Supporting a safer world together where children can thrive

Our societies have the responsibility to help children thrive. Yet millions of children around the world are sexually abused, and the effects are often devastating and long-lasting. Thankfully, we are seeing new openings for change. Survivors and advocates are breaking through the culture of silence to call for justice. Governments and private institutions have begun to accept that they can and should do more. And researchers and practitioners are showing that prevention is possible.

We believe that children everywhere deserve a positive future: the chance to grow and learn in safety – free from the threat of sexual abuse.

We have seen growing evidence that preventing the sexual abuse of children is possible. For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, rapes have dropped by more than 50% in communities where girls and boys take part in a powerful training programme called No Means No. In Northern Uganda, through REAL Fathers Initiative, after being mentored by trained peers, young fathers were half as likely to use physical, psychological and verbal violence with their wives and children.

Together with our partners – along with policy-makers, global institutions, business and the public – we can build societies where children are never sexually abused. To this end, we work through two sub-programmes to: (1) promote, advance and scale up solutions to reduce child sexual abuse; and (2) engage with and hold global institutions accountable to prevent abuse and to end impunity for child sexual abuse.

You can read more about our strategy below.