Ending Violence Against Women & Girls
News / 31.03.20
Virtual Event for Commission on the Status of Women
“Over the past 15 years the field has focused on building the evidence base, and we can now say with confidence that we have evidence of the scope of violence against women and girls. We know that violence against women and girls is preventable - and in a short period of time.” Tesmerelna Atsbeha, Wellspring
When the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2020 went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative transitioned its “Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls - A Shared Global Agenda” event online as well. The Ford Foundation, Wellspring and Apolitical invited policymakers and activists from all over the world for a virtual exchange with leading experts in the field.
The exchange featured:
- Tesmerelna Atsbeha, Wellspring and Radha Wickremasinghe, Ford Foundation as hosts
- Claudia Garcia-Moreno, WHO, highlighted the RESPECT framework
- Lori Heise, Prevention Collaborative, shared the progress of the movement and the state of the evidence
- Jessica Horn, African Women’s Development Fund, emphasised women’s fund’s role in prevention
- Sarah Fisher-White, DfID, gave updates on the UK’s What Works program
- Emma Fulu, Equality Institute, featured new mapping of the efforts to prevent violence against women and girls globally
Experts celebrated the progress in research and practice that proved violence against women and girls is preventable, and discussed what’s needed next to progress the movement. They called for:
- Bridging the gap between research and practice so that programs sufficiently address the root causes of violence in communities
- Ensuring women’s rights organisations are engaged in these conversations to centralise local and personal experience and feminist principles in response
- Better communications to share the evidence that violence is preventable and encourage more and better investment in evidence-based and practice-informed programming
- An intersectional approach to ensure resources and programmes focus on those who are particularly vulnerable
The initiative will continue to hold events – virtually for the time being – to share evidence, call for more and better money toward programs and gain insights from the wider gender equity community.
To learn more about the initiative, visit our About page here, and stay up to date with progress and news by signing up to the newsletter at the bottom of this site.
