On June 2, 2015, the USAID Center on Children in Adversity/Displaced Children and Orphans Fund hosted a panel discussion event with the CPC Learning Network to mark the tenth anniversary of the Network. The last ten years have been a period of intense learning about how to rigorously measure and assess international child protection and family welfare programs and policies. The issues requiring a stronger evidence base—including violence against children, psychosocial wellbeing, formal and informal child protection mechanisms, and family strengthening programs—span emergency and development contexts, and much progress has been made. The CPC Learning Network reviewed the progress made in international child protection and family welfare—not only advances in measurement but also in the development of knowledge transfer platforms to ensure research uptake. The symposium concluded with a look to the future to determine the most effective ways of measuring and assessing child protection, care, and development in the years to come. The agenda, presentations and video are linked below. Agenda Opening Remarks Robert Horvath CPC Learning Network Past to Present Dr. Lindsay Stark Panel Discussion: Child Protection Learning, Recommendations, and Aspirations Panelists: Dr. Alastair Ager, Josh Chaffin, Santi Kusumaningrum, Dr. Craig Spencer Moderator: Mark Canavera Future Directions of Research for Children and Families Dr. Neil Boothby __ About the speakers: Alastair Ager is a Professor of Population and Family…

This symposium, sponsored by the CPC Network, Women's Refugee Commission, and FHI 360, brought together leading global practitioners, researchers, policy experts and donors to explore the current best practices and evidence on the use of economic strengthening interventions to prevent child separation from and support child reintegration back into families and communities. Poverty has proven to be a key driver in separating families and preventing the reintegration of separated children back into their families and communities. However, it is not fully understood how to best address poverty through economic strengthening interventions in this context. What are the necessary components of a “successful” intervention to prevent family separation? Reintegrate separated children? Minimize the risk of re-separation? The symposium included the presentation of new case studies from around the world that use economic strengthening as part of programs to either prevent family separation or facilitate reintegration. Symposium Agenda Welcome and Introduction: The Objectives for the Symposium - John Williamson, Senior Technical Advisor, Displaced Children and Orphans Fund of USAID Setting the Stage: Framing the Issues and the State of the Evidence What do we know about economic strengthening for family reintegration of separated children? - Josh Chaffin, Senior Program Officer, Livelihoods and Child…

Hosted at the New York University’s Silver School of Social Work As the third and final part of the series "Measuring the Immeasurable: Building the Evidence Necessary for Effective Child Protection and Family Welfare Policies and Programs," this symposium, co-convened by the Better Care Network and the CPC Learning Network, explored the development and implementation of key initiatives to better measure and address issues of children's care at country, regional, or international levels. The symposium topics addressed three specific areas of research on children's care: Efforts to measure trends in family composition and children's care and living arrangements; Initiatives to measure the impact of policies and programs to strengthen families and to ensure children's ability to be raised in a family environment; and Measurement of situations and outcomes concerning children outside of family care and children in alternative care arrangements. Symposium Program  |  Event Guide  |  Flier You can watch the full symposium below: Panel 1: Measuring Trends in Families and Children’s Care and Living Arrangements Moderated by: Mark Canavera, Associate Director, CPC Learning Network Presentations by: - Mindy Scott, Senior Research Scientist, Child Trends Issues in Measuring Family Structure and Child Outcomes for the World Family Map - Florence Martin,…

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York Part of the CPC Learning Network symposium series "Measuring the Immeasurable: Building the Evidence Necessary for Effective Child Protection and Family Welfare Policies and Programs," this symposium explored how we measure the efficacy of the social service workforce, what tools are available for such measurements, and how we measure efforts to strengthen the workforce. The symposium was co-sponsored by the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance.  Watch the Introduction to the Symposium by Mark Canavera and Amy Bess. Panel 1: Learning About Measuring the Social Service Workforce from the Experience of Other Social Sectors Moderator: Jessica Rose, Senior Technical Advisor for Monitoring and Evaluation, Health Systems Strengthening Team, USAID Presentations by: Jim McCaffery, Senior Advisor, CapacityPlus and Training Resources Group Helen de Pinho, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health at Mailman and Associate Director, Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program Jane Spinak, Edward Ross Aranow Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia University and the co-founder of the Child Advocacy Clinic Watch Panel 1. Panel 2: The State of the Evidence Concerning Social Service Workforce Strengthening Moderator: Maury Mendenhall, Senior Technical Advisor, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, USAID, Office of HIV/AIDS Presentations by:…

Recognizing that the international child protection and family welfare sector frequently lacks robust evidence and methods of measuring or conceptualizing difficult-to-capture or sensitive data, the Child Protection in Crisis (CPC) Learning Network strives to undertake the innovative research necessary to build the evidence base to affect change in child protection policy and practice. A pre-requisite of building this evidence base is the establishment of effective, appropriate and valid tools and methods for use in assessments and evaluations. This three-part symposium series created a forum for sharing what researchers are collectively learning about measuring complex topics related to global child protection and social welfare and promoted dialogue about key knowledge gaps and what methods can be used to best fill them. Some emphasis was placed on encouraging dialogue across researchers working domestically and those working on international issues. Part 1: Measuring Violence Against Children and the Effectiveness of Violence Prevention and Reduction Initiatives The CPC Learning Network hosted the first segment on October 21, 2013. This symposium focused on issues around measuring  violence against children and assessing the effectiveness of violence prevention and reduction initiatives. Dr. Joe Amon, Head of the Health and Human Rights program at Human Rights Watch, moderated a panel of…