Organized by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the UN Agency for Migration, and the Together for Girls Partnership (which includes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -CDC-, USAID, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UN Women, UNFPA, the Government of Canada and PAHO/WHO itself), the "Regional meeting on prevention and response to violence against girls, boys and adolescents" took place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 7-8, 2017.
The aim of the meeting was to bring together key actors from the Region to discuss the current state of the data collected on violence in childhood, and the programs and policies implemented to address it, in order to strengthen capacities for prevention and response at the national and regional levels.
Together for Girls bases its interventions on a socio-ecological model, looking at reality on an individual, family, community and social levels. It is intended to address violence in its many forms (emotional, physical, sexual, couple, child and adolescent, and community violence).
The model takes into account the impact of violence on health, based on scientific evidence. It uses instruments inter-institutionally developed as "INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children". The program identifies a select group of strategies that have shown success in reducing violence against children. They are: implementation and enforcement of laws; norms and values; safe environments; parent and caregiver support; income and economic strengthening; response and support services; and education and life skills.
INSPIRE approaches the problem in a comprehensive manner since it takes into account both, violence prevention and care of its consequences. It includes data collection (largely with the national VAC surveys), coordination of multisectoral actions (health, education, justice, social services, etc.), strengthening of legal and political frameworks, and social and behavioral change.
Participating organizations and government representatives from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay, among others, shared their experiences, programs, lessons learned and plans. Alessandra Guedes, Regional Advisor for Intrafamily Violence; Betzabé Butrón, Child Health Advisor; and Carmen Martínez, Subregional Advisor on Mental Health and Substance Use participated on behalf of PAHO/WHO.
For more information on the meeting and to access INSPIRE, please visit the following links: https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/207717 and https://www.togetherforgirls.org/.
