The Protective Environment: Development support for child protection

Children’s protection from violence, exploitation, and abuse is weak in much of the world, despite near universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Often, improved legislation is not accompanied by significant changes in state or private practices and capacity. The types of programmatic response supported have tended to be curative rather than preventative in nature, addressing symptoms rather than the underlying systems that have failed to protect children. This article proposes a conceptual framework for programming, identifying elements key to protecting children in any environment as well as the factors that strengthen or undermine the protection available. Using this shared platform for analysis, human rights and development actors can bring greater coherence to activities that strengthen child protection.