Our Research and Development department ensures that every methodology that we create and deliver with our partners is rigorously tested, scalable and grounded in evidence - because meaningful impact for children requires proven solutions.
Children growing up in conflict face complex challenges, from emotional distress and interrupted education to heightened protection risks. At the same time, the humanitarian sector is under increasing pressure to do more with less.
Since 2016, War Child’s Research and Development Department has helped us design, test and improve our work. We work with academic institutions, partners and communities, combining research with practical experience to ensure our work delivers real results for children.
Our team of over 30 researchers, led by Professor Mark Jordans (University of Amsterdam and King’s College London), is one of the largest NGO research teams focused on children affected by conflict.
We publish our findings in peer-reviewed journals and share them across the humanitarian sector, helping build the global evidence base for mental health and psychosocial support, education in emergencies and child protection.
Director of Research and Development, Mark Jordans meeting with War Child partner Planning for Tomorrow (P4T) in Uganda.
Our research underpins the War Child Care System, our toolkit of evidence-based methodologies that combine mental health and psychosocial support, education, and child protection to meet the integrated needs of children and communities affected by conflict.
To ensure these methodologies are effective, we follow a structured research process: from formative research and co-design with partners, to feasibility testing and rigorous evaluation.
We use internationally recognised research methods, including randomised controlled trials, alongside implementation and qualitative research to understand why and how our methods are effective in different contexts.
A research-grounded methodology is an approach that was developed based on formative research but has not yet been tested for effectiveness.
An evidence-based methodology is an approach that has shown positive outcomes following at least one large-scale controlled effectiveness study.
An evidence-informed methodology is an approach that has shown promising outcomes following a feasibility study.
We work with partners to bring and adapt evidence-based methodologies to more children and communities while maintaining quality and building on what the evidence tells us.
Our approach to combining research with practical experience has earned international recognition.
War Child awarded the Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Prize for excellence in bridging science and practice.
War Child awarded the Laureus Sport for Good Award for our TeamUp methodology
War Child awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development for Can’t Wait To Learn methodology.
Violence against children (VAC) is a global problem, and the development of empirical methods to better understand its nature is a step towards tackling this challenge.
Globally, about one billion children experience violence, affecting individuals, families, communities, and society. In Colombia, ongoing conflict and drug-related armed violence drive high violence rates.
Strategies to promote mental health care help-seeking among children are needed, especially in lowincome and middle-income countries and in complex settings. The aim of this trial was to compare a vignette-based, community-level, proactive case detection tool (CCDT) against standard awareness raising for promoting mental health help-seeking among children and adolescents.
Can’t Wait To Learn, hosted by War Child, contributed a think piece to the new UNICEF and EdTech Hub report, Shaping the Future of Digital Education: A Global Conversation on How to Move Beyond Digital as Usual.
Although psychosocial interventions delivered by non-specialist providers effectively treat common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, the treatment-specific elements driving their efficacy remain largely unknown. Our aim was to compare and rank the efficacy of the individual active components of task-shared psychosocial interventions and to predict efficacy using individual participant characteristics.
This study aimed to develop an intervention to improve consistent school attendance in participation with caregivers, teachers, and other stakeholders, in refugee settings in Uganda.
