The symposium aims to bring together practitioners in the field of GBV and Child Protection, including those organizations focused on children and adolescents, researchers, academicians, programme implementers and policy makers.

These individuals are at the forefront of leading, researching, engaging with and/or implementing programs that provide response and prevention services to male child and adolescent survivors of gender-based violence. The purpose is to facilitate the exchange and share knowledge, experiences, and learnings, and collectively identify concrete actions to enhance response and prevention efforts.

The symposium is expected to contribute to some or all of the following specific objectives, depending on the contributions made:

• Highlight key trends on male child and adolescents’ exposure to sexual violence based on available research findings;

• Understand key barriers that prevent disclosure and access to services for male child and adolescent survivors of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence. Additionally, collectively identify mechanisms to address these barriers;

• Understand the challenges that service providers face in delivering services to male children and adolescents who are survivors of violence;

• Facilitate sharing and knowledge-exchange regarding current evidence-based approaches in working with male child and adolescent survivors, and engaging boys on GBV prevention in humanitarian settings;

• Increase awareness on inclusive programming among GBV and Child Protection actors, which acknowledges the intersectional identities of male children and adolescents who are survivors of violence to influence programming;