A/HRC/19/64 A. Promoting national integrated strategies to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against children 12. The development of national integrated strategies to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against children has been pursued by countries in all regions, both through broad child protection initiatives and specific national plans to end violence, in some cases with the identification of specific objectives. 13. Recognized as a priority by regional organizations and political groupings, important efforts have been made to support national implementation. Regional initiatives enabled the sharing and cross-fertilization of national experiences, and the development of national strategies in the framework of agreed regional agendas. In some cases, regional consultations were held on this topic, such as the Council of Europe meeting for Central and Eastern European States, held in Kyiv, entitled ―Combating violence against children: from isolated actions to integrated strategies‖. 14. The valuable regional studies and analytical mappings conducted during the past year by the League of Arab States, the South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children, the Council of Europe, the MERCOSUR Permanent Commission on the Nin@Sur Initiative, and by Central American countries were instrumental to capture national developments and draw lessons. These studies identified recommendations to guide the development of child-centred and multidisciplinary approaches, and strengthen the effectiveness of coordinating mechanisms. 15. Across regions, recommendations highlighted in particular the need for the following: • The development of a national comprehensive strategy with an integrated and holistic approach to violence prevention and elimination, bridging disciplines and actors and identifying specific goals; it should be mainstreamed across all relevant departments and national and decentralized authorities, and integrated as a key component of the national policy agenda; • Effective coordination by a high-level entity with the authority, influence and capacity to lead the design, implementation and evaluation of the national strategy, and to provide the needed guidance to all actors, including relevant officials and professionals and children themselves; • Clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of all relevant departments and institutions dealing with violence against children, indispensable to avoid overlap and poor coordination and promote synergies between them, and to train relevant professionals on prevention, identification, child-centred and child-sensitive assessment and reporting of violence against children; • Allocation of specific and adequate budgets for implementation, including through the transfer of financial resources from national to decentralized levels in line with the responsibilities assigned, as a means of securing children‘s effective protection in all parts of the country; • Clear identification of the timeframe of the strategy to mobilize action and monitor progress through the issuance of public periodic reports; and • Active involvement of strategic stakeholders, including academia, civil society and child-led organizations to advance the process of effective implementation. 5