Humanitarian Violence Against Children Survey (HVACS), 2022: Summary Report

Abstract

Violence Against Children (VAC) refers to all forms of abuse or maltreatment of people under the age of 18 years. The Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS), led by national governments with technical assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of the Together for Girls partnership, have documented the magnitude and prevalence of physical, emotional, and sexual violence against children in more than 20 low- and middle-income countries, with a view to informing national prevention and response programs. Despite the precedent for understanding the extent of VAC from the perspectives of adolescents and pre-adolescent children, interest in systematic documentation of similar experiences of children in humanitarian settings is just emerging, following the development of guidance for the implementation of VACS in such contexts. This report presents key findings from the first VACS conducted exclusively in a humanitarian context specifically, in refugee settings in Uganda. The survey is referred to as the Uganda Humanitarian VAC Survey (HVACS).