The following principles should be adhered to at all time when developing policies and interventions and should be referred to when assessing interventions and polices to ensure they are being considered adequately (Fancy and McAslan Fraser, 2014a; Greene et al, 2013).
- Holistic ‘whole-school’ approaches (see Section 2.2 for more details on this subject) – effective programming should take, wherever possible, a whole-school, whole-community and multisectoral view of the issues to include both prevention and response efforts.
- Context specific – all interventions aimed at reducing SRGBV should be context specific and based on rigorous situation and needs analysis, and where possible joining up with existing interventions.
- Child-centred and take a ‘do no harm’ approach – children’s rights, needs, safety and protection should be at the centre of all programming.
- Developmentally appropriate – topics and issues included in curricular and co-curricular activities must be age- and developmentally-appropriate to the children they target.
- Participation – children should be recognized as key participants in developing solutions to address SRGBV.
- Inclusive – interventions should seek to ensure all children, including traditionally marginalized or excluded, disabled, minority, LGBTI and other children, are able to participate, take action and are consulted.
- Gender responsive and transformative – programming must be based on strong gender and rights analysis, bearing in mind the continuum of the gender spectrum, and should use and produce age and sex-disaggregated data wherever possible. It should build knowledge and shape skills, values and attitudes in order transform established norms around gender and power by empowering individuals to champion gender equality and challenge all forms of violence.