Twenty-seven countries participated in the Pre-conference of the Americas: Strengthening the Role of the Health Sector as Part of a Multisectoral Response to Violence against Children and Adolescents.
Bogotá, Colombia, 6 November 2024.- Representatives from the health sector, civil society organizations, and survivors of violence from 27 countries of the Americas shared on Wednesday the progress, lessons learned, and challenges in the response of health systems to violence against children and adolescents and proposed priorities to work on to strengthen the response and multisectoral work.
The exchange took place during the Pre-conference of the Americas: Strengthening the Role of the Health Sector as part of a Multisectoral Response to Violence against Children and Adolescents, a meeting held before the 1st World Ministerial Conference to End Violence against Children and Adolescents, which is being held in Bogota, Colombia, on November 7 and 8.
“Violence against children and adolescents is preventable. It requires a multisectoral approach that addresses the social determinants of violence. Health is not the only sector involved, but it plays a fundamental role,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization
Dr. Jaime Urrego, Vice Minister of Public Health of the Colombian Ministry of Health, thanked PAHO for supporting Colombia in making the Ministerial Conference a reality. He added that the pre-conference is a sign of commitment, courage, and audacity to get things done, and as a Region, we can present a proposal that unifies us. “We aspire and dream that there will be a before and an after and that the commitments of the countries of the region will have noticeable and substantive changes so that we no longer tolerate violence against children,” he added.
The role of health systems in the response to violence against children and adolescents
Violence against children is widespread in the Region of the Americas and takes many different forms, all equally unacceptable. The costs are enormous for children, families, and communities. The Region has the highest child homicide rate in the world. The high risks of sexual violence, especially for girls, and the difficulties in reducing the rate of child marriage are just a few examples of the challenges faced by millions of children and adolescents in the Region. In addition to deaths, millions of children suffer, for example, violence-related injuries that require emergency medical treatment.
Health systems help identify abuse in its early stages, provide child survivors with the necessary care and support, and refer them to essential services in other sectors. Strengthening response and support services, including quality health services, is one of the strategies recommended by the INSPIRE framework and represents an opportunity to move toward eliminating all forms of violence. In collaboration with others, the health sector must also work to prevent violence from occurring.
INSPIRE: Seven Strategies to End Violence against Children is a toolkit developed to ensure that policymakers have access to the evidence, expertise, and resources they need to prevent and respond to violence. INSPIRE identifies a select group of multisectoral strategies that have demonstrated success in reducing violence against children. It represents an evidence-based approach to revitalizing, focusing, and expanding current multisectoral efforts and supporting governments in identifying potential gaps in policy levels and response.
PAHO supports countries in training their health personnel, strengthening available data and evidence, and targeting groups in vulnerable conditions, including migrants who often face a higher risk of violence. “There is much that we can take advantage of, that we can learn from, and that now needs to receive the visibility it deserves to help accelerate this important agenda in our countries, in the Region, and globally,” concluded Dr. Barbosa.
