Research and Learning

The Child Protection Team is continuously  contributing to a plethora of new and evolving evidence-based policy and practice around parenting and violence prevention in low-resource, conflict-affected settings. Through IRC partnerships with policy makers, donors and researchers, it is conducting research on interventions to prevent violence and promote child development and resilience in the most disadvantaged and insecure parts of the world. Browse  below our different interest areas of  research and learning. For further information on IRC research and innovation  portfolio ,visit Airbel Impact Lab.

Parenting Research

Parental distress and family conflict are recognized as risk factors for violence against children which have an effect on children's development and wellbeing. In humanitarian settings the breakdown of infrastructure and social networks in conflict and disaster settings diminishes the capacity of caregivers to provide adequate care and protection of children. The IRC child protection team recognizes  that positive parent-child relationships can be a factor in protecting children at risk and lower the risk of  violence against children. Crucial to this is building systems of child protection by strengthening  the layers in a child's wider ecology beginning  with the family. Below  under specific resources are some of the research related towards strengthening this parent-child relationship that the child protection team has worked on. Learn more about our CAAFAG parenting research here.

Learning

The Child Protection Unit through its Community of Practice learning sessions explores child protection issues in relation to prevention and response programming in acute and protracted emergencies. The purpose of the  sessions and program briefs is to share learning in a  forum which explores themes of inclusion, accountability, and adaptability to achieve  the protection of  children. The learning forum brings together IRC child protection country programs practitioners and also external partners and stakeholders in a bid to learn and  share ideas on best practices in the sector. Collectively, the forum advances the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary for humanitarian workers to  serve children serve with effective, comprehensive programming that meets their specific needs and takes account of their environment.