About the Collaborative
The university-wide Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues launched in September 2021 to foster cross-disciplinary research and dialogue on critical and emerging challenges affecting children around the world, with a particular focus on children in adversity and pathways to resilience.
The collaborative is:
- Committed to creating opportunities that are child-centered;
- Grounded in the lived experiences of children, their families, and communities
- Responsive to current and emerging needs and useful to actors working in a variety of contexts and capacities to meet them;
- Evidence-informed and solutions-oriented; and
- Building effective bridges between young people and stakeholders involved in practice, policy, and research.
Why Children? Why Georgetown?
More than half of the global population is under the age of 30, representing the largest generation of young people in history. Approximately 90 percent of the world’s children and youth live in less developed countries—disproportionately affected by poverty, poor health, unemployment, violence, and exclusion. Still, young people everywhere face increasing risks: UNICEF reports that the COVID-19 pandemic presented the greatest challenge faced by children in its 75-year history, derailing progress made over decades. Additionally, more children than ever before are on the move today, with nearly 40% of the 100 million displaced persons worldwide under the age of 18. Further, approximately one billion children are at an extremely high risk of the impacts of the climate crisis. More than half of the world’s young people experience physical, emotional, and sexual violence, with increasing numbers affected by online abuse. Children all over the world bear the brunt of these difficulties in their daily lives and will inevitably inherit all of the problem-solving these challenges require.
Evidence shows that involving children and youth as partners in problem-solving, development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding efforts contributes to economic growth, democratic progress, and social stability. The opposite is also true—when we fail to engage young people in addressing the matters that affect them, our communities and economies stagnate and decline.
While a handful of universities in the United States include a strategic focus on global child rights, programs are most often siloed by sector or department and focus on specific disciplines. Few programs offer opportunities to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers, or regular occasions to engage with the policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders who can address critical issues affecting the world’s most vulnerable children.
Georgetown University is positioned to fill this gap. Washington, DC, is an epicenter of global politics and a hotspot for advocacy and public service. With significant programs in foreign service, international development, global health, public policy, and law, the university is poised to play a catalytic role in influencing how these and other fields engage collaboratively and effectively to promote children’s rights and protection.