VOICE International Conference 2018: "Finding  Scientific Answer to the 21st Century Challenges for  Families, Communities, and Public Policy"
Bali, Indonesia | December 12-14, 2018

The CPC Learning Network and the Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing (PUSKAPA), CPC's key affiliate in Indonesia, are delighted to invite you to our first international conference Viable and Operable Ideas for Child Equality (VOICE) on December 12-14 in Bali, Indonesia. 

The VOICE conference, within the broad rubric of children’s rights, child protection, and family welfare, will pay special attention to three important themes: 

Children and Migration
Social Norms that Underlie Harms to Children 
Children and Technology

Building on the growing realization that actions for children should no longer be based solely on good intentions but also on evidence, and that we must shift our efforts strongly towards preventing child maltreatment, the conference will bring together hundreds of researchers, activists, policymakers, service providers, and others to take stock of the latest learning to support children and families in rapidly changing times. The conference breakout sessions throughout the three days will examine and present new evidence and academic research, policy analysis and reccomendation and ideas for program implementation under the three thematic areas mentioned above and delve into issues like: 

- How do changing migration trends (including climate change and unprecedented levels of forced migration) impact children and families?  
- In what ways are social norms changing for the better or for the worse for children in settings around the world? What is the role that children, parents, and local leaders can play in changing social norms for children’s wellbeing? 
- What strategies that have been implemented to maximize the utilization of technology in child care and in what ways does technology influence children’s wellbeing? 
- And many others . . . Click here for the summary agenda! 

In addition to many presenters and moderators, we are delighted to share that confirmed keynote speakers include: 

Howard Taylor, Executive Director, Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Vice Chair, BRAC
Veronica Yates, Director, Children's Rights International Network
Yanuar Nugroho, Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Office of The President Of Indonesia
Pungky Sumadi, Deputy Minister for Population and Labor, Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER NOW

From November 13-15, 2018 child protection actors from global, regional, national and local contexts came together in Entebbe, Uganda to reflect on progress to date, and to identify next steps, in supporting stronger community-led or “bottom-up” approaches to strengthening child protection systems.  Through this collaboration they renewed their commitment to putting communities in the driving seat to protect their own children and they successfully agreed at the meeting how to take action forward.  Read the communiqué from the Interagency Learning Initiative (ILI) on Community-based Child Protection Mechanisms and Systems.

CPC Learning Network faculty affiliate Bree Akesson and Kearney Coupland recently published this article in the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights.  Drawing upon data from research with 46 Syrian families in Lebanon, this paper will describe how Syrian family movement is restricted, identify the multiple and interrelated factors that contribute to immobility, explore how restricted mobility can compromised children, family, and human rights.  Per capita, Lebanon has taken in more refugees than any other country in the world. Despite a shared history of taking in each other’s war-affected populations, the Government of Lebanon response has shifted from that of hospitality and protection to refusing to officially recognize displaced Syrians as refugees and imposing other restrictive policies that make everyday life a challenge for Syrian families. These actions have an impact upon the basic human rights of these families. 

Read the article here and contact the corresponding author here.   

CPC Learning Network faculty affiliate Professor Lindsay Stark and Catherine Poulton have published two reports on THRIVE, Transforming Households: Reducing Incidence of Violence in Emergencies, in Colombia and Haiti.  Studies have not typically inquired about the co-occurrence and intersections among multiple forms of violence, except in research on adolescent females, where research questions on violence against women and against children align. To address this gap in evidence, CPC Learning Network at Columbia University, UNICEF and the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, collaborated to create THRIVE. It sought to investigate the drivers of violence against both women and children during humanitarian emergencies.

Recognizing the need for interventions to be grounded in the cultural and political realities of a specific context, THRIVE began formative work with emergency-affected populations in two settings, Colombia and Haiti, in 2017. These report present the methods and findings from formative qualitative data collected which were analyzed in partnership with the UNICEF Haiti country office, UNICEF Colombia country office, and Universidad de los Andes.

Read the report on Haiti here and on Colombia here.

For more information contact Professor Lindsay Stark and Catherine Poulton.

Article: Without Choice? Understanding war-affected Syrian families' decisions to leave home

CPC Learning Network faculty affiliate Bree Akesson and Kearney Coupland authored a new publication in the IOM Migration Research Series explores the decision-making processes of war-affected Syrian families before leaving home. Drawing upon collaborative family interviews with 46 Syrian families resettled in Lebanon, the research methodology included narrative discussion —spanning life in Syria, the journey from Syria to Lebanon and life in Lebanon—as well as drawing and mapmaking. The findings indicate that there is much diversity in the decision-making processes that families engage in and underscore the importance of family agency in making informed decisions.

Read the article here and contact the corresponding author here.   

Better Care Network has launched a pilot campaign in the USA, UK and Australia to reduce orphanage volunteering. This insight-driven behavior change campaign called The Love You Give is targeted at young travelers and short-term missionaries.

The goal of the campaign is to ignite a youth-led social movement to make orphanage volunteering a thing of the past through short, powerful docu-film with stories told from the perspective of care leavers, families who have had to make difficult choices about their children, and individuals working in care reform. The film is being distributed through, and underpinned by, a PR and social media campaign, and supported by a broad coalition of child protection, education, travel and tourism and faith actors mobilized under ReThink Orphanages. 

Learn more about The Love You Give.
Learn more about ReThink Orphanages.