National commitments of countries eager to end violence against children have grown rapidly since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The pandemic of violence against children is one that the world continues to confront in a focused and coordinated way. In 2016, the multi-agency, multi-sectoral technical package ‘INSPIRE’ was published. INSPIRE represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence to help countries and communities intensify their focus on the prevention programs and services with the greatest potential to reduce violence against children. The INSPIRE strategies encompass:
Also in that year, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children was established with the country “Pathfinder” model at the center of its strategy. Pathfinding countries are those whose government leaders commit to comprehensive action to end all forms of violence against children. The Pathfinder model has the potential to serve as an ideal platform for coordinated national action to scale implementation of the INSPIRE strategies. This Guide’s subject matter is on the adaptation and scale up of the INSPIRE approach.
As each country’s approach to violence against children is unique to its needs, priorities, and capacities, the Guide is designed to highlight the decisions that need to be made in the adaptation and scaling up of the multi-sectoral INSPIRE approach. It then provides simple tools for collecting and analyzing the information needed to take action. This Guide is a practical and flexible tool to help policy makers and practitioners make decisions as they select, adapt and implement activities to prevent and respond to violence against children. It is our hope that this will be a significant next step towards INSPIRE’s goal of improving the lives of children and their families.
This Guide is a reference that can be used as priority activities to end violence against children are selected and implemented. While neither adaptation or scale up are new ideas to most readers, we often approach them without adequate planning. We may make adaptation decisions without anticipating shifts in resources, capacities, mandates, policies, or timelines. Often, we decide to expand activities to new sites assuming they will take root without considering long-term sustainability. We can avoid this by developing a structured adaptation and scale-up strategy. This will support our country’s action plan to end violence against children by establishing goals appropriate to local conditions; setting benchmarks to know if we are meeting our objectives; and creating conditions that help us broaden and sustain success.
This INSPIRE Guide is not a technical resource on ending violence against children specifically. Rather, it is a resource on the adaptation and scale up of activities as part of each country’s action plan to end violence against children.
This Guide was written with several “users” in mind. It is most directly intended to assist government-led National Coordination Mechanisms. We hope it will help them apply an adaptation and scale-up “lens” to their national action plans to end violence against children. Other government users might be at regional, departmental or district levels who serve as local resources for the national coordinating body.
Another kind of user for this guide will be members of the “Resource Team” that the National Coordination Mechanism chooses to work alongside them. As described in detail in Module Two, Resource Team members are invited by the National Coordination Mechanism to extend their skills and knowledge base and ensure that adaptation and scale-up expertise is distributed more widely throughout the country.
Finally, a key user may be local implementers of activities selected to be adapted and scaled (that is, Implementing Partners). While some of the modules and tools are most useful to National Coordination Mechanism + Resource Team members, a lot of adaptation and scale-up guidance can—and should—be used by Implementing Partners as they scale up their activities to end violence against children. Ideally, these partners will work closely with the National Coordination Mechanism to apply the lessons this Guide contains.
It is no surprise that adaptation and scale up require time and resources. Members of the National Coordination Mechanism balance many obligations, and funds are limited. But, to make the most out of this guide, the National Coordination Mechanism should meet regularly (as a full committee or in sub-committees), at least every three months. To make this happen, we suggest that the National Coordination Mechanism work with other government authorities and donors to ensure national commitment to human and financial resources to scale the INSPIRE approach. Funding for national or local meetings, data collection, site visits, etc. is part of any coordination task.
Resource mobilization is a critical priority for adaptation and scale. Without human and budget resources, serious efforts to adapt and scale activities to end violence against children may not happen.
Each country has developed an action plan that provides a vision for ending violence against children. There is no standard format for action plans across countries—some are very detailed and concrete, while others are more general. Because each country’s action plan is unique to their own needs, priorities, and capacities, this Guide is designed to be flexible. It highlights the key decisions needed to adapt and scale the INSPIRE approach and offers tools to collect and reflect on the information needed to make those decisions. We invite you to use this Guide in any way that works best for you. Use some of the tools, or all of them, in any order that makes sense to you.
Your action plan sets your country’s objectives to end violence against children, and the INSPIRE approach helps us to create supporting strategies to meet these goals. The INSPIRE adaptation and scale-up strategy and tools found in this Guide then support you to build this approach, and realize the results, on a wider scale.
