On June 17, Together for Girls and partners hosted a Solutions Summit side event, Safe: Preventing Gender-Based Violence in and Through Schools. The event was convened with UNGEI and Safe to Learn, in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada, USAID, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Global Partnership for Education, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), the Malala Fund, and the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Global leaders, experts, and youth activists shared the latest data on violence in school settings and highlighted school-based interventions for catalyzing broader social change to end violence.
During the event, participants were invited to sign a global call to action calling for gender-equitable, quality, and safe learning environments. The letter, drafted by Together for Girls, Safe to Learn, UNGEI, and other partners, flags the importance of working to build back better and create stronger, safer learning environments for all children.
Note that you can watch the above recording with English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Prior to the event, Together for Girls released a policy brief exploring the gendered dynamics of corporal punishment in schools. The brief highlights findings from our secondary analyses of the VACS with CDC and AidData, supported by USAID and Global Affairs Canada, exploring the intersection between gender, experiences of and attitudes toward corporal punishment and its consequences.
It provides a series of recommendations for further research and considerations for policy and program development to prevent corporal punishment in schools. But there is an opportunity to build back better to ensure that all children have access to quality education and safer, more equitable learning environments, and that we use schools to interrupt long-standing cycles of violence.
