The What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Programme is a flagship programme from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), which is investing an unprecedented £25 million over five years to the prevention of violence against women and girls.
It supports primary prevention efforts across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, that seek to understand and address the underlying causes of violence, and to stop it from occurring.
What Works is implemented by a consortium led by the South African Medical Research Council, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Social Development Direct.
What Works consists of three complementary components:
| What Works: the Global Programme |
| The Global Programme is focused broadly on what works to prevent violence against women and girls. It will conduct research, evaluations of existing interventions, and support innovation in programming through a dedicated grants scheme. The Medical Research Council of South Africa leads a consortium in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Social Development Direct. http://whatworks.co.za/about/global-programme |
| What Works: Violence Against Women and Girls in Conflict and Humanitarian Crises |
| This component is focused on developing research and evidence to fill gaps in knowledge about what interventions work to prevent and respond to violence in fragile and conflict areas. The International Rescue Committee leads a consortium in partnership with CARE International UK and the Global Women’s Institute at the George Washington University. http://whatworks.co.za/about/conflict-crises |
| What Works: Economic and Social Costs of Violence Against Women and Girls |
| This third component is focused on the estimation of social and economic costs of violence against women and girls, developing the economic case for investing in prevention. The National University of Ireland, Galway, leads a consortium in partnership with Ipsos MORI and International Center for Research on Women. http://whatworks.co.za/about/costs-of-violence |
The overarching programme:
| Conducts cutting-edge research |
| Prevention efforts that work are based on research and evidence. The Global Programme conducts cutting-edge research around the world that will substantially advance the evidence on what drives violence, what works to prevent violence, what makes interventions successful and how they can be replicated, adapted and scaled up. This includes conducting large-scale impact evaluations of successful and promising prevention interventions, costing studies, and in-depth secondary analysis of existing data. |
| Supports innovation |
| Prevention is a growing field, and much new and promising work is being done. The Global Programme supports groundbreaking work through an innovation grant scheme, to support non-profits working in DFID priority countries to develop and test pioneering approaches to preventing violence against women and girls. |
| Promotes knowledge sharing and builds capacity |
| A unified movement to prevent violence against women requires sharing lessons globally. To support this, The Global Programme provides a platform for cross-country and cross-disciplinary learning. The programme also provides training and capacity development in primary prevention approaches to research, programme design and implementation. |
| Drives the policy agenda |
| Good policy and programming is based on evidence. The Global Programme has strong networks with policymakers, practitioners and activists worldwide, and is committed to communicating research in ways that are applicable to the needs of different stakeholders, to ensure knowledge translates into action. |
Reports
- https://whatworks.co.za/resources/film-and-audio/item/668-video-violence-is-preventable-what-works
- https://whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/373-intervention-report19-02-20
- https://whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/374-evidence-reviewfweb
For more information visit us online at https://whatworks.co.za/ or email us at whatworks@mrc.ac.za