University network: children challenging sexual violence: second briefing paper

The ‘International University Network: Children Challenging Sexual Violence’ is a new initiative to capture and promote participatory activities undertaken by universities around the world to challenge sexual violence against children (SVAC). The network, led by ‘The International Centre: Researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking’ at the University of Bedfordshire (hereafter referred to as ‘the International Centre’), and supported by Oak Foundation and Tides Foundation, is part of the Our Voices programme of work. As part of the Our Voices programme of work, we are particularly interested in participatory approaches involving people collaboratively in university activities: this can include engaging them in developing curriculum or teaching activities or in designing and conducting research. Following the launch of the network in May 2019, we published a briefing paper sharing initial findings from a survey we designed to map out academics and institutions working in this field (from March to May 2019). This first briefing is available here. In July 2019 we held our first webinar in which we outlined our vision for the network and shared further survey and interview findings from our initial scoping with experts working in this field. The webinar was held in collaboration with ‘The End Violence Against Children Global Partnership’ and potential overlapping activities and objectives between these two international networks were identified. The second half of the webinar consisted of a Q&A and discussion session where participants shared ideas for future developments. This second briefing provides a recap of our first webinar.