A cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact on intimate partner violence of a 10-session participatory gender training curriculum delivered to women taking part in a group-based microfinance loan scheme in Tanzania (MAISHA CRT01)

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Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Given the considerable negative impacts of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women’s physical health and well-being, there is an urgent need for rigorous evidence on violence prevention interventions.

Intervening in masculinity: work, relationships and violence among the intimate partners of female sex workers in South India

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Although health researchers have begun to examine the forms of violence and power dynamics that play out in the intimate relationships of female sex workers (FSWs) in India, this knowledge has tended to focus on the perspectives of women, leaving men’s motivations and attitudes relatively unexamined.

Understanding the Relationship Between Female Sex Workers and Their Intimate Partners: Lessons and Initial Findings From Participatory Research in North Karnataka, South India

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While traditional HIV prevention programs with female sex workers (FSWs) in Karnataka, India, have focused on reducing HIV transmission between FSWs and clients through increased condom use, these programs have not fully addressed the transmission risk between FSWs and their non-paying intimate partners (IPs). Condom use is infrequent and violence is recurrent in these relationships and there is little evidence on the precise nature of FSW–IP relationships.

A mixed-method review of cash transfers and intimate partner violence in low and middle-income countries

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There is increasing evidence that cash transfer (CT) programs decrease intimate partner violence (IPV); however, little is known about how CTs achieve this impact.

Drawing on a mixed method review of studies in low- and middle-income countries, as well as related bodies of evidence, the authors developed a program theory proposing three pathways through which CT could impact IPV:

Measuring violence to end violence: mainstreaming gender

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This article aims to mainstream gender into the measurement of violence, in order to assist the development of the theory of change needed to support actions to end violence. It addresses the division between gender-neutral and women-only strategies of data collection that fail to deliver the quality evidence needed to:

You can’t burn the house down because of one bedbug: a qualitative study of changing gender norms in the prevention of violence against women and girls in an urban informal settlement in India

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The contribution of structural inequalities and social legitimisation to violence against women is widely accepted and there is a consensus that interventions should aim to change gender norms, particularly through community mobilsation.

This qualitative study in a large informal settlement in Mumbai sought to understand whether in trying to change norms, the disjunction between descriptive norms and injunctive norms could be utilised.

Descriptive norms are beliefs about what others actually do

Preventing gender-based violence victimization in adolescent girls in lower-income countries: Systematic review of reviews

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This systematic review of reviews synthesises evidence on the impact of interventions to prevent violence against adolescent girls and young women 10–24 years in low- and middle-income countries. Theories of women's empowerment and the social ecology of multifaceted violence framed the review. Child abuse, female genital mutilation/cutting, child marriage, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence were focal outcomes. 

The main findings reveal that:

Key thematic resource pages

STRIVE have produced a wide range of academic and accessible resources which are available on our website. In 2017, we began compiling our most important thematic resources into one-page handouts to share online and at important meetings and conferences. These one-pagers provide a thematic map to our website and are available to download below.

What Works evidence review: Preventing violence against women and girls with disabilities in lower and middle income countries

Women and girls with disabilities are at increased risk of violence, abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and exploitation both because of their gender and their disabilities. Women with disabilities are at least twice as likely as nondisabled women to be victims of rape, sexual abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV).

Measurement brief: Measuring intimate partner violence

Gender-based violence – including physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence and abuse – is widespread globally. The most pervasive form of gender-based violence is intimate partner violence (IPV), also known as domestic violence or partner/spouse abuse. On average, 30% of women worldwide will experience at least one episode of sexual and/or physical IPV within her lifetime; the incidence and prevalence of violence in relationships, however, varies greatly both between countries and regions, and between neighbourhoods and villages.

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