communities’ Contribution to
Ending Violence against Children).

UN0403556

52
PART FIVE
LOOKING AHEAD

53
PART FIVE

The world is grappling with simultaneous crises, including COVID-19, climate change, multiple conflicts,
sharp increases in the cost of living and shortages of food and other essential commodities. Some of these
crises are interrelated. All of them put children at greater risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Despite
these immense challenges, momentum towards change is accelerating.

The Power of Partnership and Knowledge

A key strength of the End Violence Partnership lies in its power to convene, to bring partners, knowledge
and expertise together, and to support and strengthen the growing movement.

2021 was a year in which the synergy of our multi-faceted partnerships was enhanced. Partner collaboration
increased significantly and was critical for all of our key achievements. Convened by the End Violence
Partnership, a growing movement of partners, networks and advocates, including more than 50
governments, worked together to share and implement what works to protect children and to advocate for
the realisation of our common vision of a world free from violence.

End Violence Partnership played an important role in the collection, management, sharing and promotion
of knowledge materials generated from our community of over 700 partners. Knowledge materials include
case studies, research findings, policy reports, podcasts, courses, evaluations and other publications. The
End Violence Knowledge Platform houses the latest evidence, research and data and amplifies partner
research through promotional campaigns and targeted events.

The gathering, sharing and promotion of evidence makes a strong case for change. These resources target
diverse readerships. They support parents in safeguarding their children from violence; practitioners in
advocating for and implementing change in-country; and policymakers in creating the policies and budgets
to end violence against children.

Challenges and Opportunities

In 2015, more than 190 government leaders committed to end all violence against children by 2030 as
part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Those governments now have just eight years remaining to
meet that target. The End Violence Partnership has created an enabling environment for change and a
mechanism for collaborative support to accelerate progress towards the global goal.

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54
PART FIVE

Raising Awareness Through Collective Advocacy

There is a lack of awareness about violence against children. Many people are unaware of both the scale
of violence and abuse of children and the impact that it has on their health, education and development.
More must also be done to raise awareness about how digital technologies are impacting existing and
new forms of violence and abuse. But awareness is growing. While COVID-19 increased the exposure
of children to violence, it also increased awareness of the scale and impact of violence against children,
and the availability of practical, evidence-based solutions. The coming year will provide opportunities for
collective advocacy around key global, regional and national moments as well as Safer Internet Day and the
International Day to #EndCorporalPunishment. At other times, we will elevate violence against children on
the global agenda through the mobilisation of End Violence Champions17 and advocates, thought leaders
and influencers as part of the Together to #ENDviolence campaign.

The launch of a Safe to Learn Global Advocacy Task Force in collaboration with the Global Partnership for
Education will help to build political will at the global level and leverage high-level events to magnify the
issue and amplify the voices of children.

There is also an appetite and sense of urgency for greater coordination and alignment around key advocacy
and policy issues related to children’s safety online. The End Violence Safe Online initiative will work with
key partners to jointly leverage key opportunities, such as the G7 announcement in June 2021 that laid out
a set of ground-breaking commitments to combat online CSEA and proposed new European legislation to
prevent and combat child sexual abuse online.

Increasing Political Will and Investment

Whilst everyone can agree that violence against children is profoundly wrong and must end, few are
aware that violence undermines all government investments in services for children such as education,
parenting programmes and antenatal care, or that violence against children holds back economic growth.
Funds to end violence against children are rarely visible in domestic or Official Development Assistance
(ODA) budgets. Counting Pennies II: An analysis of official development assistance to end violence against
children was jointly released by the End Violence Partnership in February 2021. It found that a lack of ODA
investment in child protection is a key obstacle to ending violence against children. A more recent paper,
The Violence Prevention Dividend: Why preventing violence against children makes economic sense, builds
upon this research to illustrate how ending violence against children can remove a critical barrier to children
achieving their full development potential and could save costs to societies that have been estimated to be
up to 5 per cent of national GDP.

The End Violence Partnership is in a strong position to address these challenges. Having successfully
aligned the Partnership around six policy proposals, we will now work with partners large and small to
promote the policy proposals and secure their adoption and implementation among national governments.
Inter-country learning exchanges involving governments, UN agencies, civil society, foundations, research
institutions and other stakeholders will help to achieve this. The national policy dialogues and leader
statements that result from these exchanges are key milestones towards policy and funding commitments.

National policy dialogues and leaders’ statements

The purpose of national policy dialogues is to achieve consensus on the main gaps in policy and to agree on
areas for scaling up the INSPIRE evidence-based strategies to end violence against children. To continue the
strident progress made during 2021 in which 21 countries convened national policy dialogues, 15 countries
submitted government statements, and another seven countries planned to hold national policy dialogues
during 2022, the End Violence Pathfinding team will work with UNICEF and civil society organisations in-
country to continue engaging and supporting national governments.

17
End Violence Champions are individuals who dedicate their lives to ending violence against children. We celebrate these individuals and amplify their voices.

55
PART FIVE

2022 Leaders’ Event to secure and announce government commitments

The Together to #ENDviolence campaign has enabled the End Violence community to share solutions
and catalyse action and investment to end violence against children. Eighteen months of collaboration will
culminate in a high-profile Leaders’ Event in June 2022. Alongside children and adult survivors of violence
and abuse, the event will provide a platform for heads of government and leaders of multilateral institutions,
private sector, foundations, civil society, faith-based organisations, celebrities and others to demonstrate
progress and share commitments to end violence against children.

Safe to Learn roundtables to secure policy commitments

End Violence’s Safe to Learn initiative will organise regional roundtables to support countries that are
committed to embedding violence protection in their education systems. The roundtables will provide a
platform to share and promote local expertise, and evidence-based policy and programming.

UN0592917

Implementation guidance and technical support to end

corporal punishment
Our goal is to achieve 100 prohibiting countries by 2030, reaching a global tipping point in which
violence in child-rearing is no longer socially accepted, and non-violent childhoods are normalised. End
Violence will continue to advocate for and support governments and partners on this journey, providing
information and technical advice and engaging with human rights mechanisms to build pressure and
momentum. To support countries in putting legal proahibition into effect, we have produced ‘Implementation
Guidance’ in eight languages and will disseminate this globally in order to accelerate the elimination of
violent punishment.

56
PART FIVE

Addressing Gaps in Evidence and Data

While solutions to end violence against children are becoming clearer, there is a need to increase
investments to fill the evidence gap in the field of violence against children. For example, we lack sufficient
evidence on what works to end online CSEA, and we have data gaps regarding the prevention of violence in
low- and middle-income countries. Continued investment in research and programme evaluation is needed
to improve the End Violence Partnership’s knowledge of effective solutions and inform its Safe Online
strategy and work. Furthermore, some countries lack baseline and trend data on violence against children
indicators making it difficult to assess the scale of the problem, make the most strategic investments or to
monitor progress toward addressing it.

In 2022, the End Violence Safe Online initiative will tackle one of the biggest gaps preventing an effective
response to online CSEA – the lack of robust evidence, and a compelling narrative on what works to end
online CSEA. New resources and efforts will be invested to generate, centralise and share evidence-based
solutions and enable the movement to speak with one voice on what works to end CSEA.

To fill the gap in baseline data, the End Violence Partnership has undertaken a large-scale data gathering
exercise to develop a Country Dashboard, a crucial new public tool to support and monitor government
progress to end violence against children, beginning with the 37 Pathfinding countries. Data gathered
includes information on demographics, prevalence of various types of violence, progress on Pathfinding
milestones such as national action plans, and indicators on school-based and online violence. The
dashboard will be a live platform regularly updated to ensure coherence across all initiatives. It will ultimately
be expanded to encompass all countries, not only End Violence Pathfinders.

Fundraising and Resource Mobilisation

We believe that the conditions are in place for a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate progress
and to reach a tipping point by 2030, where it has become unacceptable for children to experience violence
in any setting, in any part of the world.

Working with donors, the End Violence Partnership serves three vital roles in accelerating progress to
SDG 16.2. The first is in securing further investment for our own mission from an increasing number of
governments, foundations, philanthropists, and private sector donors who share our vision and recognise
that our evidence-based interventions are designed for scale.

The second is in establishing a wider investment case for larger-scale funding at country, regional and
global levels to deliver a paradigm shift in the prevention of violence against children.

Our third role is to facilitate collaboration and collective action among the coalition of donors within this
space. Events, such as our regular donor convenings, serve as a platform for synergising initiatives and
helping donors to set key priorities, using a robust evidence-based approach.

Investment Case to Tackle Childhood Sexual Violence

Childhood sexual violence (CSV) happens at home, at school, online and in communities. And it happens
at an appalling scale; estimates suggest that more than 1 billion people have experienced it. Right now,
a combination of factors is combining to create a moment of opportunity to mobilise significant new
investment to prevent and respond to CSV. These include:

A growth in balanced, mainstream media coverage, e.g. an award-winning series in the New York Times
raising public awareness;

Political attention, most recently from G7 Leaders and also including new legislation proposed by the
European Commission to better protect children online, and a new White House Task Force with a remit
to tackle child sexual abuse domestically and internationally;

57
PART FIVE

The newly-organised voices of adult survivors of CSV, in particular the Brave Movement; and

The global reach and proven ability of the End Violence Partnership to raise awareness,
catalyse leadership commitments, share actionable evidence and invest for impact through the
End Violence Fund.

We know from existing investments through the End Violence Fund that programming to tackle CSV will
build capability and strengthen the systems needed to prevent and respond to multiple forms of child
violence, abuse and exploitation. And because investing to tackle CSV helps prevent and respond to a
range of physical, sexual, emotional and psychological child violence and abuse, in turn it has a positive
multiplier effect on child health, education and development.

UN0465585

With initial support from Oak Foundation, Dalberg Advisors and the End Violence Secretariat are developing
an investment case to mobilise significant new funding to tackle CSV through the End Violence Fund,
working with adult survivors of CSV, experts, implementing partners and donors.

Our approach to launching the investment case and campaigning will be informed by other successful
global partnership and fund replenishments, although carefully tailored to the unique nature of CSV as an
emotionally compelling and significantly underfunded issue on which tangible progress can be made.

We expect to be ready to launch the investment case in the second half of 2022 and the campaign towards
a pledging moment in mid-2023.

58
PART SIX
GOVERNANCE

59
PART SIX

End Violence Board

The End Violence Board provides strategic input and oversight of the End Violence Partnership and Fund.
Board members champion the cause of ending violence against children and advocate for leadership
commitments, action and investment to support delivery of Partnership priorities.

Board Members as of July 2022

Niklas Andreen President and Chief Operating Officer, Carlson Wagonlit Travel*

Sima Sami Bahous Executive Director, UN Women

Gary Cohen Chief Revenue Officer, AeroFarms

Iain Drennan Executive Director, WeProtect Global Alliance & End Violence
Executive Committee Co-Chair

H.E. Marcelo Ebrard Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico

Virginia Gamba United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for

Children and Armed Conflict

Meg Gardinier Secretary-General, ChildFund Alliance

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)

Lena Hallengren Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Sweden

Dr Etienne Krug Director, Department of the Social Determinants of Health, WHO

& End Violence Executive Committee Co-Chair

Dr A.K. Shiva Kumar Co-Chair, Know Violence in Childhood

Rev. Keishi Miyamoto President, Arigatou International

Dr Najat Maalla M’jid United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on

Violence Against Children

Wendy Morton MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for European

Neighbourhood and the Americas), United Kingdom

Dr Joan Nyanyuki Executive Director, Africa Child Policy Forum & End Violence
Executive Committee Co-Chair

Joy Phumaphi Executive Secretary of the African Leaders’ Malaria Initiative &
End Violence Board Co-Chair

Dr Joanna Rubinstein Independent Expert; former President and CEO, World

Childhood Foundation USA

Rev. Dr Ioan Sauca Acting General Secretary, World Council of Churches

Dr Rajeev Seth President, International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse
and Neglect

Helle Thorning-Schmidt Former President of Denmark & End Violence Board Co-Chair

H.E. Hayashi Yoshimasa Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan

*New representative from Carlson Family Foundation appointed in 2022

60
PART SIX

End Violence Executive Committee

The End Violence Executive Committee and its working groups develop and oversee delivery of End
Violence Partnership strategy and priorities, including investments through the End Violence Fund. The
Executive Committee also oversees the work of the Secretariat.

Executive Committee Members as of July 2022

Lina María Arbeláez Arbeláez Director-General, Colombian Institute of Family Welfare

Diana Dalton Head of Gender and Equalities Department, Foreign,

Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom

Iain Drennan Executive Director, WeProtect Global Alliance & Executive

Committee Co-Chair

Kul Gautam Independent Expert; former Deputy Executive Director

of UNICEF

Maureen Greenwood-Basken Director, Global Children’s Rights Program, Wellspring

Philanthropic Fund

Nazim Khizar Deputy Director, Financial Reporting and Grants Management,

UNICEF

Aggrey David Kibenge Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social
Development, Uganda

Dr Etienne Krug Director, Department of the Social Determinants of Health, World

Health Organization & Executive Committee Co-Chair

Dr Daniela Ligiero Executive Director and CEO, Together for Girls

Tobias Lundin Gerdås State Secretary to the Minister for Health and Social Affairs,
Sweden

Amanda Melville Senior Protection Officer, United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees

Dr Jim Mercy Director, Division of Violence Prevention, United States Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention

Steve Miller CEO, Save the Children South Africa

Eleanor Monbiot Regional Leader, Middle East and Eastern Europe, World Vision

Dr Joan Nyanyuki Executive Director, Africa Child Policy Forum & Executive
Committee Co-Chair

Christian Papaleontiou Deputy Director, Tackling Exploitation and Abuse Unit, Home
Office, United Kingdom

Patricia Sainz Regional Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean,
SOS Children’s Villages International

Sanjay Wijesekera Director of Programme Group, UNICEF

61
PART SIX

Executive Committee Working Groups

Since 2020, Working Groups of the Executive Committee have helped to guide and accelerate work in
two high-priority strategic areas. Working Group members are drawn from the End Violence Executive
Committee and other experts and stakeholders. In each case, the goal is to add critical expertise and access
to resources to drive success. Each group makes recommendations to the Executive Committee for final
approval.

Pathfinding Progress Working Group provides strategic direction on scale-up plans in Pathfinding
countries using the INSPIRE strategies. The working group considers programmatic aspects of country
engagement – for example corporal punishment, parenting or child protection systems – and builds
political and financial support for Pathfinding and INSPIRE.

Safe Online Working Group provides strategic direction and guidance on the End Violence Partnership’s
work to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse and exploitation online, as well as wider child
protection and online safety issues. The working group recommends and monitors investments from the
End Violence Fund in this area.

People
The 24-member End Violence Secretariat is a diverse, multicultural team with unique expertise ranging from
child protection, education, global policy and aid financing to gender and inclusion, and communications
and advocacy. The Secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the End Violence Partnership’s
work around the world. Based in New York, Geneva and other locations, the team connects individuals,
organisations and governments to ensure that ending violence against children is on the global agenda and
galvanise the political will and resources needed to make the world safe for all children.

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62
PART SIX

2021 Financial Summary

Financial and in-kind support from funders and partners ensured that adequate resources were available
for End Violence Partnership and Fund to continue delivering tangible results to prevent and respond to
violence against children in homes, schools, communities and online. Despite the ongoing challenges of the
COVID-19 pandemic and a constrained global economic situation, the End Violence Partnership received
over US$25 million in contributions in 2021, including from the Governments of Japan, Sweden, and the
United Kingdom.

The End Violence Secretariat used funding flexibility in 2021 to assist our global partners in responding to
the elevated risks of violence to children brought on by the isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns. This meant
pivoting significant portions of planned 2021 work to COVID-19-related efforts to ensure policymakers,
practitioners, donors and partners understood the elevated risks to children and were equipped to respond.

The following pages show a breakdown of income and expenditures for both the End Violence Fund and
Secretariat in 2021, as well as cumulatively since 2016.

1%
8%

2021 Revenue

Total Revenue Governments

$25M Foundations & Individuals
UN

91%

13%

2021 Expenditure
20% Total Expenses Grants
$12M
Programme Support
Management & Operations

67%

63
PART SIX

INCOME
All figures are in USD

Sources of funds Committed Received Received Total Contributions

contributions1 2016-20 2021 Received
Carlson Family $0.02 M $0.02 M $0.02 M
Foundation

Global Initiative to $0.11 M $0.11 M $0.11 M

End All Corporal
Punishment of Children

Government of Canada $0.07 M $0.07 M $0.07 M

Government of Japan $7.30 M $5.91 M $1.39 M $7.30 M

Government of Sweden $1.89 M $0.79 M $1.10 M $1.89 M

Government of Switzerland $5.26 M $5.26 M $5.26 M

Government of United $12.64 M $12.64 M $12.64 M

Kingdom FCDO

Government of United $72.24 M $51.56 M $20.68 M $72.24 M

Kingdom Home Office

Human Dignity $5.05 M $4.30 M $4.30 M

Foundation

Ignite Philanthropy $2.91 M $2.13 M $0.78 M $2.91 M

(New Venture Fund)

Kofi and Nane Annan $0.14 M $0.14 M $0.14 M

Oak Foundation $5.00 M $5.00 M $5.00 M

Roblox $0.01 M $0.01 M $0.01 M

Tech Coalition $2.01 M $0.18 M $1.02 M $1.20 M

Total contributions $114.66 M $88.01 M $25.09 M $113.10 M

Less UNICEF 1% fee2 -$0.88 M -$0.25 M -$1.13 M

UNICEF (bilateral $0.17 M $0.17 M

contribution from Canada)3

UNICEF (thematic funds)4 $0.25 M $0.25 M $0.50 M

UNICEF $0.59 M $0.04 M $0.63 M

Total sources of funds $114.66 M $88.15 M $25.13 M $113.27 M

1
Committed contribution refers to the total amount confirmed in the contribution agreement.
All figures are in US Dollars and rounded to the nearest $1,000.
2
UNICEF as funds custodian and administrator applies a 1% administrative fee to all contributions received.
3
Canada’s 2019 contribution of $174,800 was made through a UNICEF project on “Supporting Girls to be Safe
to Learn”.
4
Contribution managed via UNICEF Programme Division, under Global Thematic Funding for Child Protection.

64
PART SIX

TRANSFERS TO SECRETARIAT FOR ACTIVITIES AND OPERATIONS

Contributions earmarked 2016-19 2021 Total
for secretariat1
Government of Canada $0.07 M $0.07 M

Government of Sweden $0.78 M $1.09 M $1.87 M

Government of Switzerland $1.20 M $1.20 M

Government of the United Kingdom FCDO $7.10 M $7.10 M

Global Initiative to End All Corporal $0.11 M $0.11 M

Punishment of Children

Ignite Philanthropy (New Venture Fund) $2.11 M $0.77 M $2.88 M

Other transfers to secretariat2
Carlson Family Foundation $0.01 M $0.01 M

Government of Japan $0.45 M $0.21 M $0.65 M

Government of Switzerland $1.03 M $1.03 M

Government of United Kingdom FCDO $0.43 M $0.43 M

Government of United Kingdom (Home Office) $5.94 M $3.14 M $9.08 M

Kofi and Nane Annan $0.14 M $0.14 M

Oak Foundation $0.40 M $0.40 M

Tech Coalition $0.18 M $0.20 M $0.38 M

Roblox $0.01 M $0.01 M

UNICEF $0.48 M $0.11 M $0.59 M

Total transfers to Secretariat $20.34 M $5.64 M $25.97 M
UNICEF (bilateral contribution from Canada) $0.17 M $0.17 M

UNICEF (thematic funds)3 $0.25 M $0.25 M $0.50 M

Total sources of funds to Secretariat $20.76 M $5.89 M $26.65 M

1
Contributions fully earmarked by the donor for the End Violence Secretariat to support Partnership activities
and operations.
2
A portion of contributions to the Fund, as agreed with the donor, for grant management costs and crosscutting
support, such as communications, resource mobilisation and safeguarding. Also includes un-earmarked contributions
from various donors.
3
Contributions made available to the End Violence Secretariat via UNICEF Programme Division, but not transferred to
the End Violence Secretariat account.
All figures are in US dollars and rounded to the nearest $1,000.

The End Violence Secretariat also received in-kind contributions of staff (experts on loan) during 2016-21,
worth an estimated $6.2 million, from the following partners: Government of Switzerland ($1.9M); UNICEF
($1.43M); UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ($0.9M); ChildFund Alliance ($0.5M); No
Violence in Childhood ($0.3M); UNHCR ($0.2M); SOS Children’s Villages ($0.2M); Save the Children–
Sweden ($0.2M); and Ignite Philanthropy: inspiring the end to violence against girls and boys ($0.6M).
65
PART SIX

EXPENDITURE
END VIOLENCE FUND Spent Spent Total
2016-20 2021
Grants for projects to prevent and $49.15 M $8.11 M $57.26 M
respond to violence, abuse and
exploitation of children online, in
schools, at home and in communities

Outstanding grant commitments $5.59 M

to be disbursed

Refunds of unspent grant balances -$0.29 M

Total commitments $62.85 M

END VIOLENCE Spent Spent Total

SECRETARIAT 2016-20 20211
Partnership activities and operations $15.84 M $4.02 M $19.86 M

Total Expenditure – Fund and $82.71 M

Secretariat (including outstanding
grant commitments)

1
Includes USD 206,486 contributed to End Violence Secretariat but managed via UNICEF Programme Division

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66
PART SIX

Expression of Thanks
The End Violence Partnership wishes to thank and acknowledge the generous contributions of our partners
that continue to make a remarkable difference to the lives of so many children.

The End Violence Partnership is a member of the Funder Safeguarding Collaborative and is committed to
promoting a culture of safety and embedding practices that keep people safe from harm in all areas of its
work. See our safeguarding policy.

UN0443687

Website End Violence Partnership

Follow End Violence on social media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
Subscribe to the Newsletter
More about the Together to #ENDviolence campaign

67
Annex Safe Online

Annex: Safe Online Portfolio

Results 2021
Safe Online Investment Portfolio Results in 2021 – highlights of the results achieved by Safe Online
grantees worldwide.

Safe Online Investment Portfolio

As of December 2021, the Safe Online investment portfolio included 58 projects with impact in over 70
countries. Funded projects ranged from programs building strong systems at country and regional level and
large-scale research projects (e.g. Disrupting Harm), to designing new and scaling-up existing technology-
based solutions for tackling online sexual exploitation and abuse against children. The descriptions of the
investments are available here, and below you can find the map of our investments as of December 2021.
To access more information about the Safe Online work please visit our website.

UN015583

This appendix outlines the key results achieved by the Safe Online investment portfolio from January
to December 2021 and covers the work of 42 grantees whose projects (45) were active throughout the
year. It does not include results from grantees that ended their grant by December 2020, and from those
organisations whose grants were awarded or started in 2022.

68
SAFE ONLINE INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO MAP
Total Funding Committed State of Palestine
Mongolia
Bosnia and Palestinian Center for Democracy
US $48,028,431 Herzegovina and Conflict Resolution UNICEF Mongolia

As of November 2021 UNICEF BiH, Save the

Dominican Republic Jordan
Children, International Forum
UNICEF DR with Plan DR UK Albania of Solidarity (EMMAUS) UNICEF Jordan
Mexico Internet Watch UNICEF Albania
Foundation
Oficina de defensoría de
Global Projects los derechos de la infancia Vietnam
5Rights Foundation ChildFund Australia
International Centre for Missing & World Vision International
Exploited Children in partnership with in Vietnam
Child Helpline International
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
New Venture Fund
Marie Collins Foundation
Thorn (2 projects)
UNICEF Child Protection, Programme
Division, UNICEF Headquarters
World Health Organization
Canadian Centre for Child Protection
Child Rescue Coalition
INHOPE
INTERPOL
Suojellaan Lapsia Ry - Protect
Children Finland
University of Swansea
Philippines
Justice and Care
Costa Rica International Justice
University of Kent Mission
PANIAMOR Foundation
Middlesex University Plan International UK
Technology University of Dublin

Regional Projects
Ghana Thailand
Council of Europe: Albania, Armenia, UNICEF Ghana University of Kent
Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Republic of
Colombia Pakistan
Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine
Red PaPaz (2 projects) DeafKidz
Distruping Harm: ECPAT International, Universidad de los Andes International
INTERPOL, UNICEF Office of Research -
Innocenti Uganda
Africa: Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, UNICEF Uganda Kenya
Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, South UNICEF Kenya
Africa, Namibia Peru
Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Save the Children Sweden
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
Capital Humano y Social
South Asia Initiative to End Violence (CHS) Alternativo
Namibia Zambia
against Children: Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, UNICEF Namibia Tech Matters India
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal Population
Foundation of India
UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional
Office: Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Project VIC International
Mongolia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Madagascar Cambodia
Philippines, China
Brazil South Africa UNICEF Madagascar University of Kent
Huddersfield University UNICEF Cambodia
University of Bristol: Thailand, Cambodia, UNICEF South Africa
the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, DeafKidz International Rwanda Tanzania
Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore Tech Matters University of East London UNICEF Tanzania Sri Lanka
5Rights Foundation
Save the Children
National projects Regional projects Regional and National projects Denmark

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Annex Safe Online

The appendix is divided in four main sections outlining the key areas of impact that Safe Online is making
through its investments. The first three sections are focusing on Safe Online’s investment priority areas:
A. Strengthening Systems, Capacities and Networks
B. Generating Data and Evidence, including the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund
C. Technology Solutions
D. Network Building and Strategic Direction outlines critical activities that Safe Online is doing to maximise
the overall impact of its investments, build collaborative network of grantees and strengthen their
capacities, as well as outlines key investment priorities and actions for 2022.
The below table shows the grantees included in this appendix and the countries of implementation of
their projects:

Country of implementation Grantees

Bosnia and Herzegovina Consortium: Forum of Solidarity - EMMAUS, Save the

Children, UNICEF Country Office

Brazil Huddersfield University

Cambodia UNICEF Cambodia

Colombia Corporación de Padres y Madres - Red PaPaz

Costa Rica Fundación Paniamor

Dominican Republic UNICEF Dominican Republic, Plan International

Ghana UNICEF Ghana

India Population Foundation of India

Project VIC International

Kenya UNICEF Kenya

Madagascar UNICEF Madagascar

Mongolia UNICEF Mongolia

Palestine Palestinian Centre for Democracy and

Conflict Resolution

Peru Capital Humano y Social Alternativo

South Africa UNICEF South Africa

Sri Lanka Save the Children Denmark

Tanzania UNICEF Tanzania

Uganda UNICEF Uganda

United Kingdom Internet Watch Foundation

Vietnam World Vision Vietnam

Multi-country: South Africa, Pakistan DeafKidz International

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Multi-country: South Africa, Zambia Tech Matters

Regional: Europe Council of Europe

Regional: Latin America Universidad de los Andes

Regional: Southeast Asia University of Bristol

University of Kent

Regional: Southeast Asia, Eastern and ECPAT International

Southern Africa - Disrupting Harm
INTERPOL

UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti

Global 5Rights Foundation

Canadian Centre for Child Protection

Child Rescue Coalition

INHOPE

Internet Watch Foundation

INTERPOL

Marie Collins Foundation

Middlesex University

New Venture Fund

Protect Children Finland

Swansea University

Thorn (2 projects)

Technology University of Dublin

UNICEF Headquarters, Child Protection Division

World Health Organisation

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 Annex Safe Online

A. Strengthening Systems, Capacities and Networks

1. Improve reporting, investigation and prosecution of online CSEA cases
Safe Online grantees contributed to strengthening systems to report, investigate and prosecute cases of
online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) by supporting the establishment of child protection units,
investigation tools, reporting mechanisms and capacity of key professionals across multiple countries. More
specifically, in 2021, seven countries established a reporting mechanism to identify and remove child sexual
abuse material (CSAM), which brings the total number of countries where Safe Online has supported the
establishment of CSAM reporting portals to 49 (since 2017). Moreover, in 2021, 12 countries strengthened
the capacities of their hotlines and helplines to effectively report online CSEA.

Safe Online Portfolio Results In 2021 From 2017-2021

National CSAM reporting portals 7 49

Online CSEA cases reported Over 3,300 More than 6,000

Child victims of online CSEA identified Over 1,200 Nearly 5,000

Child victims of online CSEA referred to services Nearly 200 Over 2,000

Perpetrators identified Over 700 More than 3,000

Key highlights
Serbia and Albania established their national Thanks to a law enforcement tool developed by
Hotlines (NET Patrola and isigurt.al) to report Thorn, investigators in Germany were able to
CSAM and related standard operations protocols arrest an offender who had shared CSAM of a
to manage the hotline developed with technical toddler and was planning to abuse his unborn
support from INHOPE. child, and investigators in Canada identified two
victims, a 13-year-old boy and girl. In 2021 only,
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) launched
the investigation tool developed by Thorn helped
five new portals to report and remove CSAM in
identify 1,049 child victims and 711 abusers.
Argentina, Kenya, Guatemala, Morocco, and
Tunisia, bringing the total number supported by In 4 years (2017-2021), the tool supported the
the Safe Online grant since 2017 to 30 portals1 identification of over 3,500 child victims, it was
featuring 14 different languages. Overall, 21 Child used across 50 countries and reduced investigation
Sexual Abuse Imagery (68 since 2017) and 17 time by 68%.
Child Previously Actioned content (74 since 2017)
representing 38 CSAM (143 since 2017) were
recognised through the portals.

In 2021, the Kenya Anti-Human Trafficking and The Sri Lanka National Child Protection Authority
Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) analysed a total of (NCPA) adopted the new mobile applications
7,821 CyberTip2 with 202 CyberTips identified as “1929 Child Protection” to re-port online CSEA and
actionable reports which resulted in one arrest. The the “Law Enforce-ment Officer” to manage cases
Unit was established with financial and operational of online CSEA developed by Save the Children
support from UNICEF Kenya thanks to the Safe with funds from Safe Online. The 1929 app was
Online grant, in partnership with the National Center downloaded nearly 1,000 times by the end of 2021.
for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and
INTERPOL.

1
Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Nepal, The Gambia, Comoros, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Zimbabwe,
Pakistan, Haiti, Mali, Mongolia, Indonesia, Senegal, Malaysia, El Salvador, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana.
2
A CyberTip, short for CyberTipline report, is a report regarding suspected online crimes against children.

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Safe Online supported the capacity of various national Child Helplines to receive reports and provide
support services to child victims of online CSEA.

Case of online CSEA received and In 2021 From 2017-2021

referred to support services

Uganda* Child Helpline (UCHL) 115 748

Kenya Child Helpline and Field Offices 162 574

Mongolia Child Helpline 37 70

Madagascar** Helpline LV 147, Arozaza 57 100

Online Reporting Platform, National
Police Cybercrime Services

*The Uganda Child Helpline registered a total of **In 2021, the Madagascar “Arozaza Online
8,458 cases of violence against children in 2021, Reporting Platform” got 13,771 visits, hosted 30 new
out of which 115 related to online CSEA. It seems articles and resources, and received 10 reports of
that reporting of online CSEA cases remains low online abuse (including three cases of child sexual
due to lack of knowledge about risks, how and abuse images). 586 cases of violence against
where to report, as well as limited law enforcement children were reported through the “Helpline LV
capacity to manage online CSEA cases. Cases are 147”, two were online CSEA. 193 cases of online
reported as sexual abuse and handled as such CSEA were reported to the Police Cybercrime Unit,
without specifying online CSEA as the nature of 96 cases are being investigated, 97 were referred
the offence. to the justice sector.

UN0633046

UN0633046

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2. Expand and improve the quality of services for child victims of online CSEA
Safe Online aims to strengthen systems and equip practitioners with the necessary tools and skills to
respond to cases of online CSEA in a timely, child-friendly and gender-sensitive manner to ensure early
identification, and recovery of child victims while supporting their families. In 2021, despite COVID-19
restrictions trainings to law enforcement continued to be key to strengthen national capacities to report,
investigate and prosecute online CSEA cases (over 5,000 law enforcement officials were trained in 2021,
around 25,000 since 2017). More than 2,000 services providers were engaged in capacity building
activities, bringing up the total number since 2017 to over 10,000.

Safe Online Portfolio Results In 2021 From 2017-2021

Law enforcement officials trained Over 5,000 Nearly 25,000

Social service providers engaged in More than 2,000 Over 10,000

capacity development

Key highlights
Costa Rica’s Social Protection Agency (IMAS) The Council of Europe provided training to 654
incorporated the E-Mentores virtual course government officials including law en-forcement
developed by Fundacion Paniamor in their human officers (3,445 since 2018) in dif-ferent countries
resources platform. Since 2017, 1,733 public officers including the Republic of Moldova, Turkey and
(1,200 in 2021) graduated as ‘E-Mentores agents’ Ukraine. A training module on online CSEA
by completing the learning program on child online “Improving opera-tional capacities to tackle online
safety that aims to strengthen their understanding CSEA’’ was finalised and translated in 10 languages.
of online CSEA including prevention, reporting
and approaches to convey relevant information
to families.

In Kenya, 52 judges and magistrates (353 since The Uganda Director of Public Prosecution rolled
2018) and 28 prosecutors (37 since 2018) were out the multi-disciplinary training curriculum on
trained thanks to UNICEF on child online safety and gender-based violence/violence against children
on the role of judicial officers in the prosecution of including online CSEA for justice actors and social
online CSEA cases. A mandatory Child Protection welfare officers, with the support of UNICEF in the
Workforce Training Curriculum is now in place country. In 2021, the course was completed by 73
and is embedded within the Kenya School of child protection professionals which brings the
Government to ensure sustainability of training total number to 169 since 2017. 26 participants
for professionals. Moreover, 30 police officers, completed the “Training of Trainers on online
prosecutors and judges working on cybersecurity CSEA” as part of the Uganda Government
and child safety benefited from an online training Taskforce led by Ministry of Gender Labour
course delivered by the Internet Watch Foundation and Social Development (MGLSD) which
in coordination with the International Centre for included representatives from education,
Missing & Exploited Children. justice and social welfare.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutorial The Global Protection Online Network platform
Training Centers (JPTCs) developed an educational developed by Marie Collins Foundation counted
programme on child online safety for judges and 285 members includes the e-learning training
prosecutors that is now embedded in the standard “Click: Path to Protection” outlining best practices
curricula for judges and prosecutors. 15 judges and to support survivors of online CSEA with their
prosecutors benefited from this training in 2021. recovery. In the first month (December 2021), 40
This was the result of an MOU between JPTC and professionals completed the course available in
the consortium of Safe Online grantees composed English and Vietnamese.
of IFS-Emmaus, UNICEF Country Office and Save
the Children.
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Annex Safe Online

As of December 2021, 251 members (185 in 2021) of the Dominican Republic Local Protection Boards
were engaged in capacity building activities to prevent, report and support survivors of online violence,
with the support of UNICEF in the country. Also thanks to UNICEF Country Office, in Madagascar, 33
services providers in the cities of Toamasina and Antananarivo were trained on youth-friendly management
of online CSEA cases. In Vietnam, 30 social service providers engaged in capacity-building activities to
support survivors of online violence. As a result of the project Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation
(TOCSE) funded by Safe Online and implemented by World Vision, a team of 38 core trainers comprising
of teachers and child protection officers at school, ward, and district levels are skilled to facilitate training
on child online safety.

3. Generate knowledge, evidence to inform programming, policy and advocacy

Another focus of Safe Online efforts is generating knowledge and evidence on online CSEA to inform
programming and influence policies and practices of governments and other key stakeholders at all levels.
In 2021, grantees continued to carry out pioneering data collection efforts across many countries in the
world, including through primary research (e.g. Disrupting Harm) and reviews of legal frameworks, policies
and regulations to evaluate countries’ capabilities and inform legal and policy reform, amounting to a total of
26 reviews of legal and policy frameworks and gap analysis (nearly 300 since 2017).

Key highlights
The Dominican Republic study “Adolescentes y el The Baseline Mapping for the Council of Europe
uso de Internet” produced by UNICEF and informed 47 Member States on policies, legislations and best
by a national survey with adolescents (12-17 years practices on online CSEA was updated
old) was published in September 2021. The study in 2021. A comparative review of existing
grasps the attitudes, perceptions and practices of mechanisms to coordinate efforts to tackle online
children towards online risks and harms including CSEA and a review of training materials for law
CSEA and provides actionable recommendations to enforcement was also conducted in Armenia,
improve prevention and response. Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

In October and November 2021, Kenya and Uganda The review of national responses to online CSEA
officially launched their national assessments in 29 countries “Ending Online Child Sexual
of online CSEA and other forms of violence Exploitation and Abuse: Lessons learned and
against children. These are the first two national promising practices in low- and middle-income
assessments out of the 13 being produced as countries” conducted by UNICEF Headquarters with
part of the large-scale research project Disrupting funds from Safe Online was published in December
Harm implemented in Eastern and Southern Africa 2021. The review shows that many countries have
and Southeast Asia regions. Disrupting Harm is a taken measures to improve online safety but there
holistic and innovative methodology and approach are still many systemic challenges to address. 59%
to conducting comprehensive assessments of of the surveyed countries have national policies or
online CSEA at national and regional levels to strategy, but significant gaps re-main in legislative
better understand how digital technology facilitates frameworks (over 90%). Where laws exist, there is
the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. It’s limited enforcement due to low capacity and lack
funded by Safe Online (US$ 7 million) and jointly of awareness. Child protection systems are weak
implemented by ECPAT International, INTERPOL overall with limited awareness of online CSEA. Due
and UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. See to such shortcomings, there is ineffective imple-
section B of this Appendix for more information mentation of policies and programs to tackle online
about Disrupting Harm. CSEA.

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Annex Safe Online

Since January 2021, in Vietnam online CSEA data Sri Lanka hosted an event supported by Save the
will be disaggregated from the National Hotline 111. Children to discuss how to strengthen national
This is the result of a collaboration between the investigation and prosecution mechanisms to
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and tackle online CSEA and how to empower children
the Tackling Online CSEA project implemented to be Responsible Digital Citizens. More than 300
by World Vision with funds from Safe Online. This participants attended, and panellists included
data is vital for analysing online CSEA trends and government officials, children and representatives
providing evidence to develop future interventions from civil society, INTERPOL, Safe Online, UNICEF
and policies. and the WeProtect Global Alliance.

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Annex Safe Online

4. Strengthen cooperation, policy development at national and regional levels

Safe Online leadership and investments led to significant progress in 2021 for national and regional
engagement and cooperation to tackle online violence against children. This is particularly important
because child online safety is often not a high political priority in most countries and requires significant
cross-country cooperation. In various countries, multi-stakeholder bodies continued to coordinate the cross-
sector collaborations, and new national plans of action or strategies to tackle online violence have been
designed or approved in 2021.

Key highlights
In Palestine, the Palestinian Center for Democracy In 2021, Armenia and Azerbaijan developed na-
and Conflict Resolution organised eight workshops tional strategies on child online safety informed
and roundtables, which were attended by around by the “Gap Analysis of Legislation, Policies and
60 multi-stakeholders including law enforcement, Practices” conducted in 2020 by the Council of
public department officials, Child Protection Europe and funds from Safe Online. Albania in-
Network and civil society to discuss the results cluded the child online safety within its national
of the national study “Online Security for Children: child protection strategy. Ukraine passed legisla-
Safety and Exploitation” and to present the draft tive changes to law articles related to the posses-
of the “Strategic Plan to Protect Children from sion of CSAM and e-evidence provisions.
Online CSEA’’.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Police Directorate The Vietnam’s Network for Child Online Protection
of Federation and District Brcko Police adopted was established in May 2021 with 24 members
the “Strategic Action Plan for Combating (government, industry, media and civil society)
Online Violence against Children in the Digital to coordinate activities to strengthen the country
Environments 2021-2024” with technical support capacity to tackle online CSEA, with the support
from the Safe Online Consortium (IFS-EMMAUS, of World Vision. The Ministry of Information and
Save the Children, UNICEF). Communications is currently developing a national
program on child online safety.

In Cambodia, Technical Working Group on online In August 2021, Costa Rica Minister of Science,
CSEA is coordinating the implementation of the Technology and Communication launched the
“Action Plan to Tackle Online CSEA 2021-2025” led “National Strategy for the prevention and response
by the Cambodia National Council for Children and to online CSEA”, and a Technical Secretariat was
UNICEF Country Office with financial support from established to monitor its implementation.
Safe Online.

5. Ensure child participation in combatting online CSEA

Safe Online grantees work to ensure that children have opportunities to share their experiences,
express their opinions and needs and that these are considered by relevant stakeholders so that policies
and programming can be informed by real life practices. This is done in many ways; for example, via
commissioning studies that consult children or by providing training to children so they can become Safe
Online champions in schools, policy forums and other settings, as well as initiatives where children lead on
the design of policy and awareness raising materials/tools.
Key highlights
As part of the large-scale research project Disrupting Harm, around 13,000 children were interviewed to
gather their experiences and perspectives of online harm and other forms of violence across 13 countries
in two regions (Eastern and Southern Africa Southeast Asia). For one of the research activities, Disrupting
Harm partners gathered insights directly from children through a household survey, about a range of
different experiences that can constitute online CSEA. Data were collected between December 2020 to
April 2021. Nationally representative random samples of approximately 1,000 children aged 12 to 17 were
obtained in each of the 13 countries between December 2020 and April 2021.
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Annex Safe Online

In June 2021, 15-year-old Nguyen Duc Toan During 2021, in Madagascar 166 members of 11
from Vietnam was selected to represent Young Reporters’ Clubs in Atsinanana, Boeny
children and share his opinion on violence in and Analanjirofo regions received training on
schools including online CSEA to contribute child online safety and media content production
to regional advocacy efforts to prepare for thanks to UNICEF, which resulted in all 11 clubs
governments and decision-makers joining the G7 developing a three-month action plan (currently
and Global Replenishment Summit. The child was being implemented) for the production of radio
selected as he had joined the “Basecamp” digital programs on child online safety to be broadcasted
platform for child-led mobilisation thanks to the on local radio stations. In addition, a training of
Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation (TOCSE) trainers reached 36 young people who trained
project im-plemented by World Vision International facilitators of education sessions for children that
with funds from Safe Online. resulted in 6,870 children participating in education
activities on child online safety (21,635 since 2018)
across six regions.

6. Engage industry, media and technology solutions

Industry and the media have a critical role to play to ensure children are safe online, and many grantees
are piloting new approaches to facilitate their engagement. Consultations and events were organised
to strengthen this aspect, and by December 2021, nearly 500 industry and 17 media representatives
benefitted from trainings or education activities on child online safety (more than 4,000 and 400 since 2017,
respectively), and 25 industry partners (over 1,500 since 2017) agreed to ICT standards to protect children
from online violence.

Key highlights
In Peru, Softnyx Latino (owner of video game platforms such as Rakion, Wolfteam, Operation7 and
Gunbound) made progress towards making its game platforms safer for children. As a result of an
agreement and training delivered by Capital Humano y Social Alternativo with funds from Safe Online, the
content of the game platforms has been adapted to assist users in identifying and managing risks of online
CSEA and they are currently working to incorporate online CSEA in their safeguard policies.

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In 2021, IWF organised roundtables with ICT In Madagascar, in 2021, 17 new cyber cafes signed
industry in Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia and Argentina, the code of conduct to fight against online CSEA
reaching 326 participants in total. Throughout the bringing the total number of cybercafes reached
project funded by Safe Online (2017-2021), IWF has to date to 78. This is the result of a collaboration
reached 1,229 participants with these roundtables between the Regional Directorate of the Ministry
targeting ICT industry partners in order to support of Population in the Atsinanana region and the
the development and implementation of industry Regional “Cyber Friends of Children Association”
standards around online CSEA. created with technical support from UNICEF and
financial support from Safe Online.

In Costa Rica, Fundacion Paniamor finalised the In Vietnam, the Da Nang Department of Information
design of the Code ‘’E-Mentores’’ for ICT private & Communication (DOIC) issued the Code of
sector; a self-regulatory mechanism to establish Conduct for ICT businesses with the support of
rules and responsibilities for industry to discourage World Vision, with focus on: (i) building protocols
and sanction child online abuse practices. As of that prohibit access to and ensure the removal
December 2021, eight ICT companies were part of of CSAM; (ii) collaboration with law enforcement
the E-Mentores program (two joined in 2021) and investigating online CSEA incidents; (iii) providing
had adopted the E-Mentores resources in their guidance to children to use ICT services safely;
corporate responsibility programs. In addition to (iv) designing online platforms to enable children’s
this, 185 employees of ICT companies had been participation, and; (v) developing digital education
trained on online safety by the end of 2021. content for children. The Code of Conduct has
been informally shared with 250 ICT businesses,
and DOIC plans to present it officially at a workshop
in 2022.

7. Build resilience, enhance digital education and awareness raising, and address social norms
In 2021, with Safe Online support, nearly 100,000 children and nearly 50,000 community participants
(more than 32,000 caregivers and relatives, and nearly 12,000 members of the community) were
engaged in digital education and awareness raising activities on child online safety. Since 2017, around
900,000 children and more than 200,000 community participants have been engaged in similar activities.
Additionally, over five million people (nearly 35 million people since 2017) were reached via advocacy and
information campaigns, news media outlets and publications and social media channels covering issues
related to online CSEA.

Safe Online Portfolio Results In 2021 From 2017-2021

Children engaged in education activities on Nearly 100,000 Nearly 900,000

online safety

Community participants (parents, educators, Nearly 50,000 More than 200,000

child service providers) engaged in education
activities on online safety for children

Individuals reached through mass media; Over 5 million Nearly 35 million

information/advocacy campaigns

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Key highlights
In Mongolia, the child online safety resource hub In Tanzania, child online safety messages reached
www.ekids.mn and two nationwide campaigns 426 school children in 2021. Since the start of the
“Unfriend the Unknown” and “Share the Good” Safe Online grant to UNICEF in 2018, the National
reached three million people in 2021, and 6.4 Child Helpline C-Sema and Local Authorities
million since the start of the Safe Online grant reached a total of 5,500 school children with
provided to UNICEF in 2018. messages on online safety across five regions.

In Vietnam, 5,257 children and 2,644 community members (parents, teachers, child service providers)
were engaged in educational activities on child online safety in 2021 and 2,966 children accessed child-
friendly resources on online safety. Since the start of the Safe Online grant to World Vision in 2018, more
than 16,000 children had access to events, leaflets, plays/dramas, videos, posters, paintings, online
contests, website and the counselling corner at Da Nang Center for Social Work.

In Costa Rica, in 2021, the E-Mentores program In Ghana, a Digital Literacy Package for schools
developed by Fundacion Paniamor reached 364 was finalised in 2021 to equip children with digital
teachers, and 3,898 children (11,588 since 2017) literacy and resilience skills. This is the result of a
had access to child friendly resources on online joint collaboration between multiple Ministries, civil
safety via different tools and platforms - e.g., society organisations and UNICEF; the Package is
E-Compa toolkit (interactive audio-visual platform to awaiting final approval from the National Council
learn about online safety from other peers). In 2021, for Curriculum and Assessment. 144 trainers have
701 adults engaged in education activities on child already been trained to facilitate the Package
online safety (6,027 since 2017). rollout at subnational level.

In Uganda, 22,695 caregivers were reached in 2021 (42,826 since 2017) through household visits and
community gatherings with messages on parenting, counselling and mentoring on how to support children
including how to prevent and respond to online CSEA. A total of 17,500 students are using the Kolibri
platform3 that contains over 37 resources related to violence against children, internet safety and online
CSEA. Thanks to a collaboration between Local Education Departments, a business company (Bishop Willis
Core PTC) and UNICEF, in 2021, 405 teachers and students were trained to use Kolibri in 27 secondary
schools across nine districts. To date, Kolibri has been deployed in 50 schools with 750 teachers and
students trained.

3
Kolibri is a computer-based programme that can be used for teaching-learning processes, it’s an offline and online learning platform for marginalised adolescents. Kolibri
has over 37 digital resources and topics related to violence against children, internet safety and online CSEA.

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B. Evidence Generation
In 2021, Safe Online continued to make a strong push for generating evidence on both trends and threats to
children in digital environments, as well as on what works to end online CSEA.
During 2021, the three Disrupting Harm partners (ECPAT International, INTERPOL and UNICEF Office
of Research - Innocenti) continued implementing the large-scale research project to shed light on the
nature and scope of online CSEA in 13 countries - seven in Eastern and Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya,
Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), and six in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam). Leveraging the unique and comprehensive evidence
gathered, Disrupting Harm identifies practical and actionable solutions to protect children from sexual abuse
and exploitation both online and in other contexts.

In addition, Safe Online and the Tech Coalition (Project Protect) teamed up in 2021 to establish a Tech
Coalition Safe Online Research Fund. The Fund awarded grants to five organisations conducting innovative
research that will inform product and policy development to protect children online. Specifically, research
will help inform the technology industry’s approach to combating online CSEA by increasing understanding
and tools for grooming detection, supply-side offending, offender help-seeking behaviour and support to
content moderators.

Key highlights
In the last quarter of 2021, the first two Disrupting Harm national assessments were launched with key
findings and actionable recommendations for the government, lawmakers, industry and other actors to
strengthen the national prevention and response to online CSEA. The Kenya national report was released
at a virtual launch event held on 27 October 2021 and attended by 80 participants. The Uganda report was
released at a hybrid event held on 16 November 2021, attended by 41 in-person participants and 29 joined
virtually. Both events marked good representation from the government along with other key stakeholders
and regional and in-country partners.

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Key findings from Kenya and Uganda include but are not limited to the following:

7% of children in Kenya and 9% in Uganda have had There are almost no gender differences in
their sexual images shared with others without their children’s experience of online CSEA; boys and girls
consent, in the past year alone. This represents an are both subjected to differing forms of online child
estimated 350,000 children per year in Kenya and sexual exploitation and abuse.
approximately 215,000 children in Uganda.

In Kenya, less than 5% of children who were Some children interviewed in Kenya said that the
subjected to online CSEA in the past year say reporting process was re-traumatising because they
they formally reported to the police or a were required to re-tell their experience many times
national helpline most commonly due to fears of throughout the process. In Uganda, the interviews
stigmatisation. Similarly, too many children are not show that children were rarely able to bring cases
reporting in Uganda for fear of stigma or belief it to justice through the court system.
will not lead to change or “not knowing where to
go or whom to tell.

In 2021, nine Disrupting Harm national consultations to facilitate the engagement of key stakeholders
were held in seven countries and secured attendance from over 400 participants including government,
civil society and UN representatives.

In June 2021, the Kenya national consultation In December 2021, the Philippines national
organised by the Kenya Alliance for Advancement consultation was attended by 42 participants.
of Children and UNICEF was attended by 39 Remarks were delivered by several government
participants including representatives from the officials including the Assistant Secretary
De-partment of Children Services, Childline Kenya, Department of Social Welfare and Development,
INTERPOL, Judiciary, National Council for Chil- Division Chief, Policy, Plans, and Research Division,
dren Services, National Law Reform Commission, Council for the Welfare of Children, and the
National Film Classification Board, Office of the Executive Director at the Cybercrime Investigation
Director of Public Prosecutions, amongst other and Coordination Center.
government agencies and partners.

In August 2021, in Uganda, a national consultation Tanzania hosted two consultations, in September
was attended by 45 participants and with opening 2021, with 40 participants and in October with 47
remarks by a representative from the Ministry of participants with contributions from the National
Gender, Labour and Social Development. Child Online Safety Task Force.

Vietnam hosted two consultations, in October 2021, with 38 participants and in December with 35
participants from across sectors.

In September 2021, the Ethiopia national In July 2021, the Thailand national consulta-tion was
consultation session was attended by 25 attended by 100 participants, with opening remarks
participants with opening remarks by the State by the Permanent Secre-tary from the Ministry of
Minister for Youth Affairs and representatives from Digital Society and Economy and a representative
the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth and from the Min-istry of Social Development and
Ministry, federal law enforcement, international Human Se-curity.
agencies and civil society.

The first ever Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund grants were announced in 2021. The impacts of
the five research projects have a global reach, with specific focus on the Philippines, Colombia, the UK,
Ireland, Mexico, and South Africa. Three of the research projects began their research at the end of 2021.

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Universidad de Los Andes launched their research Technology University Dublin has kicked off their
work to tackle online grooming, confirming key research project, N-Light, at the end of 2021 which
partnerships and roles for the development of the employs AI to develop a tool to understand trends
work with partners TeProtejo, RedPapaz, and the in perpetrator behaviour (conduct, contact, content)
Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF). The – including grooming. The team has focused first
team has begun developing a buffering effects on ensuring regular exchange with the two key
model for protective parental mediation, one key national project partners - the Irish Society for
component of their work to develop strategies to the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and
mitigate online CSEA. Hotline.ie, the Irish national centre combatting
illegal content online.

Middlesex University initiated their research project ‘’Invisible risks: combating secondary trauma to
safeguard children’’ at the end of 2021, completing a workshop with industry experts that resulted in
a Theory of Change Model. This highlighted important themes around: a) what indicators of change
are important, and b) how these might be measured to show that change has taken place. The scoping
literature has been accepted by The Psychologist to ensure dissemination of the research, along with
publishing a blogpost about content moderation which led to a connection with Ofcom about the study.
Efforts to begin building strong relationships based on trust especially with tech industry contributors is a
key focus from this initial phase of the work.

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C. Technology Solutions
In October 2020, Safe Online invested US$ 10 million and welcomed 15 new grantees working to develop
new or to scale up existing technology tools (AI/ML, data science, open-source software, etc.) aimed at
preventing and responding to online CSEA and complementing previous investments to strengthen the
global architecture to protect children online.
This section provides a brief outline of the 2021 key results of these investments across four main areas
of work:
1. Detect, remove and report images and videos with sexual content or acts involving children
2. Block adults’ access to children on digital platforms intended to sexually abuse them
3. Stop live-streaming of child sexual abuse performed in front of a camera
4. Prevent online CSEA before it happens, including prevention and solutions that directly target online child
sex offenders and adults with a sexual interest in children

1. Detect, remove and report images and videos with sexual content or acts involving children -
often referred to as CSAM
In 2021, Safe Online grantees worked to improve the detection, removal and reporting of images and
videos with sexual content involving children (CSAM) to enable victim identification and assistance at
global, regional and national levels by leveraging the use of the latest technologies in this area. This was
also facilitated through provision of capacity building programs for the law enforcement and other key
stakeholders to deploy frontier technologies to detect, remove and report CSAM both in the open and on
the Dark Web.

Key highlights

Thanks to the Targeted Platform Modules (TPM), Project Arachnid proactively detects CSAM on
platforms that may not show up in a typical crawl approach, through tailored technological tools written
to discover CSAM on these specific platforms. In 2021, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P)
registered a significant increase in detection of known CSAM (640% increase, from around 350,000 in
2020 to more than two million in 2021) and not previously known CSAM (325% increase, from 270,000
in 2020 to nearly 900,000 in 2021) and also noted an increase of 270% in the number of CSAM items
hashed (i.e. assigned a digital fingerprint) and added to shared lists and repositories, such as the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s database or Microsoft’s PhotoDNA platform. This makes
the material available to a wider audience, maximising the chances of further detection. C3P’s strategy
of prioritising sites based on prevalence of CSAM resulted in the addition of 12 new TPMs targeting
a combination of dark web forums, clear web forums, and file-hosting sites. Two ESPs (image hosting
services) were also added to automatic detection based on TPM.

In 2021, the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) processed 928,277 CSAM out of
which 443,705 were shared with INTERPOL via the secure platform ICCAM, a technology platform that
has been in use for years by hotlines all around the world to exchange reports and ensure a speedy
take down of CSAM. With the support of Safe Online, ICCAM has been enhanced with a new Application
Programming Interface (API) for faster classification of CSAM reporting and to maximise interoperability
with ReportBox, the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE)-INTERPOL database, Arachnid, AviaTor
(owned by INHOPE) and other hotline specific reporting systems. In 2021, five hotlines have already
signed up to be onboarded and test the new API, and the last one is scheduled to onboard in 2022. In
addition, the INHOPE network continued to expand with Serbia and Albania as new members and with
six analysts fully trained to operate their Hotline, analyse CSAM reports and use ICCAM platform.

In 2021 with the support from Safe Online, INTERPOL’s DevOps group created a Catalogue of Products
during the second DevOps Working Group meeting organised virtually as TechSprint 2.0 in November

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2021. The DevOpsGroup is composed of online Child Abuse technical experts from law enforcement
agencies, academia, and industry partners. This group aims to be the place where specialised units
in INTERPOL member countries can bring their technical challenges to the DevOpsGroup and where
practical solutions to some will be developed and extended for use. As for the Catalogue developed
in 2021, it lists the functionalities of video fingerprinting/hashing tools developed by different law
enforcement partners so that different stakeholders can find a tool tailored to their needs for investigation
of crimes against children. In 2021, the INTERPOL Crimes against Children Unit (CAC) uploaded 56,238
International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) media (44,760 images, 11,478 videos). The global upload
of ICSE media during the same period was 467,325 (402,354 images, 64,971 videos).

Through the Katalyst Academy Learning Management System (LMS), Project VIC International together
with Pathfinder Labs continues to deliver training to law enforcement in Kerala (India). Prominent
activities in 2021 include responding to reporting outcomes from the LMS that had challenges with
completion rates for more complex self-learning courses. Adaptations were made to split each subject
matter area into Online Training and Instructor-led training which resulted in a 100% completion rate
of the course. Training in 2021 included multiple classes in victim identification during the CSAM
investigation, 25 additional courses, lessons and guest speakers in the area of forensic analysis of cases
and overall workflows. In 2021, India executed large search operations called the P-Hunt Operations
in Kerala that resulted in hundreds of pieces of evidence seized and 14 victims identified; the Kerala
unit was also supplied hardware to safely handle and forensically report the proper findings of the
seized evidence.

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In 2021, more than 1.8 million suspected pieces of CSAM were identified through the use of Thorn’s
CSAM Classifier tool, which was tested by law enforcement professionals worldwide through an existing
investigation platform. The CSAM classifier is meant to automate the review of reports of potential CSAM
to triage and support the processing of the most egregious abuse based on a collaborative global data.
The classifier is also extracting additional information from images (e.g., age, sex, skin tone, hair colour,
eye colour, and the presence of identifying markers), including unseen CSAM. A large tech partner
executed the CSAM Classifiers at full volume with over 223 million images scanned from November to
December 2021 and found reportable and unknown content that can be actioned by partners; as a result
of this there are ongoing plans to lower the strict threshold to find even more content. Thanks to Thorn’s
tools to date, 22 child victims were identified. A user recently reported the identification of an 8-year girl
who was being abused, which was a direct hit from the CSAM Classifier. This led to her recovery and
arrest of her perpetrator.
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2. Block adults’ access to children on digital platforms intended to sexually abuse them - usually
referred to as online sexual grooming or solicitation
In 2021, Safe Online grantees facilitated the blocking of adults’ access to children on digital platforms
for sexual abuse and exploitation purposes (i.e., grooming or solicitation) making use of cutting-edge
technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), but also conducting research in
this area of work.

Key highlights

Safe Online is supporting DeafKidz Defenders, an early intervention tool comprising state of the art
digital, educational and sequential games. This tool is aimed at empowering and resourcing deaf
children aged 6-10 to reduce their risk and vulnerability to online CSEA, to understand their right to
stay safe online and to recognise grooming and solicitation. During 2021, the DK Defenders working
group made up of experts from the fields of deaf education, research, child protection and gaming
development was created by DeafKidz International (DKI) to guide the design of the toolkit DeafKidz
Defenders collaboratively with deaf children. Seven specific themes were selected, with the first four
themes (trusted adult, keeping secrets, saying stop and private body parts) providing a solid knowledge
foundation for deaf children. Three further themes (online bullying, online grooming and indecent images/
videos) were added, and badge symbols were also designed for all seven games to reward the player on
completion of each game.

In 2021, progress was made in the design of Spotter and Shield, vital linguistics / AI powered tools,
developed to help law enforcement identify online grooming content in real-time, as part of Project
DRAGON-S (Developing Resistance Against Grooming Online – Spot and Shield) implemented by the
Swansea University. This project will offer tools based on integrating AI/Linguistics that enable law
enforcement and other professionals (e.g. social workers, educators) to spot online grooming content in
real-time and learn more about this issue. The Alpha testing for Spotter tool which works to pinpoint and
detect manipulative language tactics that groomers use to exploit children, was held in November 2021,
and all phases of the work progressed well and was co-developed and co-created with stakeholders
including some with experience of online grooming and children and young people.

3. Stop live-streaming of child sexual abuse performed in front of a camera - usually referred to as live-
streaming of child sexual abuse material
In 2021, Safe Online grantees continued working to stop live-streaming of CSAM by supporting development
of digital forensic and evidencing tools that can support the work of law enforcement in the digital
environments where the abuse takes place, as well as by building their capacity to conduct video analysis
through AI-based technologies.

Key highlights

During 2021, thanks to Project NEMESIS (a tech solution developed by Child Rescue Coalition that
automates the handling of evidence – including chat logs, data and videos – for live streaming abuse
cases), two child sex trafficking networks were disrupted, four traffickers were arrested, twelve offender
buyers were arrested, and thirteen children were rescued. The Child Rescue Coalition identified
a growing evidence based in livestreamed environments that is shaping the direction of the work
and collaboration with other organisations and technology solutions to ensure synergies and avoid
duplication of efforts. Stakeholder engagement also remains strong, particularly with law enforcement in
developing and informing NEMESIS.

Safe Online is also supporting iCOP 2.0, an artificial intelligence software created to flag new or
previously unknown child sexual abuse material. This new version will extend the software’s reach
to Southeast Asia. In 2021, In 2021, the iCOP 2.0 research teams developed, tested and evaluated a

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keyword list, with contributions from law enforcement, to help towards developing a novel filename
classification approach for the project. This approach utilises a combination of linguistic clues and
specialised vocabulary used by Southeast Asian offenders to share or stream CSEA content on peer-to-
peer networks and will enable improved detection of CSAM material.

4. Prevent online CSEA before it happens, including solutions that target online child sex offenders
and adults with a sexual interest in children
In 2021, Safe Online grantees worked towards the prevention of online CSEA via setting up programs
specifically targeting offenders in different contexts (both at the global and national level), supporting the
development of new and streamlined hotline and helpline tools in different countries, and deepening the
research on this type of behaviours and motivations.

Key highlights

Since 2020, Safe Online is supporting Aselo, Tech Matters’ customisable, open-source, contact center
platform that allows children and youth to reach out to helplines via voice, SMS, webchat, WhatsApp, and
Facebook Messenger. In 2021, Aselo was deployed by Tech Matters in Zambia and South Africa which
resulted in a significant usage increase for Childline Zambia with the average calls per month nearly
doubling; data also reflected an increase in the number of text-based contacts. Support was given from
the Zambian regulator (ZICTA), and Zamtel and MTN routed the Zambia 116 Child Helpline through Aselo.
Work in South Africa included planning for expansion to two new provinces.

Also in 2021, the development of a new interactive online game Emilio, was started by the None in Three
Research Centre at University of Huddersfield. This game aims to understand and tackle behaviours that
lead to online sexual abuse. The team engaged young people, completing research with 67 boys/young
men from Brasilia and Londrina (Brazil) to investigate their attitudes and opinions regarding online child
sexual abuse and more specifically behaviours around ‘sexting’. The None in Three team also consulted
with user reference groups, each comprising 18 young people (boys and girls), to obtain target user
feedback on the game intervention.

In September 2021, Protect Children Finland launched the ReDirection Self-Help Program in English
and Spanish, working to prevent the consumption of CSAM on the Dark Web. In 2021, the program
was accessed by more than 9,000 individuals (around 4,000 on the Dark Web), and Meta platforms,
Facebook and Instagram, and Mindgeek shared this as a resource for their users. A comprehensive
report, CSAM Users in the Dark Web: Protecting Children Through Prevention, based on the two surveys
– Help Us to Help You and No Need for Help, reveal findings that have been recognised and referenced
by organisations globally to develop their work in this space. Notably, 70% of respondents say that
they first saw CSAM when they were under the age of 18, and nearly 40% say that they were under 13
speaking to opportunities for early intervention. Speaking importantly to the clear connection between
viewing CSAM and offline abuse, 44% of respondents said that viewing CSAM made them think about
seeking direct contact with children. And 37% reported that they have sought direct contact with children
after viewing CSAM.

The reThink chatbot project by the IWF - an automated chatbot that detects potential offenders and
refers them to support through the Lucy Faithfull Foundation - was launched in 2021, with a focus on the
United Kingdom. With the help of practitioners and psychologists from The Lucy Faithfull Foundation,
IWF project team have designed a conversation flow to guide an internet user exhibiting offending
behaviours to services offered by the Stop It Now! helpline and have conducted two focus groups with 11
offenders participating who have undergone treatment and counselling. When the chatbot is deployed it
will enhance efforts to curb the demand for criminal images on the internet.

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D. Network Building and Strategic Direction

Alongside the investments, Safe Online fosters knowledge generation and collaboration within the Safe
Online Community of grantees and the wider ecosystem to maximise the use of collective resources and
ensure investments have a broader impact.

Throughout 2021, the Safe Online team supported the grantee community through tailored technical
support in the form of match-making with necessary expertise and connections, advocacy, communications
and resource mobilisation support, and knowledge exchange opportunities through global webinars to
promote learning within the grantee community and the wider ecosystem.

As part of this, in 2022, Safe Online hosted its second Safe Online Network Forum and Donor Convening
on the side of the WeProtect Global Alliance Summit in Brussels, Belgium.

Safe Online grantees, partners, and industry representatives joined from across the world for ‘networking
and knowledge-sharing’. The Safe Online community engaged on critical discussions around turning
evidence into change, cross-sector collaborations, emerging trends and key priorities in the CSEA
ecosystem. The Donor Convening, co-hosted with the WeProtect Global Alliance, provided a unique
opportunity to get insights from frontline organisations working to tackle online CSEA in preparation for
strategic deliberations with key global leaders, influencers and survivors of CSEA at the Summit in Brussels.

Following the two Open Calls launched in September 2021, in 2022 Safe Online welcomed a new cohort of
grantees working on evidence-based programs to strengthen national and regional systems, capacity and
networks to tackle online CSEA and on cutting-edge technology tools for the global community to make the
Internet safe for children. In 2022, Safe Online is also expected to expand the large-scale research project
Disrupting Harm to other regions of the world to generate comparable robust and comprehensive evidence
on how digital technology can facilitate risks and harm to children. Additionally, in 2022, Safe Online is
planning to continue its collaboration with the Tech Coalition and as part of this to launch the second Tech
Coalition Safe Online Research Fund Open Call. This will continue supporting innovative research that
can impact relevant policy and product development, with a priority given to research that can help inform
technology industry’s approach to combating online CSEA.

Finally, building on End Violence’s role as advocate and convener, Safe Online will continue to actively
advocate and influence key global and regional policy debates on the Internet, digital platforms and
services regulation that have an impact on children’s safety online.

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Cover Photo UNI235962 @End Violence Partnership