This paper is a systematic review of reviews. It synthesizes the fragmented evidence base from specific reviews of interventions to prevent and reduce Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). The paper examines the diversity of geographical context, the types of violence addressed, and the numerous approaches that have been used to combat VAWG. Additionally the review summarizes the quality of evidence on efficacy and effectiveness in order to highlight strengths and gaps of interventions on a global scale.
The paper consists of a review of 58 reviews which collectively summarize evidence on 290 tested interventions. The paper finds that knowledge of intervention impacts on VAWG prevention is growing, but is still highly limited. A small but growing body of rigorously tested interventions demonstrate that preventing VAWG is possible and can achieve large effect sizes.
Key findings:
- The vast majority of empirical research to date has been devoted to describing and understanding the problem of VAWG, rather than testing potential solutions. Much of what has been evaluated has very limited generalizability to the poorest and most vulnerable populations in the world. This is because a large proportion of the evidence comes from evaluations in a few high-income, industrialized countries, using narrowly-defined sample populations (for example university students) or involve implementation capacity that is rarely scalable in settings in low- and middle-income countries (for example trained and licensed clinical social workers or psychologists). Such models are often resource-intense and require a more highly skilled labour force. Over 70 percent of the impact evaluations were conducted in just seven high income countries comprising six percent of the world’s population.
- There are however, lessons from high-income countries that could inform piloting and testing in low-resource settings. For instance, psychosocial support has, in some cases, decreased violence in high-income settings. Various modalities of psychosocial support are being increasingly implemented and tested in low- and middle-income settings which could be usefully applied towards individuals at risk of new or repeated violence exposure or perpetration. Lessons from the limited evidence base in low- and middle-income country settings may also be instructive. For example, the focus on primary prevention in low- and middle-income settings is worth noting. Despite fewer evaluations, several innovative programs with promising results were identified that resulted in a reduction of VAWG.
- There are also lessons to be learned from the different reviews that applicable to most VAWG interventions. In the case of Batterer Intervention Programs (BIPs) and sexual assault education programs, the reviews for each emphasize the poor quality of program implementation and the absence of methodological rigor in the research undertaken. It may be unrealistic, for example, to expect only an hour-long video on sexual assault prevention to significantly change youth attitudes, much less reduce date rapes on a university campus. Similarly, failing to adapt a batterer intervention program to the specificities of the diverse perpetrators, even when most drop out, indicates the need for a different approach.
Recommendations:
- Future evaluations of any VAWG intervention, particularly Batterer Intervention BIPs and sexual assault education programs, should use an experimental or quasi-experimental study design, in view of the lack so far of evidence-based justification.
