Across four days, the programme took up one question asked four ways. Four themed sessions examined accountability to survivors, to organisation members, to the public through transparency and reporting, and to children, each pairing a keynote with on-site working groups in breakout rooms, followed by a Q&A with the speaker. The keynotes came from Dawn Lundergan, Fr José Alfredo Gonçalves Patrício, Alexander DesForges and Sr Rejoice Enyonam Hoedoafia.

A distinctive feature of ISC 2023 was the Challenges for Bishops panel, chaired by Fr Hans Zollner SJ, which brought Bishop Thibault Verny and Archbishop Simon Poh Hoon Seng into direct dialogue with delegates. The conference closed with the Thursday Academic Day — a forum for exchange between practitioners and researchers, with presentations on prevention research, child protection in challenging contexts, and the participation of victims in research.