Intimate partner violence prevention evidence gap map
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Awareness & life skills (W)
Outcomes that allow women to identify IPV as a problem and act upon this understanding and knowledge. An example is negotiation skills that affect women’s bargaining power and knowledge of their rights and the services they can access
Attitudes & self-efficacy/identity (W)
This includes identity formation, perception of gender roles, acceptability of sexist attitudes, acceptability of IPV, intimacy and self-efficacy
Socio-economic factors (W)
Outcomes considered in the literature as protective factors that reduce the risk of IPV due to the women’s empowerment they generate include: education/completion of secondary school, economic rights, employment outcomes, access and use of assets
Incidence or reaction to IPV (W)
IPV indicators and reporting would be included here, as well as other outcomes as leaving the relationship. We include perpetrating IPV because the study may include cases when the perpetrator is a woman
Awareness & life skills (M)
Understanding of IPV as a problem and life skills mainly oriented to self-efficacy and self-control of triggers, particularly in stressful situations. Control of alcohol intake would be included here
Attitudes to IPV, perception of gender roles (M)
Acceptability of IPV and perception of gender roles as a risk factor
Socio-economic factors (M)
The emphasis of this category for men is in the reduction of stress due to lack of economic opportunities that may create stress in the relationship and violent behavior
Incidence or reaction to IPV (M)
Studies measuring outcomes for men and boys on attitudes towards IPV could report on men admitting engaging in violence, but mainly we look at proxies of changed behavior of men
Access to/use of response services (M)
The availability and effective use of health, psychological/counselling and legal services
Awareness, life skills & attitudes to IPV
A study is registered here when the change in perception and attitudes toward IPV is observed in the couple or other family members (in laws, relatives, children/youth)
Incidence & exposure to IPV
Experience and exposure to violence by the couple or other household members. This includes child abuse, other gender based violence apart from IPV
Decision-making/gender roles
Identify concrete changes in decision making power or gender roles due to interventions
Response to IPV
Response of household members to IPV, including intervening or seeking help
Attitudes to IPV & perception of gender roles
Community level measures of IPV acceptability and perceptions of gender role as a risk factor
Incidence, prevalence & exposure to IPV
Any reports on % of households or % of women at the community level suffering or reporting IPV will be included here. It explicitly looks at incidence and reporting: as explained for the individual level, an increased reporting of cases may also be a consequence of programs in the sense that there is a greater acknowledgement of the problem
Community/society response to IPV
This category includes legislation, women quotas in governing bodies, but also reporting/intervening when IPV happens
Report cost-effectiveness
If the study has a cost effectiveness analysis for different interventions/combination of interventions in order to determine which one results in the highest impact for the cost
Measure long term impact
If the study measures impact 24 months or more after baseline or intervention implementation
Vulnerable populations (other than women)
If the study focuses on indigenous peoples, people living with disabilities, low castes or other vulnerable populations or subpopulationsof interest. The intervention should be focused on vulnerabiliyt, or the study needs to include a detail discussion around it; it is not enough to report on a vulnerable population or research-defined group as a heterogeneous effect to be considered in this category
Focus on men & boys
If the study . focuses on men and boys and their attitudes about andperceptions of masculinity , it is included under this category. It is not enough to report results or analyse work with men or boys as part of the analysis. The theory of change of the evaluation should target the transformational effects of focusing an intervention on men or boys
Focus on alcohol & drug abuse
If the study looks at either alcohol/drug abuse as an outcome, or at populations of those abusing alcohol or drugs, regardless of the focus of the intervention, it is included here
Access to/use of response services (W)
The availability and effective use of health, psychological/counselling and legal services
Economic, income generation
Includes impact evaluations and systematic reviews of economic interventions and their effects on IPV prevention outcomes. The intervention itself is typically not designed to prevent IPV, but the study does look into its effects on IPV prevention and risk factors. Examples: microfinance; vocational or job training programs; cash transfers.
Social empowerment, skills building, awareness raising
Interventions focusing on social empowerment through non-economic means targeting mainly women (particularly from vulnerable groups), but also men. Interventions include gender sensitization, transformative programming, awareness-raising around women's rights, access to services, how to protect oneself from violence; building soft skills or organizational skills. These interventions can be delivered to groups or one-to-one for particularly vulnerable individuals through home visits and may be focused on health issues, family roles, violence and services available
Attention to physical or psychological health
Included are interventions that assist victims by providing physical and psychological health services, as well as working with victimizers when psychological assistance is needed; if and only if these interventions have a prevention component, or the study deals with their effect on IPV prevention outcomes. Physical health includes the treatment of alcohol abuse, but alcohol abuse can also be targeted through other types of interventions.
Bystander interventions
Interventions that organize or promote action taken by a person (or persons) not directly involved as subject(s) or perpetrator of VAW to identify, speak out about or seek to engage others in responding to violence. While some forms of bystander action are intended to intervene in actual violent incidents or actions, others are intended to challenge the social norms and attitudes that perpetuate violence in the community) They can be targeted at men, boys, women or girls.
Counselling, critical awareness of gender roles
Interventions under this type include workshops and direct counselling directed at men and women separately or together, and which may encourage critical awareness of gender roles and norms, promote the position of women, challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between men and women; address the power relationships between women and others in the community.
Parenting interventions
Interventions targeting parents who have abused or neglected their children, or are at risk of doing so, or that aim at utilizing parental roles as a channel for gender role sensitization. Activities include counselling, role play, media modelling of positive behaviours, structured play, production and delivery of communication materials, among others. They can be delivered through home visits, be community-based; implemented in a health clinic setting, or others
Curriculum-based activities at school
Interventions delivered at school through formal courses, in-class workshops, or modification at an institutional level of the curricula or educational approaches with an IPV prevention aim
Extra-curricular activities for children & adolescents
Activities outside school and focused in children (under 13), or adolescents (13-17). Sports, music, theater, and other extra-curricular activities included here when not part of a community-wide program
Communication & advocacy campaigns
Awareness campaigns that aim to raise awareness or increase knowledge about a service, a law or about IPV as an issue in general. Advocacy campaigns often take the form of a regional or national coalition of individuals and organizations that are encouraged to take action to influence policy change. They often include media interventions, using television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other printed publications. Includes social norms marketing used to change perceptions about attitudes and behaviour considered normal by the community; activate positive social norms and discourage harmful ones
Community-wide mobilisation
Community mobilization interventions attempt to empower women, engage with men and change gender stereotypes and norms at a community level. They can take the form of community workshops and peer training aimed at shifting attitudes and behaviour by interrogating prevalent norms. They are often accompanied by localized campaigns and community mobilization activities, including video, radio broadcasts or dramas
Activities & mobilisation through common-interest groups
Activities for groups formed around shared characteristics /affiliation (church, university, savings group, women's groups) IPV training for microfinance groups, for example would be coded here
Workplace & private sector interventions
Sensitization campaigns and targeted training at the workplace, workplace regulations
Promotion of changes in local norms & legislation
Initiatives to establish new norms, rules or laws that are expected to eventually change prevailing gender norms by fostering an enabling environment conducive to changes in gender relations. Examples are a system of quotas for women participation in local governance, discussion of women's issues linked to IPV during elections to encourage voting and influence the debate; campaigns for women equality in leadership positions can also be included here
Police activities/enforcement of existing laws & regulation
Initiatives to establish new norms, rules or laws that are expected to eventually change prevailing gender norms by fostering an enabling environment conducive to changes in gender relations. Examples are a system of quotas for women participation in local governance, discussion of women's issues linked to IPV during elections to encourage voting and influence the debate; campaigns for women equality in leadership positions can also be included here
ICT-based interventions
Includes mobile phones, internet, hotlines. While the use of cell phones or internet could be part of a larger effort at one or more levels, we try to identify evidence around its use to understand its impact
Using traditions, festivals to channel messages
Interventions are coded here when the key mechanism to pass information and create awareness about IPV are local traditions, ceremonies or festivals. For example: a recent impact evaluation of IPV prevention through coffee ceremony in Ethiopia (ongoing)
Multicomponent approaches
Here we include studies evaluating interventions that operate across different levels of the social ecology, either evaluating the programme as a whole, or evaluating multiple interventions at more than one level of the social ecology. For example, an intervention looking to empower women by training them in soft skills, while also providing relationship counselling, would be coded under this category, same when the study reports on the overall effect of a programme looking to influence multiple levels, like SASA!
