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The Equality Institute, Apolitical, SVRI and Wellspring

Initiative to Build Shared Agendas to Prevent VAWG

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In the last five years, less than 0.2 percent of global Official Development Assistance was directed to preventing violence against women and girls. The Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls Initiative exists to change this. This initiative aims to build shared global agendas to focus violence prevention efforts, and increase investments in evidence-based programming to end violence against women and girls (VAWG)

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What

One in three women are survivors of physical or sexual violence. This is unacceptable. We now have evidence-based policies and programs to prevent it in a matter of years, not decades, including the RESPECT framework outlining 7 strategies to prevent violence against women and girls.

A group of private funders, bilaterals, researchers, practitioners and advocates have formed the Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls Initiative to increase investments in evidence-based programming to prevent violence against women and girls. We’re building global shared agendas to focus violence prevention efforts and speak with a common voice.

Who

This initiative is led by the Equality Institute, Apolitical and Wellspring, and the Research Agenda is led by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative with the Equality Institute.

Apolitical is the global peer-to-peer platform for government. They connect policymakers to the solutions, people and partners they need to tackle increasingly complex and fast-moving problems - from climate change and inequality, to migration and AI.

The Equality Institute is a global feminist agency dedicated to the prevention of violence against women and girls. They work to advance gender equality and support violence prevention efforts to thrive through research, creative communications and global leadership.

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund supports the realisation of human rights and social and economic justice for all people. Their work is rooted in respect for the dignity and worth of every human being.

The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) is the world’s largest research network focussing on violence against women and violence against children. It provides a forum where researchers, funders, policymakers and practitioners from across the globe can connect, promote their research, and influence policies to improve the lives of those who have experienced gender-based violence. SVRI funds research, strengthens research capacity, and promotes partnerships to influence change.

Homepage screeshot of 'Ending violence against women and girls' website
A doodle of a globe of the world in black and white, with a blue and a green circle and a black cross on top on a bright red background

How

This work began in 2019, with a meeting of cross-sectoral experts at Wilton Park to discuss what is needed to end violence. It became clear that much more needed to be done, so we began developing an effort to increase investments and improve existing programs with a global advocacy initiative.

We are designing this initiative through a consultative process with existing leaders in preventing gendered violence, as well as learning from efforts on other issues from TB to women’s rights. We will present our proposed structure for the initiative in early 2020 for input. As we develop the initiative, we are keeping in mind several key considerations to ensure that our work is additive and valuable to the ongoing movement to end violence for women and girls.

Specifically, we’ll:

  • Take a feminist approach, so diverse voices are heard and transformational gender equality is at the centre of our work.
  • Focus on not duplicating the work of existing initiatives.
  • Centre perspectives and leaders from the Global South.
  • Represent different sectors, including governments, international institutions, women’s rights and civil society organisations, researchers and activists.

Why

In 2015, the governments of the United Nations committed to the ambitious task of eliminating violence against women and girls by 2030 (SDG 5.2). The world is vastly off track – with only ten years left to achieve this. The time to take action is now.