What works to prevent violence against women?

Australia’s Plan to Reduce and Prevent Violence

The World Health Organisation RESPECT framework guides most global intervention programs and includes seven specific strategies to prevent violence against women:

• Relationship skills strengthening
• Empowerment of women
• Services ensured
• Poverty reduced
• Environments (schools, workplaces, public spaces) made safe
• Child and adolescent abuse prevented
• Transformed attitudes, beliefs and norms

These strategies are embedded in Australia’s prevention framework, Change the Story, but are not explicitly listed.

Interventions are usually separated into three complementary, but overlapping approaches: primary (prevention), secondary (early intervention) and tertiary (responses).

What Does the Evidence Say Works?

<pSystematic reviews of interventions to prevent or reduce violence against women and girls find that sufficient investment into the right programs can address the core drivers of violence and lead to a significant reduction and prevention of violence.

The reviews identify that most successful interventions do not typically separate out prevention from early intervention and response. They focus on gender dynamics, power and control, and locally relevant social structures that disempower women and girls.

The global program [What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls](https://ww2preventvawg.org/) for example, reviewed 96 evaluations of interventions. Of these, seven interventions had positive effects across all three domains of responding to, reducing and preventing domestic violence.

None of the effective interventions were the same, but they had common features.

One of the common indicators of success was that they addressed multiple drivers of violence while being relevant to what was important in the participants’ lives, such as an intervention to reduce HIV or couples counselling.

Effective interventions also commonly included support for survivors, for things such as mental health support, safe spaces, empowerment activities and mediation skills.

Conclusion

We have clear evidence about the types of programs that can prevent and reduce violence against women and girls, both internationally and in Australia. We also have service providers and program leaders who have been sharing evidence with governments for more than five decades. What we need now is the will and commitment for intensive programming.

FAQs

Q: What is the World Health Organisation RESPECT framework?

A: The World Health Organisation RESPECT framework is a guide for most global intervention programs to prevent violence against women and includes seven specific strategies.

Q: What are the three approaches to preventing violence against women?

A: Interventions are usually separated into three complementary, but overlapping approaches: primary (prevention), secondary (early intervention) and tertiary (responses).

Q: What are the common features of effective interventions?

A: Effective interventions commonly include addressing multiple drivers of violence, being relevant to what is important in the participants’ lives, providing support for survivors, and addressing gender dynamics, power and control.