Child Abuse Programme (2009)

Learning Initiative

The programme will invest in learning both through its own learning programme and through grant support to its partners. For its own programme of work, four areas for global learning have been selected:

• Learning from the life experience of children, families and communities to inform our understanding of resilience.
• What motivates negative actors in the chain of sexual abuse/exploitation.
• How communities protect their children where there are no official services.
• What do we know about children’s vulnerability to sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and related trafficking.

Child Resilience

A multi-country research project, the Bamboo project, is currently being developed with the support of an International Steering Committee. It is within this context that the following documents have been developed. Please click on the hyperlinks to download them.

• Towards an operational definition of the resilience approach. A working synthesis of an Oak-sponsored discussion held in 2007.
• A Review of Literature on the Evidence of Impact of the Resilience Approach. Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights Resource Center (PST CRRC),Manila, Philippines. Emily A. Palma and Faye G. Balanon, May 2007.
• Approaches based on resilience: their impact on prevention programmes and therapeutic care giving, in particular in the field of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. A review of literature, Edited by Enza Morale, CNRS, l’Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST), Nancy, France, June 2007.
• Les approches basées sur la résilience: leur impact dans les programmes de prévention et les prises en charge thérapeutiques, en particulier dans le champ des abus sexuels subis dans l’enfance et de l’exploitation sexuelle des enfants. Dossier de synthèse documentaire rédigé par Enza Morale, psychologue, ingénieur CNRS, l’Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST), Nancy, France, Juin 2007.

Occasional Papers

• Recuperación y Reintegración de los Niños que sufren los Efectos de la Explotación Sexual y el Tráfico Infantil. Informe encargado por Oak Foundation Child Abuse Programme. Geneva 2008
• Recovery and Reintegration of Children from the Effects of Sexual Exploitation and Related Trafficking, Geneva 2008
• Working together with children Stimulating multi-level responses for children and families Oak Foundation, Geneva, April 2006
• Working together for child protection programme sharing from Ethiopia, by Andrew Wright, Oak Foundation and Emmanuel Development Association

List of grants

• Harvard Kennedy School of Government

  To fund a project in Sierra Leone to prevent sexual abuse and protect children from it and to build the capacity of community volunteers to assess children’s well-being. The process will be monitored and findings will inform the global inter-agency initiative looking at community-based child protection mechanisms. The project involves academics and child protection NGOs and works closely with government and UNICEF. USD 250,000 (Over two years)

• Medical Research Council of South Africa

  To support the core work of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) to inform and improve policy and practice in relation to sexual violence. Its starting premise is that good policy and practice is based on a sound understanding of the nature, prevalence, contexts and risks of sexual violence, effectiveness of response, and effective prevention strategies. SVRI is committed to strengthening research capacity, especially in low- and middle-income countries. It will also undertake work aimed at developing a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder strategy for reducing the incidence of rape. USD 448,650 (Over two years)

• Open University

  To evaluate the research phase of the Bamboo project on resilience, to help ensure the findings are safe and replicable and that emergency thinking, policy and practice applications are well founded. The evaluation team will look at the initial framing of the research, projects in at least three countries, national and global findings, and recommendations around policy and practice. It will also look at the methodology adopted and make recommendations about this approach to learning and its potential in other parts of the learning agenda. USD 109,227 (Over two years)

• Terre des Hommes Lausanne

  To engage a wide, participative and innovative process of research to obtain a better knowledge of the existing forms of children’s mobility in West Africa. The project will build a common understanding of the issue, bringing together national and international governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. It will also elaborate and disseminate policy and programmatic recommendations aimed at reducing children’s vulnerability and improving the protection of mobile children and young people, while acknowledging that some aspects of mobility are integral to the functioning of African societies. USD 216,957 (Over two years)

• Tides Center

  To undertake key parts of the administration of the Bamboo project, a multicountry, multi-faceted research project looking at resilience in children who have experienced or are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation. The Bamboo project includes discrete but connected learning projects in up to four countries. In addition to valuable findings in each country, the project should result in the generation of cross-country learning that will contribute to the sector’s understanding about the benefits of an approach that builds on the strength and capacity of children, their families and their communities. USD 199,280

• University of Oxford – Department of International Development

  To contribute to an enhanced understanding of the nature and long-term consequences of childhood poverty through research methods tracking 12,000 children in four developing countries over 15 years. Funding will create new opportunities to strengthen the link between this research and practitioners. It will allow additional specific research on issues such as risk and resilience, migration, violence in schools and child labour, which may be linked with heightened risks of abuse and exploitation. USD 339,194 (Over two years)

Child Abuse Programme