How to create a Call to Action on preventing and ending violence against children
23rd August 2024By:
Chrissy Hart Director of Policy & Advocacy; Regional Lead, Sub-Saharan Africa,
Together for Girls
Mia Mazer Policy & Advocacy Officer,
Together for Girls
In November, the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children will take place in Bogotá, Colombia. This high-level convening of Ministers, decision-makers, advocates (including survivors, children, and youth), researchers, and funders is an unprecedented opportunity to advance the global agenda on preventing and ending violence against children.
Each Member State is invited to send a delegation, including Ministers, public officials, and representatives from critical constituencies (survivors, children, youth, and civil society). Before the two-day high-level convenings, global civil society will gather to connect, share knowledge, advocate, and chart the course ahead as we seek to elevate the imperative of violence prevention and response at the global, national, and local levels.
One of the most powerful ways we can call on governments to take positive action for children, adolescents, and youth is by elevating our voices as a collective, whether a group of committed citizens, a coalition of community-based organizations, or specialists with expertise on a particular policy topic.
As we approach the Ministerial, here are some guiding principles and steps for creating a powerful Call to Action.
Conduct a landscape analysis
Know your goals, target audience, and who holds the levers of power and decision-making.
Conduct a landscape analysis to determine your call to action target audience and who the key decision-makers and influencers are who should receive and be aware of your requests. Determine whether your national government has committed to attending the Ministerial Conference, whether planning is underway, what gaps exist in efforts to prevent and respond to violence against children, what new commitments the government could make to accelerate progress toward ending violence against children, and which government agencies/bureaus would be involved in implementing these calls to action.
Identify your allies
Mapping key partners & collaboration.
Identify key organizational partners and allies who might support the Call to Action. Conduct outreach among existing and potential partners to understand who your collaborators will be. Clarify your process for developing your Call to Action, seeking feedback, finalizing it, and rallying support through organizational and individual endorsements, meeting requests, targeted follow-up, amplification of your requests, and other advocacy tools.
Identify government champions and other influencers who will support your requests and bring the VAC Ministerial to their attention. Consider whether it is possible to call on these champions to support your call to action.
Develop your requests
Identify the most pressing and achievable outcomes you’ll prioritize in your Call to Action.
Develop your key requests informed by the landscape analysis, consultation with impacted populations, partners, and allies, and best practices for ending violence against children. Consider what new commitments your government could make to accelerate progress toward ending violence against children and ensure that survivors', children's, and youth voices are uplifted and amplified in these asks.
Craft the “ask”
Draft your Call to Action.
Draft your call to action with input from partners and allies to ensure buy-in and representation from a broad coalition of organizations and to ensure the call to action includes asks informed by players from across the child protection space.
A call to action can take different forms including formal letters addressed directly to key government stakeholders and influencers; a position statement for broad dissemination; videos and social media content elevating specific asks; and other communications and advocacy tools. While your call to action should focus on engaging and making requests of government officials, there’s room for creativity in finding ways to uplift your message to a broader audience.
Rally your allies
Recruit support from aligned networks, coalitions, organizations, and individuals.
Disseminate the call to action through your networks. Provide the opportunity for partners and allies to provide feedback and input in a structured way. Consider creative ways to amplify the call to action and request support through social media and other platforms. Provide consistent follow-up with your partners on the status of your call to action (when it’s been sent to your target audience, any follow-up activities, when a response is received, etc.).
Case Study: U.S.-based organizations rally to amplify requests for strong U.S. engagement in the Ministerial Conference
The problem
Violence is a devastating reality for half of the world's children; 1 billion children experience physical, sexual, and emotional violence annually.
Recognizing the Ministerial Conference as a key opportunity to call on the U.S. government to demonstrate continued leadership and investment in accelerating progress toward ending violence against children through domestic policy and foreign assistance implementation, Together for Girls identified the need for harnessing the collective power of civil society organizations to call on President Biden and his administration to leverage this unique opportunity for substantial change and urge specific commitments and actions.
The action
Together for Girls conducted a landscape analysis to determine which agencies and key-decision makers in U.S. government should receive and be aware of requests for specific national commitments as well as requests for high-level representation at the Conference. Together for Girls also identified what gaps exist in U.S. government efforts to prevent and respond to violence against children and what new commitments could be made by U.S. federal agencies to to accelerate progress toward ending violence against children.
After identifying fellow members of the Ending Violence Against Children (EVAC) Task Force (American Academy of Pediatrics, ChildFund International, Futures Without Violence, International Justice Mission, UNICEF USA, World Vision) as collaborators in the call to action, Together for Girls crafted a letter to President Biden outlining specific actions the Biden-Harris administration could take with valuable input and expert knowledge from EVAC Task Force members.
The letter calls for national-level commitments including the implementation of critical data- and evidence-gathering initiatives, such as the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS), a whole-of-government inter-agency strategy to prevent and respond to violence in domestic and foreign assistance efforts, and proactive efforts to respond to emerging threats such as online sexual exploitation and abuse and threats that increase children’s vulnerability to violence. The letter also calls for survivors, children and youth to be engaged and consulted in all preparatory activities including discussions shaping policy, financial commitments, and ongoing initiatives to ensure that they are informed by those with lived experience. Lastly, the letter urges increased U.S. government collaboration with other UN Member states to achieve specific collective outcomes and financial commitments.
The letter was disseminated for support in the form of signatures from allied organizations via relevant coalitions, working groups, and task force listservs. The letter was also shared via LinkedIn to ensure that the letter and calls for action were amplified widely. The letter to President Biden was signed by 52 civil society organizations and sent to the White House and focal points of the interagency coordinating group for the US delegation to the Ministerial Conference.
In addition, Together for Girls and fellow EVAC Task Force members identified congressional champions on children’s issues who would be amenable to similarly calling on President Biden. They collaborated on a letter for congressional champions to send to the White House and interagency focal points requesting high-level representation and engagement of the U.S. government at the Ministerial conference, mirroring the requests made in the letter from civil society organizations.
The outcome
The letter was recognized by the World Health Organization as a template for civil society organizations around the globe to call on their governments urging them to make innovative and substantive commitments at the Ministerial Conference.
The letter also received attention from focal points within the U.S. government interagency coordinating group for the Ministerial Conference and served as fodder for substantive discussion regarding what commitments could be made by the U.S. government. The letter has also served as the impetus for upcoming listening sessions among U.S. interagency focal points and survivors, children and youth to ensure that their voices and perspectives are meaningfully included in discussions shaping policy and financial commitments coming out of the Ministerial Conference and ongoing initiatives to end violence against children.