INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children—exploring knowledge uptake, use and impact

Abstract

Levels of violence against children remain high worldwide. A focused commitment in the child protection sector and from health and development agencies worldwide has delivered impressive baseline metrics on the scope of and trends for violence against children. Alongside this data, agreement around global guidelines—INSPIRE: Seven strategies for Ending Violence Against Children—and a host of related practice, learning and advocacy products has ensured a steady supply of knowledge to the field. As a result, high level political awareness for the prevention of violence against children (VAC) grows, yet full scale endorsement for the implementation of evidence-based strategies still falls short. A brief history of how the INSPIRE global guidelines were incubated, developed, and disseminated worldwide helps assess how knowledge is positioned, generated, and analysed. A call for reflecting on how to balance the supply and demand of INSPIRE knowledge for the field is forwarded. This review of progress made, and the challenges ahead, is timely as INSPIRE undergoes revisions just short of the 2030 SDG deadline.

Keywords

• Violence prevention
• Child protection
• Practice-based learning
• Knowledge generation