Doreen King is an Masters in Public Administration (MPA) candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School.
FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days
Doreen King: Awareness and acceptance that there is a widespread need for child protection are still very prevalent issues. Whether due to denial or nonchalance, the outcome remains the same. Without either factor, securing support remains particularly difficult, particularly as it relates to establishing an international, unified approach among organizations, advocates and governments. Until everyone is on the same page, preventative measures and legal systems will remain largely ineffective; policies which prioritize protecting vulnerable children will remain unimplemented.
FXB: How do you think academic and scholarly work can inform child protection approaches? Have you seen any good examples of this in the real world?
Doreen King: Academia is in a prime position to use data driven frameworks in the fight for child protection. (Sadly) there is extensive data available that can be collected, mined and utilized towards policy creation and implementation. Through root cause analysis, policy makers can identify underlying causes and trends in order to proactively prevent and solve issues rather than constantly throwing temporary fixes at rooted problems and symptoms.
FXB: If you work in a specific region, are there region-specific challenges you see? How do you hope to see these addressed?
Doreen King: There is not enough focus placed on child protection across the various aspects. Securing adequate support at every level to ensure necessary resources and services are allocated towards enabling access for the most vulnerable, must be a priority if we are to make impactful change in the attitudes and efforts towards protecting the welfare of Caribbean children.