On January 30, 2015, the CPC Learning Network and International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) co-hosted a webinar to share findings on how World Vision UK’s child protection program includes and impacts the most vulnerable children in Cambodia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This webinar was the first in the webinar series “Reaching the Most Vulnerable Children: Strategies for Strengthening Child Protection Systems,” co-hosted by the IICRD and the CPC Learning Network. Phillip Cook (IICRD) and CPC faculty affiliate Mike Wessells (Columbia University) presented their research findings and discussed implications for child protection programming with hard-to-read children.

Read the full report here.

About the presenters:

Mike Wessells is a long time psychosocial and child protection practitioner. He is a former Co-Chair of the IASC Task Force on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. He has conducted extensive research on the holistic impacts of war and political violence on children, and he is author of Child soldiers: From violence to protection (Harvard University Press, 2006). Currently, he is lead researcher on inter-agency, multi-country action research on strengthening community-based child protection mechanisms by enabling effective linkages with national child protection systems. Throughout Africa and Asia, he helps to develop community-based, culturally grounded programs that assist people affected by armed conflict and natural disasters.

Philip Cook holds a Ph.D. in Cross-Cultural Psychology from Queen’s University, and is the founder and current Executive Director of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD). Since 1994, Dr. Cook has overseen the Institute’s growth as a leader in linking children’s rights and healthy development to broad issues of human development and participatory governance across diverse cultures and situational contexts. During this time, IICRD has been working in partnership with a cross section of UN agencies, governments, and international non-governmental organizations, and children’s organizations.