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What we're learning

 

For the Child Abuse Programme, learning is not an isolated function or an end in itself. For us, learning is one of the strategies through which we can support improvements in programming and policy-making in the field of child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. Ideally, learning combines evidence from practice and academic research and is enriched by the connection and interplay of both. In our view, combining the rigour of academic thinking with the wisdom and experience of  practitioners, and recognising expertise from both the North and the South, are key for credible, relevant and accessible learning.

 

Building and finding evidence of what interventions are most effective and useful in different contexts is central to learning. The evidence gives practitioners the basis for scaling up interventions or undertaking advocacy to influence policies and practice more widely.

 
By supporting learning, we hope to contribute to the development of evidence that supports our partners in their quest to implement effective programmes.  Learning will help us better target our investments in the sector and we hope that it also informs and strengthens the child protection sector as a whole. 

 
For Oak Foundation, this commitment to learning is reflected in three distinct strands of work:

  1. Framing and investing in learning through grants on priority issues identified with partners. These make up Oak Foundation’s Learning Agenda.
  2. Encouraging learning in other related priority areas that have emerged from over 10 years of grant-making.
  3. Encouraging better monitoring and evaluation of all of the projects we support, to contribute to the pool of practice-generated learning on sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.    

For more information on these three strands of work, download our What we're learning document.

 

Examples of Learning Projects

 

The Bamboo Project

 

Following consultations with partners and experts in the field, we recognised the need to understand more about practice and approaches that claimed to integrate ideas about resilience. While a great deal has been written on the subject of resilience, much of this work failed to take explicit account of the realities and experience of children and families living in the most difficult environments, including those in which the experience or risks of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation were especially high. Our effort to address some of these gaps in knowledge is the Bamboo initiative. More >>

 

Closing the gap betwen rights and realities for children and youth in urban Brazil

 

In many countries there is a wide gap between the rights guaranteed to children and young people under the law and the implementation of those rights, especially for some of the most vulnerable or marginalised in society. Based on work in Brazil, this report highlights an initiative of the International Centre for Research on Policy and Childhood (CIESPI), in Rio de Janeiro. It reflects on strategies for supporting and influencing the key actors working at the level of the municipality, to help them to translate national policies and laws into action, and addresses some of the challenges they and their partners encountered along the way. More >>

 

Interagency Learning Initiative on Community-Based Child Protection Mechanisms and Child Protection Systems

 

Families and communities are at the front line of efforts to protect children from abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation; in many settings they may be the only resources that are accessible and able to respond to serious child protection threats. And yet, to date, there is very little evidence about how they function, how they connect with and inform the emerging discourse on national child protection systems, and how they might be strengthened or supported in addressing threats to the well-being of their children and young people.

 

We are supporting an interagency, multi-site action research project to provide some of the answers to these questions, which we hope will inform future developments in the sector. More >>

 

 

Additional Resources