This presentation, given by Henri Myrttinen, International Alert, looks at the ongoing work of a three-year project taking place in four villages in two districts of Tajikistan, featuring 271 beneficiaries. The ethnic Tajik and Uzbek villages are all affected by circular out-migration. Findings indicate among the highest levels of VAWG in the What Works consortium, caused in part by male labour migration (Russia, less to Kazakhstan), structural food insecurity (esp. women), low income levels, very high levels of economic precarity and living on debt, and substance abuse.

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This presentation assesses the aims and efficacy of a programme seeking to foster change in knowledge, attitudes skills and behaviour to promote non-violent relationships. This involves creating enabling environments through training and supporting opinion leaders and promoting women’s safe spaces. It assesses the lessons learned from working with couples and from the women’s safe spaces.

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I felt I had power within myself that allowed me to do something with my fellow women..

Indashyikirwa Programme, Rwanda

Project Empower and HEARD, Stepping Stones, Creating Futures Project, South Africa.

In 2012 *Nompu was one of the growing number of young women living in an urban informal settlement in South Africa. Nompu had moved from rural KwaZulu-Natal to Durban, a port city on the east coast of Africa, in the hope of finding a job and establishing a better life for herself. Yet, without completing her high school education, she struggled to find work. In the midst of high levels of unemployment, limited state support, dense living conditions and a struggle for survival, Nompu was often beaten by her boyfriend. Nompu’s boyfriend himself felt alienated from everyday life, without proper work and struggling to make a life for himself.

HERrespect, Bangladesh

Engaging male supervisors to tackle violence at work in the ready-made garment sector of Bangladesh

This is a database of 27 presentations delivered at the What Works Annual Scientific Meeting in Pretoria in July 2017. Presentations include subjects ranging from violence and disability, the role of poverty, effects of conflict, and violence against children. Other topics tackled include the prevalence, forms and types of violence, the economic cost of VAWG the importance of faith-based solutions, and violence in refugee camps

Download the 2017 ASM & Capacity Development Workshop Presentations here!

Poverty is a key driver of intimate partner violence (IPV). Women living in poorer places with lower socio-economic status, higher food insecurity, and less access to education and work opportunities are more likely to experience IPV. In addition, women without economic and social resources find it harder to leave abusive relationships. To date, women’s economic empowerment interventions have been central to IPV prevention approaches. This evidence review, however, suggests that women’s involvement in economic interventions has mixed effects on their vulnerability to IPV and can in fact increase the risks of their experiencing IPV, especially in situations where women’s participation in paid economic activity is the exception to the norm. Evidence suggests that interventions that aim to increase women’s access to work need to focus simultaneously on socially empowering women and transforming community gender norms to maximize the positive impact of women’s work on women’s empowerment and help prevent VAWG.

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An article in Global Health Action from May 2017. Intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV are co-occurring global epidemics, with similar root causes of gender and economic inequalities. Economic interventions have become a central approach to preventing IPV and HIV. This article offers a comprehensive scoping review of published evaluations of economic interventions that sought to prevent IPV and/or HIV risk behaviours. Broadly, unconditional cash transfer interventions showed either flat or positive outcomes; economic strengthening interventions had mixed outcomes, with some negative, flat and positive results reported; interventions combining economic strengthening and gender transformative interventions tended to have positive outcomes.

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