A/HRC/40/49 a crucial conflict prevention tool. It is vital to increase efforts to use reintegration to break cycles of violence and address the challenges of cross-border reintegration. 32. However, in a world facing multiple and complex crises, dependable and predictable funding to support children recovering from the trauma of war has been steadily decreasing, whereas the need for and the complexity of reintegration are significantly on the rise. Children formerly associated with armed forces or groups who have been released, selfdemobilized or rescued face an uncertain future. If assistance is not forthcoming or is shortlived, those children run the risk of re-recruitment for a lack of alternatives, stigmatization for a lack of reconciliation and condemnation to a life in which survival takes precedence over aspirations for lack of an education. Increasingly, reintegration efforts are also slowed down by the cross-border nature of recruitment and use, as well as by the release of children in places far from their provenance. 33. During the reporting period, the Special Representative’s advocacy has contributed to an emerging global consensus that the response of the international community to today’s conflicts must include paying more attention and providing resources to ensure that all released children can benefit from sustainable, long-term reintegration programmes. Events such as those organized on 7 March in Geneva by Belgium and Uruguay to highlight the specific reintegration needs of girls, on 6 June 2018 in New York by Belgium, France, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland and on 6 November 2018 in Geneva by Switzerland, have helped to promote an exchange of experiences among reintegration practitioners and supporters of the children and armed conflict agenda. In September 2018, in the margins of the high-level debate of the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, the Office of the Special Representative co-organized with Belgium a high-level event on the theme of “Funding the future: challenges and responses to the reintegration of child soldiers”. During the event, which brought together Member States, civil society organizations and representatives of the United Nations, the Special Representative launched the Global Coalition for Reintegration to generate new ideas for addressing sustainable support for child reintegration programmes. The Coalition is co-led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and composed of child protection experts from the United Nations and civil society organizations, as well as the World Bank and Member States. 34. Over the next year, the Coalition will explore the scope, parameters and structure of a comprehensive and sustainable mechanism to support all children coming out of armed groups and forces. Such a mechanism would leverage existing knowledge and work, and explore current funding modalities, as well as possible new ones. That process will allow all stakeholders who can contribute to the general knowledge and understanding of reintegration programming to be brought together and share lessons learned and best practices. It will explore the role of reintegration in the broader peacebuilding and development agenda and shed a light on the current situation of reintegration programming, its successes and challenges, highlighting the vulnerability of children and their needs in terms of education, insertion into society and reintegration into resilient communities. It will further explore existing gaps and emerging needs for reintegration in terms of enhanced psychosocial support, education and training needs, and community support, taking into account the specific needs of girls and boys. The steering committee of the Global Coalition, which is co-chaired by the Special Representative and UNICEF and comprises representatives from Member States, civil society and United Nations entities, held its first meeting on 7 December 2018. III. Awareness-raising and mobilizing global action 35. In line with General Assembly resolution 72/245, the Special Representative announced in her last report to the Human Rights Council that she was aiming to enhance her mandated activities, both in terms of raising public awareness, including by collecting, assessing and disseminating best practices and lessons learned, and in terms of her engagement with States, United Nations bodies and agencies, regional organizations and especially subregional organizations to mobilize global action. 10