Together to End violence against Children. Violence against children is universal and affects thousands of children a year in Lesotho. That's an epidemic of violence and abuse that undermines all other investments in children, including in their health and education, with long-term consequences for individuals, families and communities. The pre-COVID-19 economic cost of violence against Children (VAC) has been estimated 2% of country GDP.

Despite the national scale and impact of VAC and availability of evidence-based solutions such as the CHILD-HELPLINE, political attention attention is lacking and financial resources are inadequate. As a community we need to step-up our collective efforts to make the human and economic case for investment and catalyse the political and financial commitments necessary to get to zero. And, we need to do so in the context of COVID-19.

This is an urgent call to action as we enter the Decade of Action on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and consider how to build back safer for children both during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.