Representative of UN End Violence Against Children initiative visits DOVE
Pelotas is on track to become the second city in Brazil, besides Sao Paulo, designated a UN Pathfinder City to end violence against children. The municipality is expected to join the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children following a dialogue initiated in January of this year on a visit by a representative of the UN initiative, Cassia Carvalho, to Pelotas.
“It was a match. We already knew about the cooperation between the university and public authorities in Pelotas, putting parenting interventions in place to help families provide safer home environments for children. We also identified that local policies, such as the Pacto Pelotas pela Paz, meet many of our recommendations for tackling child violence”, says Carvalho, who works at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to engage countries and cities in the global partnership.
According to the representative, Pathfinder Cities are committed to fulfilling six steps: 1) building political will and engagement with the agenda, 2) establishing a multi-stakeholder platform, which involves social assistance, health, education, justice, and public security, 3) providing data and indicators, 4) developing an action plan, 5) implementing the action plan, and 6) monitoring the results based on evidence.
In return, the global partnership provides technical support to remove obstacles for implementing these steps. The aim is to accelerate progress towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially target 16.2, which proposes to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
The PIÁ study by the DOVE Research Centre led to a key public policy arm for preventing child violence in the city. In joint action with the Municipal Government, the DOVE team coordinated the implementation of two parenting programs – ACT Raising Safe Kids and Dialogic Book-Sharing training. Both programmes were brought to the city in 2018 by DOVE director Joseph Murray in partnership with the Municipal Government of Pelotas. These parent training programmes aim to guide families on how to raise children with affection, free from violence, and promoting children’s cognitive development through sensitive interaction. The DOVE team is now evaluating the impact of these programs in the PIÁ study, and the results will be analysed by the University of Oxford, in England, between the months of May and July.
“Parental and caregiver support programs are key strategies for breaking cycles of poverty and social adversity and contributing to violence prevention. Our study will provide evidence on how to tailor these programs to low-and-middle income countries like Brazil, and test the benefits for families and children in Pelotas,” says Murray.
During her visit to Pelotas, the representative of the Global Partnership met with the DOVE team to learn in detail about the centre’s studies on child development and causes, consequences and prevention of violence. The meeting also included a tour of the Centre for Epidemiological Research at UFPel, where the PIÁ study is being conducted.
