Today, 10 years on, we must confront a stark reality: We are not on course to achieve those targets. Each year, half of the world’s children are victims of violence. Bluntly, we are failing to keep a billion girls and boys safe in their homes, schools, communities, care settings and online.

We recognize the complexity of the issue and we recognize its consequences, often lasting lifetimes and spanning generations. Violence erodes every investment that families, communities and governments make in children, from their education and social inclusion to their mental and physical health. The violence experienced by a billion children today is the same violence that will undermine the health, prosperity and stability of our societies tomorrow.

As ministers and health leaders, we are driven by the possible, by the interventions and investments that can most improve people’s lives. We recognize the fact that violence against children is entirely preventable, and that preventing violence strengthens public health outcomes, social protection systems, community resilience and intergenerational mobility.

Decades of rigorous research, community mobilization and country experience have given us a clear understanding of what works. The INSPIRE framework coordinated by WHO and its partners provides a proven blueprint of seven strategies, from strengthening norms and laws to supporting parents and caregivers, scaling response services and creating safe school environments.

A recent, largest-ever evidence review on preventing violence against children confirmed unequivocally that INSPIRE’s strategies work. We are now the first generation in history with the knowledge and the tools to deliver sustained reductions in violence at national scale. We have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to act.

This is why we are launching the WHO Council of Champions to End Violence Against Children, the first-ever global collective of ministers committed to using the political capital of governments to position violence prevention where it belongs: at the center of national and global health, social development, justice, protection and economic agendas.

We are compelled to act by the fact that children who grow up safe are healthier, learn better and are more socially protected, becoming adults who contribute to stronger, more equitable societies.

Together we will generate, and demonstrate, political leadership. From the outset, we must confront the dramatic disparity between the scale of the problem and the scale of investment.

Whether looking at domestic budgets or funder flows, the power of preventing violence, with its wins for child outcomes from social development to mental health, remains unrecognized and under-resourced. We are committed to prioritizing the problem, increasing funding and intensifying actions to unlock the enabling potential of preventing violence against children.

This year is our proof point. In November, the second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children will be hosted by the Philippine government. The event will build on the impactful first Global Ministerial Conference in Colombia in 2024, a moment that proved what is possible: prioritizing and protecting our most promising and vulnerable citizens, mobilizing member states, civil society and citizens and delivering unprecedented commitments to action for children affected by violence.

With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) deadline fast approaching, we must do more and do better. The conference in Manila must celebrate success, lock in progress, elevate expectation and generate concrete commitments commensurate with the scale of the violence prevention challenge.

It represents a moment to scale best proven INSPIRE strategies, confront the financing gap head-on, strengthen health and social protection systems and ensure that lived experience – of children, young people, civil society and victims of violence – helps shape the solutions so essential to delivering our shared SDG promise.

Let our next moves prove our commitment: redoubling our efforts to work toward a world free from violence and exploitation just as we pledged; just as each child deserves.

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is director general of the World Health Organization, Teodoro J. Herbosa is the Philippine health minister and Elia dos Reis Amaral is the Timor-Leste health minister. Other members of the WHO Council of Champions to End Violence Against Children, Albanian Health And Social Protection Minister Evis Sala, Armenian Deputy Health Minister Anna Karapetyan, Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, French Health, Families, Autonomy and Disabled Peoples Minister Stephanie Rist, Jordanian Social Development Minister Wafa Bani Mustafa and Omani Health Minister Hilal Ali Al Sabti, also signed this article.