Our work
Ending violence in and through schools.
In a UNICEF poll with over one million responses from over 160 countries, 69% of children and young people said they had felt afraid of violence in or around their schools
Ending violence in and through schools refers to two aspects:
1. Ending all violence that happens while at school, on and around school grounds, getting to and from school, and in online activity linked to a student’s school life, and
2. Using schools as an entry point to reduce violence in other areas of children’s lives (in the home, community, and online, as well as interpersonal violence).
To make schools safe, commitment and action is needed at the highest political level.
The Safe to Learn Call to Action – a high-level framework based on global evidence – sets out where progress needs to be accelerated to end violence in and through schools. It calls for coordinated efforts to:
- Implement policy and legislation
- Strengthen prevention, risk mitigation, and response at the school level
- Shift social and gender norms and promote behaviour change
- Invest resources effectively
- Generate and use evidence
At my school we have a kindness project and I want to see this spread across the world so we can spread kindness and prevent violence – especially bullying. My message to young people is to be kind to one and another, always smile and help others when they need it. Kindness is contagious. I want to make a world without bullying or racism. We need each other to make a perfect world.
Since our launch, 16 countries have endorsed the 2019-2023 Call to Action as a demonstration of their commitment and political will to end violence against children in and through schools, making them safe and nurturing places for children and young people to learn, thrive and grow.
The diagnostic exercise enabled us to identify existing gaps and how we can mobilize resources that would lead to the implementation of various recommendations to ensure children are safe to learn.
To support the implementation of the Call to Action, the Safe to Learn initiative developed the Global Programmatic Framework and Benchmarking Tool under the leadership of UNICEF and with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’ support. The Framework provides guidance to translate the Call to Action into practical interventions in countries. It highlights technical resources to assist in the design of programming and suggests a framework for monitoring and tracking results.
The Diagnostic Tool was subsequently developed to support countries measure the degree and quality of national efforts to prevent and respond to violence in and around schools. It provides national, decentralized and school level benchmarks to track progress and inform collective dialogue on which additional steps countries need to take in to effectively implement the Safe to Learn Call to Action.
To date, Safe to Learn has mobilised financial contributions from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to support eight projects in five countries that have endorsed the Call to Action. In addition, between 2019 and 2021, the diagnostic tool was piloted in five pioneer countries: Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan Uganda, and South Sudan.
Explore the findings from the diagnostic exercises and the Safe to Learn Technical Package for more information.
Read more about case examples using the Safe To Learn Technical Package, previous Safe to Learn projects implemented with and through partners and our 2021-24 strategy
The following countries have completed the Safe to Learn Diagnostic:
