A new collaboration between researchers, led by Lucie Cluver, Yulia Shenderovich and Jamie Lachman, and agencies who implement strategies aimed at reducing violence against children has recently been formed.Â
The Parenting for Lifelong Health Scale-Up of Parenting Evaluation Research (SUPER) study aims to foster collaborations in the field of family strengthening programmes, particularly in low and middle-income countries.Â
Ending all violence against children by 2030 is a core part of Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16. A number of promising violence reduction strategies have been identified in research studies. However, we lack an understanding of the implementation and impact of these programmes in respect to their delivery at a large scale or within existing service systems. Â The SUPER study advocates for greater collaboration between researchers, policymakers, donors, governments, non-governmental organizations, and program managers and staff to study how violence prevention programmes operate on a large scale.Â
Current figures estimate that over a billion children experience violence each year, with a disproportionate number of those in the Global South. There is a growing evidence base of research on parenting programmes, including promising results in diverse low and middle-income countries and studies on scaling parenting programmes in high-income countries but studies examining scaling parenting programmes in LMICs are urgently needed to inform practice in the field.
The SUPER study is working to harness implementation science through cross-sectoral collaboration in order to study and maximize the scale-up and effectiveness of parenting interventions that reduce violence against children and improve child well-being. Through these collaborations, it is hoped to improve knowledge on how to prevent violence against children and support frontline violence prevention, particularly in low and middle-income countries.Â
