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Over the last two decades, as more evidence has emerged to show that VAWG is preventable, a greater number of national governments have expressed interest in making progress to prevent VAWG in their countries. Equally, both governments and private sector organisations have understood that VAWG has negative effects for women, their families, businesses and the national economy. These actors have all realised that larger-scale progress on prevention requires a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder response across the public, private and civil society sectors - and this requires building capacity…

Programmes to increase women’s economic empowerment aim to increase women’s access to and control over economic resources. There are a range of different interventions that can support women and their households including cash transfers, savings and loans groups, access to microfinance, and providing entrepreneurship or vocational skills training to improve livelihoods. The evidence suggests that there are many benefits from women’s economic empowerment at an individual, household and community level; however, the effect on women’s experience of intimate partner violence varies.  

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Existing evidence points to the importance of healthy relationship dynamics - between couples, parents/caregivers and children, and with other household members, as well as in dating relationships - to prevent violence against women and children. Healthy relationships, characterised by positive communication, gender-equitable attitudes and the ability to resolve tensions without violence or abuse, are important in creating a respectful non-violent environment. It is important to support married and co-habiting couples and caregivers to improve their relationships with each other and their…

Community mobilisation efforts focus on engaging and empowering local communities to actively participate in transforming harmful social norms, attitudes and beliefs which drive violence against women and girls (VAWG). These approaches try to engage a critical mass of people across a community in an effort to foster whole-of-community change. They often focus on raising awareness of women’s rights, holding powerholders to account, and building collective action among community members, activists, leaders and service providers to challenge and transform the underlying causes of violence against…

Social empowerment is a multifaceted approach that involves changing societal attitudes, providing resources, and creating an environment where individuals - particularly women and girls - have the power to make choices for their own well-being.

Social empowerment interventions can contribute significantly to prevention efforts as they address some of the underlying factors that contribute to VAWG. For example, they can help build women and girls’ self-confidence, assertiveness and negotiation skills. They can also encourage critical reflection about harmful gender norms and violence…

While there is no single approach to the prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG), there is a growing global evidence base on programme approaches which have been effective, or show promising results, in reducing the rates of violence against women and girls (VAWG). In general, a successful VAWG prevention strategy requires a multi-sectoral, coordinated approach that addresses the root causes and key risk factors for specific types of violence. This includes interventions to create an enabling environment for prevention in terms of high level political commitment, laws, policies…

Preventing violence against women and girls means stopping violence before it starts. Prevention work includes policy and programme initiatives aimed at addressing the underlying causes of violence against women and girls including gender inequitable systems, structures, norms, attitudes, practices, and power hierarchies. This contrasts to VAWG response, which focuses on providing support and services to individuals who have experienced violence. Given the widespread prevalence of violence against women and girls (VAWG) globally, and the limited number of survivors who speak out and seek…

There is no single cause of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Gender inequality is a powerful underlying driver of VAWG, but various risk factors and situational triggers can make violence more likely. At the same time, there are certain protective factors that can be strengthened to lower the likelihood of violence occurring. Understanding these multiple causes and how they intersect is important to design and implement effective programmes to prevent VAWG.

The socio-ecological model is a useful tool to analyse the interaction between various factors at different levels which…

Social norms are the shared beliefs about what constitutes typical and appropriate behaviour within a specific social ‘reference’ group. They play a critical role in shaping individual attitudes and behaviours as individuals anticipate whether they will gain social approval or disapproval for acting in a particular way. In many contexts, dominant social norms normalise and justify gender inequalities and the use of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Changing these norms is therefore important for preventing VAWG.

However, transforming predominant social norms takes time and the…

Campaigns focused on ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) aim to raise awareness about the impact of violence, challenge social norms, and mobilise communities to end violence. One-off campaigns tend to have a limited impact, but more sustained multi-channel campaigns that encourage reflection and debate tend to produce greater impacts. Campaigns are often most effective when accompanied by other face-to-face activities designed to transform social norms. When developing EVAWG campaigns, initiatives should work with women’s rights organisations (WROs) and civil society organisations…