Fact sheet: Prevention

This fact sheet is one of the Out of the Shadows Index advocacy tools. It explains what the Prevention pillar tracks, what the scores mean, and how to use the findings in your advocacy. 

It is designed for civil society organizations (CSOs), survivor advocates, youth advocates, and anyone engaging with government on policies, programs, services, and safeguards that protect children and adolescents from sexual violence before it happens.

Learn about what this pillar measures and how to interpret the scores

This vignette spans the entire Prevention theme and allows you to humanize what good prevention means for the lives of children and adolescents. Use it when you want to tell the full story of what happens when the systems fail and what it looks like when they work, in a way that does not require any survivor’s personal disclosure.

In a meeting with government

Share the country’s Prevention score and use it to anchor your ‘ask’. For example: “Your country scored [X] on education for students. This means children and adolescents are not being taught how to recognize sexual violence or seek help. We are asking you to include mandatory, age-appropriate content on sexual violence awareness and online safety in the national curriculum by [year].”

In a campaign or public statement

Lead with a human-centered framing: “Right now, a child in [country] who is being groomed online may have no idea what is happening to them — because no one has ever taught them what sexual violence looks like. The Out of the Shadows Index shows that prevention systems are failing. We’re calling on [government] to act.”

At a budget advocacy moment

Pair the Prevention score with a costed proposal: “Investing [amount] in [specific program] would address [specific gap identified by the Index]. Here is the evidence and here is the ‘ask’.”

This fact sheet gives you the evidence. The other toolkit components help you turn evidence into action: