In order to bridge the gap between research and action, the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) has developed this new toolkit to support non-academic stakeholders to understand and interpret the data gathered through population-based research on VAWG and to create a process for moving from evidence to implementing action. The Research to Action tool provides a step-by-step process for practitioners and policymakers to better understand and utilise data generated by VAWG research activities.

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Click here to download the guidelines and a zipped folder containing the beta version of the costing tool in excel. Unzip the folder, and start costing your intervention using the guidelines alongside the costing tool. Look out for the "worked examples" boxes in the guidelines. They show you how to record a specific cost step-by-step in the costing tool, and point you to the cells in the costing tool where you will find exactly the "example data" described in the guidelines (remember to delete these "example data" once you start costing your project). Happy costing, and please remember to send us feedback and queries on the costing tool (it is a beta version),at giulia.ferrari@lshtm.ac.uk or sergio.torresrueda@lshtm.ac.uk with the title “What Works beta costing tool feedback” to help us improve it!”

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An assessment of the economic and social impact of VAWG in Ghana, including details of the sample size and methodology involved. Findings point to VAWG resulting in a diminished sense of safety in the community, a reduction in social cohesion, and losses for women’s leadership, leading to negative implications for women and their communities.

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Right to Play is a global organisation that uses transformative power of sport and play to educate and empower youth. This report indicated the importance of their work in Pakistan (143rd of 144 in the Gender Inequality Index) and outlines how a program of sports and play in Hyderabad is helping to prevent VAWG. Featuring a look at the activities, outreach and scope of the program, and its expected outcomes.

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An overview of the work of What Works, including a look at the scale of the problem, the different manifestations of VAWG, its causes, and the role of food insecurity, gender attitudes, disability, and violence against children.

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Details of a three-year project currently running across four villages in two districts of rural Tajikistan. The project is working with family units, addressing IPV and domestic violence, and also the impact of disability in experiences of VAWG. Includes research findings and the impact of the intervention.

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Is Right to Play effective in reducing peer victimisation in Pakistan and also in improving attitudes towards gender roles, and improving youth mental health and school performance? This informative brief includes methodology, findings regarding the relationship between disability and violence, and also the intersection of corporal punishment by teachers and peer violence, and makes policy recommendations.

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Last month the Research to Action Roundtable series brought together a group of evaluators from the DFID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls programme. The panelists included Professor Tamsin Bradley (Evaluation Research Lead), Dr Sheena Crawford (Team Lead on Performance Evaluation), Katherine Liakos from IMC (project managers of the evaluation), and Megan Lloyd-Laney (Research Uptake Lead). The Roundtable comprised discussions of the objectives and approaches of the evaluation process, insights into challenges unique to a programme of this type as well as the broader learning outcomes that could be shared with the wider evaluation community.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Communication Protocol for Research Uptake. This document outlines the best methods and best practice for sharing and supporting uptake of results with a wide but targeted audience including policy makers, donors, NGOs, academics and the general public, through multiple communication activities such as stakeholder forums, policy briefs, peer reviewed publications, conference papers, reports, blogs, twitter feeds, short videos, Facebook posts and the media. There are guidelines on use of language, logos, photographs and social media.

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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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This brief document covers the role of social contexts in shaping the transformation of masculinities in a gender transformative and livelihood strengthening intervention in South Africa. The brief looks at the issue of high HIV incidence and intimate partner violence in urban informal settlements of South Africa, and the role of youthful hypermasculinity that prioritizes sexual dominance and displays of violence. The intervention took the form of a gender transformative and livelihood strengthening intervention to reduce HIV risk and IPV perpetration, and its efficacy was tested in thirty-eight in-depth interviews and three focus groups post-intervention. The results and conclusions are assessed.

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The Working Paper has been published by Component Three of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Programme, whose mandate is to capture the economic and social impacts of violence against women and girls on individuals, households, communities and whole countries.  This study evaluates some of the methodological gaps that currently exist and provides an alternative methodological approach for estimating the full macroeconomic cost of violence against women.

This factsheet is about how gender inequality fuels the HIV epidemic. Gender based violence (GBV) leads to a higher incidence of unsafe sex and a lower ability to negotiate condom use. Social norms around child marriage, age discordant relationships and early sexual debut can also affect HIV acquisition. Research indicates that economic dependence on male partners or family members makes women and girls more likely to acquire HIV. This factsheet looks at ways to empower women economically, and potentially barriers blocking the way. It also features case studies from around the world.

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Useful tips for writing for blogs, social media, videos, policy briefs, and letters to policy makers.

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The manual is intended to be used in its entirety with peer group participants who work through all sessions, each building on previous sessions. It is designed for use with people of any age and both genders. Originally developed for use in small, rural communities in Uganda, it has now been adapted for South Africa and after well over a decade of use is in its 3rd Edition. The Stepping Stones workshops are designed to be held with two or more peer groups drawn from a community at the same time (although this is not essential).

This is a comprehensive guide and teaching aid for a ten-session initiative to teach young people strategies to secure a better future for themselves. Each session is clearly laid out with different subjects to consider, and different exercises to undergo. At the end of the document are a number of fact sheets to help participants progress with their education, apply for jobs, secure housing and look after their own needs.

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Creating Futures is a programme designed to enhance the ability of young people to think more critically in appraising opportunities and challenges related to their lives and livelihoods. It was developed for implementation among young people (18-24 years) living in urban informal settlements in South Africa. Creating Futures is designed to be facilitated by trained peer facilitators in a participatory style, encouraging participants to seek and develop relevant livelihoods for themselves through their own learning.

Compiled and edited by Lori Heise (link is external) and Elizabeth McGrory, this publication synthesises the discussions and conclusions of a three-day expert consultation on the links between HIV and violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The Right To Play Project Newsletter for April to September 2016 is out! Download it here.

This document describes the Department for International Development’s (DFID) open and enhanced access policy for the research that DFID funds. The aim of this policy is to increase the uptake and use of findings from research funded by DFID.