A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Framework for Improving the Management of Child Protection Networks

Children exposed to violence require a comprehensive, multidisciplinary support network operating within a well-coordinated child protection system. The effectiveness of such systems depends fundamentally on strong intersectoral collaboration and high-quality relationships among professionals from different sectors. Enhancing system performance therefore requires systematic identification and mitigation of management barriers that hinder coordinated action. This study proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model to identify, analyze, and prioritize management barriers within child protection networks through an integrated MCDA framework for complex systems. The Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) was used to screen the most relevant barriers, swing weighting was used to elicit the relative importance of the retained barriers, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), applied in its absolute measurement mode, was used to derive priorities for the predefined performance levels and support the sector-specific evaluation of three candidate decision alternatives, and Social Network Analysis (SNA) degree centrality was used to weight the judgments of the four participating experts (one per network sector) in the final aggregation. The proposed approach was implemented in the Child Protection Network of a medium-sized Brazilian municipality. The results show that the Unified Information System alternative achieved the highest overall priority (w = 0.3525), closely followed by the Creation of an Intersectoral Management Group (0.3450) and Continuous Training for Network Professionals (0.3025); given the narrow margin (approximately 0.0075) between the two top-ranked alternatives, this prioritization should be interpreted as an indicative rather than a definitive ranking. More broadly, the results demonstrate that (i) the proposed framework was successfully applied, providing a structured and transparent process for identifying and prioritizing critical management barriers, and (ii) the resulting prioritization supports decision-makers and practitioners in allocating resources more effectively, strengthening intersectoral coordination, and improving services for children and adolescents exposed to violence.