Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

Originally from Argentina, you completed a sociocultural anthropology degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Why did you pursue this degree program, and how has it influenced your research approach?

I wanted to build a career where I could apply my curiosity about the world toward making a positive impact on social change in some form. Growing up in Argentina in the 1990s and 2000s, I witnessed many injustices and inequalities around me, but I was also inspired by the efforts of human rights groups, such as Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, to try and convict members of the junta for crimes against humanity committed during the last civil-military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. Seeing the trials, where more than 1,200 former junta members were convicted, and observing the crucial role that research and scientific evidence played in these cases instilled the idea in me that human rights can work when the demands of people’s movements and human rights groups meet evidence, and finally become part of the government’s political agenda. I wanted to contribute to all of this, so I pursued a sociocultural anthropology degree specializing in the anthropology of human rights, also known as legal or judiciary anthropology.

Throughout your career, you have focused on the protection of populations with multiple vulnerabilities, including children. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned about child protection?

Even if they’re not always framed as such, most child protection issues stem from broader systems (racism, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism) that have, over time, produced oppression, gender inequality, and unjust social, economic, and political hierarchies. To give a few examples, children universally experience heightened levels of vulnerability to violence and poverty during economic crises, humanitarian situations, forced displacement settings, etc. Because women primarily bear the responsibility for childcare, there are intersections and a strong correlation between gender-based violence (mainly intimate partner violence) and violence against children within the same households.

We also still need to achieve meaningful participation for children and their recognition as full citizens and rights-holders everywhere. I would like our field to increasingly address the protection issues we work to solve with a longer-term perspective, in a less siloed fashion, and from an intersectional approach. This would, of course, involve giving more power to national/local organizations, grassroots actors, families, and children whom they intend to benefit.

You initially joined the Collaborative in 2023 to lead the Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Promoting Early Childhood Development for Young Children on the Move in Northern Central America. What motivated you to join the Collaborative and take on this new project?

What attracted me the most about the Collaborative is, firstly, that it lives up to its name: it’s truly committed to building networks and partnerships between universities, community-based organizations, INGOs, government representatives, and experts from different backgrounds and disciplines involved in advancing children’s rights. For example, this breakthrough series collaborative aims to support and learn from Guatemalan innovators engaged in policy efforts or working within education, social service, child welfare, or protection sectors. They are leading innovative efforts to promote early childhood development and protection for displaced young children and their families. Besides this, because I’m interested in using research for systemic social change, I also liked that the Collaborative’s programs and initiatives support research relevant to policy and practice. This means we are focusing on practice-oriented, solutions-oriented research that can then be used for capacity-building, advocacy, and policy change.

Part of your work with the breakthrough series collaborative requires fieldwork in Guatemala. What advice would you share with Georgetown students interested in doing research abroad?

There’s much to say about this. I invite students interested in researching protection issues through an intersectional lens, working collaboratively instead of in silos, and sharing power and resources with national and local organizations, to download my short guide, "Research for Advocacy & Systemic Change: A Ridiculously Simplified Guide to Intersectional & Decolonial Research + Examples." This guide summarizes the steps for conducting qualitative policy and advocacy research from a participatory, intersectional, and decolonial approach.

My main advice would be to focus on contextual knowledge and collaboration with local and national researchers and organizations. Especially if they’re conducting practice-oriented research for advocacy or policy, creating context-specific solutions to human rights and social justice challenges that align with national/local realities and interests is necessarily a collective, participatory process. The more in-depth knowledge we have of the cultural, social, and historical factors influencing these issues, the more we can contribute to the development of contextually relevant solutions. This can be achieved through the combination of in-depth desk reviews and collaboration with local and national actors.

Besides this, participatory and democratic knowledge-creation processes are crucial in rectifying the international cooperation system’s systemic injustices.

What are you most looking forward to as your work progresses with the breakthrough series collaborative?

I'm happy to have found a working space where my colleagues are interested in collaborating with and learning from community-based organizations and their members. What I’m most looking forward to is sharing everything we’re learning from talking with community-based organizations in Guatemala, and from this research more generally on what works for early childhood development and protection for displaced young children and their families. I'm eager to share these insights with decision-makers to find ways to collaborate to support these community-based organizations.