The assessment of the readiness of five countries to implement child maltreatment prevention programs on a large scale

Abstract

This study aimed to systematically assess the readiness of five countries Brazil, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa to implement evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs on a large scale. To this end, it applied a recently developed method called Readiness Assessment for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment based on two parallel 100-item instruments. The first measures the known-edge, attitudes, and beliefs concerning child maltreatment prevention of key informants; the second, completed by child maltreatment prevention experts using all available detain the country, produces a more objective assessment readiness. The instruments cover allot the main aspects of readiness including, for instance, availability of scientific data on the problem, legislation and policies, will to address the problem, and material resources. Key informant scores ranged from 31.2 (Brazil) to 45.8/100 (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and expert scores, from 35.2 (Brazil) to 56/100 (Malaysia). Major gaps identified in almost all countries included a lack of professionals with the skills, knowledge, and expertise to implement evidence-based child maltreatment programs and of institutions to train them; inadequate funding, infrastructure, and equipment; extreme rarity of outcome evaluations of prevention programs; and lack of national prevalence surveys of child maltreatment. In sum, the five countries are in a low to moderate state of readiness to implement evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs on a large scale. Suchan assessment of readiness, the first of its kind, allows gaps to be identified and then addressed to increase the likelihood of program success.