Your inputs are greatly appreciated!

Defining Protection

The field of protection is vast and encompasses a wide range of topics and practices. Within the academic community, many scholars working on education focus on using education as method of protection in emergency situations, as well as how protection responses can serve to educate and empower those in vulnerable groups.

The Child Protection Working Group, part of the larger Protection Cluster Working Group chaired by UNICEF, produced a report entitled Child Protection in Emergencies (CPIE) Competency Framework (2010). The report provides an excellent introduction to the topic, and the working group identifies six categories (termed “competencies”) for which to think about protection:

• Separation
• Psychosocial support
• Gender-based violence & exploitation
• Child soldiers (preventing child recruitment)
• Physical harm reduction/prevention
• Monitoring and reporting grave violations

For many more resources on the theme of protection, visit the INEE Toolkit.

Call for contributions

As part of this Thematic Spotlight, and in support of the INEE Strategic Research Agenda, INEE is looking for resources, information, and research that focuses on one or all of these areas. By identifying what work has been done on education within the field of protection, we hope to draw attention to the important role of education in protecting children and other vulnerable groups.

Most researchers and practitioners maintain that true prevention and assistance comes from working across disciplines and networks to provide holistic responses in emergency situations. INEE would like to identify resources which demonstrate programs and responses that encompass the holistic approach.

INEE invites members to review the listed resources and send information on the following:

• What is the current research being done on protection?
• What are the research gaps?
• Who are the current researchers and practitioners focusing on protection? What projects and programs are you working on?
• Who are the donors interested in funding protection? What are the research or program guidelines, challenges and rewards?

INEE is also interested in hearing from researchers and other members about the networks you use to share information and advance your fields:

• Where do you go to present your research in terms of conferences, working groups, acting as a specialist or consultant with policy-makers, etc?
• What networks are you involved in who work on these issues? These could be university-based, NGO or government working groups, online forums, etc.
• Who do you network with in terms of counterparts in various countries? Do you find it easy to identify potential partners and donors? What challenges do you face when looking to share knowledge?

What will INEE do with the information?

INEE will use this information to build a dedicated section of its website on the theme of "Protection in education in emergencies". The aim is to link researchers with practitioners, and to identify areas where research is needed. The gap areas can then be highlighted, with encouragement for researchers and donors to focus more on these areas. In this effort, INEE will link members from across regions, including policy-makers and donors.

With this initial call for information, you are encouraged to share any information you have on the topic. The INEE Secretariat will gather the information throughout this month, and through dedicated web pages and future listserv messages, will share it with the entire INEE membership.

Please send all contributions on this topic to thematicspotlights@ineesite.org by March 20th, 2012.

Also, feel free to join the conversation on the INEE Blog.

Finally, if you are interested in connecting directly with other experts on this theme, INEE can facilitate online discussions or virtual meet-ups. Please contact thematicspotlights@ineesite.org for more information.