Evidence
Evidence
Evidence and knowledge emerging from programs of organizations intervening in protection of children from abuse/ violence at different levels and contexts across East Africa has largely remained scanty. This tends to portray the region as contributing limited new knowledge from its work on protection of children from abuse. This apparent scarcity of evidence is partly attributable to differences in the degree of scientific rigour that is applied in the design and measurement of violence prevention programmes in the region which renders much of the “evidence “generated from VAC programmes in East Africa largely unconsumable in scientifically oriented spaces.
Consequently, local knowledge from programs on prevention of violence against children across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have largely remained within implementing organizations and only been shared with funding partners as part of donor reporting requirements. This state of affairs is slowly perpetuating unequal patterns of knowledge production, sharing and use on VAC prevention between East Africa and other parts of the globe; and yet prevention of VAC is a global challenge requiring a global response, as stipulated in SDG Goal 16.2.
VaCNets virtual Hub exists to address the gap in new knowledge and evidence generation and sharing on VAC
prevention in East Africa by serving as a central repository of all VAC evidence types including local knowledge and providing a platform for engagement on available evidence. The Hub works with all levels of organizations (local, national and international) intervening in VAC prevention to ensure that all available evidence is recognized in its own right while encouraging building of systems for local actors to grow capacity for high quality evidence generation and use.
The Hub collects, collates and shares emerging knowledge, practices and evidence on what is working from ongoing efforts on prevention of Violence against children (VAC) in East Africa. The knowledge and evidence product write ups received are reviewed and organized under four broad categories for easy access by Hub users/visitors. All material received is placed in one of the following categories.
The apparent scarcity of evidence is partly attributable to differences in the degree of scientific rigour that is applied in the design and measurement of violence prevention programmes in the region