Primary Prevention Framework for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) is “the prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children in humanitarian action.” While significant effort and improvements have been made in the sector on responding when harm has already taken place, less focus has been placed on how we can prevent harm to children before it occurs.

The Primary Prevention Framework for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action provides guidance for humanitarian workers on the key actions and considerations to apply when developing or implementing programming to prevent harm to children in humanitarian settings at the population-level.

The Prevention Framework highlights guiding principles and specific actions to take within each of the five steps of the program management cycle for effective primary prevention efforts. Supporting resources and practical tools are linked within each step.

While leadership on prevention of harm to children may be taken up within the child protection sector, due to the multisectoral nature of prevention, the Prevention Framework is intended for use by all humanitarian actors.

The Prevention Framework is based on a desk review of evidence-based prevention approaches within the child protection sector as well as other humanitarian sectors such as education, gender-based violence (GBV) and health. The Prevention Framework is also informed by guidance documents and briefing papers on understanding and identifying child protection risk and protective factors in humanitarian crises, developed under the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action’s Prevention Initiative.