Preventing Gender-based Violence
Statistics on the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (“SGBV) are startling and impossible to ignore. Despite the establishment of international and regional legal and policy frameworks for the prevention of SGBV, the rates of violence are not decreasing, and in some places, are actually increasing.
Women are the primary victims of this violence, but men also suffer from various forms of sexual and gender-based violence. It is clear that what needs to be addressed is the fundamental gender inequality that exists in society in order to create new models of masculinity and femininity and thus more equal relationships. We need to better understand the root causes of these unequal social structures and negative attitudes and address them by developing and implementing effective prevention strategies. This requires a combination of research targeted towards identifying the underlying causes and policy formulation and implementation that is responsive to the results of such research.
Our programmes aim to challenge the underlying gender inequalities that persist in society and are the key barriers to the elimination of sexual and gender-based violence. We believe that this is best done by building capacity for research, training and advocacy, to enable policy makers, civil society and women themselves to better implement strategies to combat violence. We also are committed to the idea that men and boys should be actively involved, as agents of societal change, in violence prevention plans.
Our activities include:
- A new project launched in two universities in the Democratic Republic of Congo in late 2011 aims to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (“SGBV”) through the involvement of students as “ambassadors” in violence prevention. University lecturers will work in collaboration with UNESCO in incorporating the teaching of the prevention of SGBV into their curriculums, in order to train students to teach prevention strategies in their own communities.
- The establishment of a network of researchers and policy makers and advocates in the area of violence against women, starting with a workshop on “Preventing Violence Against Women- Linking Research and Policy” held on 24 November 2011 to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
See also- Executive Summary [PDF, 76 KB]
- Report [PDF, 118 KB]
- Recherche sur les violences et politiques publiques en France, by Christelle Hamel [PDF, 71 KB]
- Research on gender-based violence against women. Work done, work emerging and work needed – a view from my experience, by Carol Hagemann-White [PDF, 258 KB]
- Violence in Primary Schools in Southern and Eastern Africa – Evidence from SACMEQ. IIEP’s Involvement in Capacity Building for Evidence-based Policy Research on Quality of Education, by Mioko Saito [PDF, 375 KB]
- Workshop on “Sociocultural Approaches to Combating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence” held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 9-11 December 2010. Read the report of the workshop [PDF in French, 280 KB]
- Conference on “Involving Men in Prevention of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence”, held in Kinshasa, DRC, 29-31 March 2011.