Strengthening intersectoral collaboration for the prevention of violence against children. Meeting report (2020)

Tallinn, Estonia,14-15 January 2020

The WHO Regional Office for Europe, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia jointly organized a two-day sub-regional workshop on the prevention of violence against children. The aim of the meeting was to build institutional capacity by promoting the exchange of expertise in the intersectoral response in promoting societal support to end violence against children through intersectoral action and to further develop the foundations for shared experience and ongoing collaboration across the region. Specific objectives included deliberating the burden of violence against children, risk factors such as alcohol, poverty and social exclusion, and the benefits of investing in children and the life-course approach; receiving examples of good practice on the prevention of violence in childhood from across Europe, including Pathfinding countries, with a focus on the Nordic countries; discussing the role of the health, welfare, education and justice sectors in an intersectoral response to preventing violence against children and how this could apply to participating countries; and encouraging the development of regional networks to strengthen the prevention of violence against children and expand the network of Pathfinder Countries; exploring how parliamentarians can lead national campaigns in setting standards to end violence against children and how practitioners can support them in standard setting and monitoring; and exchanging country experience on successful implementation of evidence based and data driven prevention programmes.