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Guiding Principles for VAWG Programming

When undertaking VAWG prevention or response activities, it is important to work closely with key stakeholders, including organizations and local agencies that have expertise in these interventions.

Put mechanisms in place to monitor both intended and unintended consequences of the intervention. Consider whether the intervention may increase VAWG. Examine pre-existing gender vulnerabilities such as gender discrimination, gender-based exclusion, unequal gender norms or institutional weakness. Assess how the interaction of these factors, in combination with the intervention, may contribute to increased VAWG. Identify and add elements to prevent or mitigate this risk. Include a monitoring mechanism that will alert you to unintended consequences of the project that are exacerbating VAWG.

.  Collaborating with academic/research organizations and other evaluation experts is essential for producing more rigorous project designs and evaluations, especially in the area of prevention, where there is a paucity of data.   In 2013 the UN Statistics Division published the , which includes internationally agreed indicators in 4 core topics (physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence) and 3 optional topics (FGM/C, attitudes towards VAW, reporting to authorities/seeking help). In addition, the global compendium, developed by MEASURE Evaluation, includes a set of monitoring and evaluation indicators for use at the programmatic, policy, and institutional level across all sectors. .

Support multi-sectoral approaches and interventions. Complex, multi-faceted issues such as VAWG require a comprehensive response.  Findings across all sectors have identified the need for collaboration between law enforcement, legal aid services, health care organizations, public health programs, educational institutions, and agencies devoted to social services and economic development. For example,   Collaboration across sectors is essential for both providing effective services to survivors of violence as well as for preventing violence against women.

• National Action Plan on violence against women: .¡±

• Integrated multi-sectoral services under one roof for women: If feasible, programs that integrate services for women¡¯s empowerment or/and for VAWG survivors under one roof are promising practices that may reduce violence and increase survivors¡¯ ability to leave their perpetrator. By meeting the multiple needs of survivors in one location, these programs prevent women from spending additional time and resources seeking help at different institutions. Women are also spared from repeating their testimonies each time. These integrated programs include psychological and legal support for survivors of violence, sexual and reproductive health services, as well as economic empowerment activities, including vocational training, labor market intermediation, business development services, and microcredit.

. . For example, if a country decides to recognize marital rape as a crime¹, such a change in the penal code may have limited effects at a population level if law enforcement institutions remain weak, communities fail to acknowledge women¡¯s right to consensual sex within marriage, and if individual women are unaware of such a law.

. . All of these groups have essential roles to play, and harnessing their strengths can facilitate a multi-sectoral and comprehensive approach.

Highlight the development and human rights impact of VAWG. . ¡± Continuing to document the prevalence and impact of VAWG on health and socio-economic development will certainly assist with increasing the issue¡¯s visibility, although, .

.  Attitudes that condone violence against women are deeply imbedded, to varying degrees, throughout most societies in the world, and are predictive of actual violence perpetration.² . While this is a challenging, long-term process, projects should include a behavior change component targeting men, diverse members of the population, different age groups and the communities at large, as well as service providers at all levels (e.g., judges as well as law clerks).

• Identify existing groups: When attempting to design and implement behavior change interventions (including workshops and training³) at the community level, .
• Use participatory, inclusive approaches: It is good practice to use a participatory process and to engage all levels of society, including community leaders, women¡¯s groups, NGOs, and government representatives.

Consider women¡¯s safety when designing and distributing materials: Remember that women living in situations of violence may be at risk of further violence if the partner finds the pamphlet or card with information about services. Additionally, women may come to the clinic with their partners, and may not feel free to pick up materials in waiting rooms. One strategy is to develop small cards that women can hide in their clothing. Sometimes it is helpful to put only the address and phone number of referral services on a card, so that a perpetrator will not realize what it is if it is found. Other health programs have found that it can be helpful to place information (whether cards, pamphlets, or posters) .

.  While sharing promising practices and lessons learned is a valuable strategy for ensuring effective interventions are designed and implemented, program managers must exercise caution and take cultural differences into consideration before transferring an intervention from one country or region to another. Conditional cash transfers, for example, s.

. A good example of an integrated data collection system is the web-based version of the  that collects data from all service providers and  This system is currently being implemented in 14 countries.

Support impact evaluations and the dissemination of evidence of effectiveness of VAWG-specific projects/initiatives. The project or program should contribute to the body of evidence on promising (or harmful) practices by disseminating impact evaluation results to key stakeholders and policy makers.

• ¹ An analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) indicates that national laws are an important protective factor: women who live in countries with domestic violence legislations have 7% lower odds of experiencing violence compared with women in countries without such laws, as well as a reduced prevalence of approximately 2% for every year the law has been in place. However, no country has been able to reduce the prevalence of VAWG to zero, irrespective of how long the law has been in place¡ªas such, multi-sectoral approaches that include behavior change/social norms initiatives are essential for catalyzing long-term change. (Klugman et al., 2014.)
• ² More than 35 population-based studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have shown that attitudes condoning partner violence, by both men and women, were highly predictive of rates of violence perpetration (Heise, 2011).
• ³ A systematic review of literature on effective interventions conducted by the World Bank and the Global Women¡¯s Institute found that training is only effective when prolonged with follow up activities for over a three month period. A good model of a primary prevention strategy shown to reduce IPV is SASA!