Abstract

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a barrier to gender equality and women’s empowerment. For the first time, ending VAWG is a core part of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development under Goal 5. Two southern lead initiatives, What Works and SVRI, are supporting intervention development, adaptation and evaluation of VAWG prevention programmes in over 30 low and middle-income countries. This poster will present cutting edge results from the projects and share innovative approaches to capacity development of researchers and programme staff and effective research uptake. Key themes and findings on effectiveness of VAWG programmes will be shared, along with an overview of the most important drivers of VAWG and the latest evidence on what works to prevent it. Results from three case studies will be showcased on prevention of violence against children from a schools-based intervention in Pakistan, a multipronged intervention aimed at reducing violence against women and girls/youth (VAWG) in Zambia by addressing identified risk factors (e.g., childhood abuse, domestic violence, alcohol use) and a framework for addressing family based violence developed in Uganda. Through this poster SVRI and What Works will also share lessons learned across these programmes on capacity development and research uptake efforts to empower southern programmers and researchers to disseminate findings to demonstrate programmatic and policy impacts.