Examining the effectiveness of communication approaches to address violence against children: A global systematic review

In 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study concluded that violence against children (VaC) happens everywhere, in every country and across social groups. Addressing VaC requires a culture supportive of child rights... [ view full abstract ]

In 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study concluded that violence against children (VaC) happens everywhere, in every country and across social groups. Addressing VaC requires a culture supportive of child rights and the adoption of positive norms and practices.
Objectives: Communication for Development (C4D) approaches, which include data and theory driven mass, community, group and interpersonal communication strategies, can challenge socio-cultural norms and practices perpetuating and condoning violence and facilitate desired changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. This systematic review answers the question: “What are the effects of C4D approaches to address VaC?” The systematic review: identified the range and scope of interventions implemented using C4D approaches to address VaC; assessed their effectiveness; and developed programmatic and research recommendations.
Methods: The systematic review examined peer-reviewed and grey literature published between 2000-2013 that utilized C4D approaches and specified children as the key audience or beneficiaries. The systematic review yielded 80,532 manuscripts, of which 302 met review criteria and were coded.
Results: The findings revealed that few interventions are guided by conceptual models, use specific criteria to write measurable programme and communication objectives, segment audiences, or leverage multiple channels. Furthermore, there is a paucity of robust and rigorous evaluation data, especially from low- and middle-income countries, and a serious underutilization of participatory research methods involving children for evaluation. Interventions conducted at scale are notably absent.
Conclusions: Moving forward, interventions should incorporate attention across the life-cycle, address social, emotional and behavioural competencies, embrace a social ecological perspective, and segment audiences with a focus on gender. It is essential to enhance investments in research. UNICEF and partners have developed a set of guidelines to inform programme efforts underway to prevent and respond to violence against children. These guidelines will be rolled out and monitored to build a stronger evidence base in the coming years.