Child Protection

UNICEF is working with the Government of Malawi to protect girls and boys from all forms of violence, in both humanitarian and development contexts. UNICEF’s child protection programme features in all three pillars of the overall country programme – early childhood development; school-aged children; and child-friendly resilient communities. In the earliest years, this ensures every birth is registered to give every child a legal identity. UNICEF integrates protection in health and early childhood development programmes to ensure young children grow up in caring, nurturing and protective environments. For school-aged children, including children who aren’t in school, UNICEF works to  empower girls and boys with the knowledge and skills to reduce the risk of violence and seek help if they experience it.

To ensure every child grows up in a child-friendly and resilient community, UNICEF partners with faith-based leaders and civil society to eliminate harmful practices (especially relating to child marriage) and to modify deeply entrenched social norms and behaviours that perpetuate violence (such as norms surrounding gender and masculinity).

UNICEF’s child protection programme is committed to improving data quality and use of evidence to drive change and advance accountability. Generating sound evidence will help embed child protection in routine policy-making and increase and improve the quality of public spending on child protection. This includes use of mobile technology to enable real-time data collection. UNICEF also works with partners to strengthen community-based child protection mechanisms including Community Victim Support Units, Police Victim Support Units and Children’s Corners and the delivery of child protection services through District Social Welfare Offices.

During emergencies, child protection programming supports community-based complaint mechanisms, prevention and response to gender-based violence, psychosocial support and child protection services for affected communities. As co-lead of the Protection Cluster, UNICEF works to ensure humanitarian systems and services are safe, protective and responsive to the needs and rights of children and women. The child protection section also fosters best-practice within workforces which deliver services for children including social welfare, police and the judiciary. Finally, UNICEF provides technical assistance and advocacy to enhance and operationalize Malawi’s legislative and regulatory frameworks, policy development, and standard setting.