Family Law

The Department for International Development (DfID) has published the latest research and evidence of what works in the prevention of violence against women and girls.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread abuses of human rights worldwide, affecting a third of all women in their lifetime. It is a global public health problem; it is the leading cause of death and disability of women of all ages and has many other health consequences.

What Works is a global programme that aims to build knowledge on what works to prevent violence against women and girls. There are many forms of violence against women and girls, but the programme focuses on intimate partner violence (emotional, economic, physical, sexual), non-partner sexual violence, and child abuse (emotional, physical, sexual). The focus is on identifying effective strategies for prevention – preventing violence from ever occurring by addressing the root causes or established risk factors for violence.

A digest of the research is available to view here.

The UK is investing up to £25m over 5 years (2013 to 2018) in the What Works programme. The documents below are a review of the latest evidence:

• A Summary of the Evidence and Research Agenda (Annex C)
• What do we know and what are the knowledge gaps? (Annex D)
• What do we know about VAWG and what more do we need to know to prevent it? A Summary of the Evidence (Annex E)
• Evidence Review of interventions to prevent violence against women and girls (Annex F)
• Effectiveness of interventions to prevent violence against women and girls: a summary of the evidence (Annex G)
• Evidence review of the effectiveness of response mechanisms in preventing violence against women and girls (Annex H)
• Evidence of response mechanisms to prevent violence against women and girls: A Summary of the Evidence (Annex I)
• Evidence Review of Approaches to Scale up VAWG Programming and Assess Intervention Cost-effectiveness and Value for Money (Annex J)
• Approaches to Assess Value for Money and Scale up of Violence against Women and Girls Prevention: A Summary of the Evidence (Annex K)
• What works to prevent violence against women with disabilities (Annex W)
• What Works To Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls In Conflict and Emergencies