Attitudes to Domestic Violence in Low- and Middle-income Countries: A Multi-Level Approach to Prevention
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Sch for Policy Studies
Abstract
The project will provide reliable, high quality data on attitudes to domestic violence (DV) in low- and middle-income countries across East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This is one of the first studies to focus on the systemic social, political and economic influences on societal acceptability of DV making a much needed contribution to research and national and international policy aimed at changing attitudes and preventing DV.
This work is important because DV against women is the most common form of violence against women worldwide and is far-reaching in its impact. There is clear evidence that gender equality is integral to the achievement of the MDGs, however the failure to address DV is a gap in the current MDGs. Research in over 35 countries worldwide has shown that women's and men's attitudes justifying DV is strongly associated with DV perpetration and victimisation. Thus, to optimally target resources into evidence-based prevention it is vital to identify those wider social, political and economic factors that reinforce societal acceptability of DV.
This study will use nationally-representative household surveys with individual-, country- and regional-level data and sources of high quality metadata on the social and economic development of countries and geographic regions to answer a set of important questions about attitudes to DV across low- and middle-income countries and the systemic factors influencing these attitudes. For example, how do attitudes to DV differ between countries and geographic regions? Are economic factors like women's labour force participation, ownership of property and other assets associated with societal attitudes to DV? Does access to education and educational attainment explain differences in attitudes to DV? Does social development and economic inequality influence attitudes to DV? Are social institutions like family laws, access to productive resources associated with attitudes to DV? Does women's representation in Parliament and participation in public life influence societal attitudes to DV?
While government legislation is considered important to combat this problem, there has been little research on which governments act and the effects of legislation on attitudes. This study will answer these questions by analysing the social, economic and political profile of nations (and geographic regions within which they are nested) which have DV legislation, and the effect of legislation on shifting women's and men's attitudes to DV.
These questions are best addressed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In addition to analysing datasets, a review of DV legislation and key informant interviews will be conducted with policy-makers and representatives of national and international organisations within select case study countries.
Data produced by the study will allow for the creation of a database which will provide robust and interpretable data on attitudes to DV within the context of key social development and economic empowerment indicators, and the existence and quality of DV legislation and policy. These data will be of interest to and can be used by academics across disciplines, policymakers, non-governmental organisations, international development agencies and donors interested in DV prevention strategies and the measurement of attitudes to DV as a component of gender equality and empowerment.
There is increasing recognition of the need to focus on prevention, however evidence-based prevention is still nascent especially in relation to tackling societal acceptability of DV. This work is timely given that the thematic priorities of UN Women are gender-based violence, economic empowerment and women's political participation and the focus of the 2013 UN Commission on the Status of Women is on preventing violence against women and girls.
This work is important because DV against women is the most common form of violence against women worldwide and is far-reaching in its impact. There is clear evidence that gender equality is integral to the achievement of the MDGs, however the failure to address DV is a gap in the current MDGs. Research in over 35 countries worldwide has shown that women's and men's attitudes justifying DV is strongly associated with DV perpetration and victimisation. Thus, to optimally target resources into evidence-based prevention it is vital to identify those wider social, political and economic factors that reinforce societal acceptability of DV.
This study will use nationally-representative household surveys with individual-, country- and regional-level data and sources of high quality metadata on the social and economic development of countries and geographic regions to answer a set of important questions about attitudes to DV across low- and middle-income countries and the systemic factors influencing these attitudes. For example, how do attitudes to DV differ between countries and geographic regions? Are economic factors like women's labour force participation, ownership of property and other assets associated with societal attitudes to DV? Does access to education and educational attainment explain differences in attitudes to DV? Does social development and economic inequality influence attitudes to DV? Are social institutions like family laws, access to productive resources associated with attitudes to DV? Does women's representation in Parliament and participation in public life influence societal attitudes to DV?
While government legislation is considered important to combat this problem, there has been little research on which governments act and the effects of legislation on attitudes. This study will answer these questions by analysing the social, economic and political profile of nations (and geographic regions within which they are nested) which have DV legislation, and the effect of legislation on shifting women's and men's attitudes to DV.
These questions are best addressed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In addition to analysing datasets, a review of DV legislation and key informant interviews will be conducted with policy-makers and representatives of national and international organisations within select case study countries.
Data produced by the study will allow for the creation of a database which will provide robust and interpretable data on attitudes to DV within the context of key social development and economic empowerment indicators, and the existence and quality of DV legislation and policy. These data will be of interest to and can be used by academics across disciplines, policymakers, non-governmental organisations, international development agencies and donors interested in DV prevention strategies and the measurement of attitudes to DV as a component of gender equality and empowerment.
There is increasing recognition of the need to focus on prevention, however evidence-based prevention is still nascent especially in relation to tackling societal acceptability of DV. This work is timely given that the thematic priorities of UN Women are gender-based violence, economic empowerment and women's political participation and the focus of the 2013 UN Commission on the Status of Women is on preventing violence against women and girls.
Planned Impact
WHO WILL BENEFIT AND HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT
'The global development agenda should seek not only to address and monitor the elimination of specific gender gaps, but also to transform the structural factors that underpin the widespread persistence of gender inequalities, gender-based violence, discrimination and unequal development progress between women and men, girls and boys.' (UN System Task Force on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, June 2012).
International Commissions, Consultations and Think-Tanks: At a time when the post-2015 (MDG) debate focuses on the 'big picture,' an examination of how attitudes to domestic violence (DV) may mitigate gender equality and women's empowerment is particularly pertinent and builds on current momentum ensuring DV remains an international priority. This project will make a vital contribution to the UN Commission on the Status of Women and Girls post-2015 consultation processes and debates by stimulating discussion on the development and use of indicators measuring societal attitudes and norms to DV and the systemic transformations required to change societal acceptability of DV. The robust internationally comparable data produced will benefit international organisations (e.g. UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and ICRW) by identifying the structural determinants of DV attitudes and norms, and how they vary across countries and geographic regions thus informing the strategic development of sustainable and effective cross-national DV prevention policies taking into account national and regional variations. This project will contribute to a new global narrative for international development, which includes gender equality as an essential component. Research visits to these international organisations (see Case for Support) provide the applicant an excellent opportunity to engage with and catalyse these discussions and debates.
National Governments: This project will draw attention of national governments and donors to focus on the urgent need to develop national DV prevention frameworks and policies that tackle societal acceptability of DV from a systemic, multi-sectoral and multi-level perspective by targeting discriminatory social institutions, and economic and political factors that influence these attitudes. It will provide an impetus to governments to critically evaluate existing DV legislation and policy, and to view attitudes to DV as fundamental to gender (in)equality and to a nation's social and economic development. In addition, by disaggregating data by gender, this project will generate much needed data for policy makers to make informed decisions about what works for women and girls in each national context, and hence develop DV effective and long-term prevention policies and programmes.
Grassroots Organisations and Advocacy Groups: The project will create a powerful advocacy tool for local women's organisations and other NGOs in these countries. It would provide robust evidence to these groups to call for international development agencies, donors, and their own national governments to spur investment into targeting societal acceptability of DV as a prevention strategy, as integral to empowering women and securing their fundamental human rights, and to view these social norms condoning DV as a development priority.
Given that DV against women is one of the most pervasive yet under-recognised human rights violations across the globe, and its impact on health, economic costs and society, it is hoped that through impacting DV prevention policy and practice nationally and internationally, this project will lead to better outcomes for women, children and societies.
In order to ensure that the research translates to a wide local and international policy and practice audience the dissemination of output to these beneficiaries will be carried out during and after the project life cycle through several activities. These have been discussed in 'Pathways to Impact.'
'The global development agenda should seek not only to address and monitor the elimination of specific gender gaps, but also to transform the structural factors that underpin the widespread persistence of gender inequalities, gender-based violence, discrimination and unequal development progress between women and men, girls and boys.' (UN System Task Force on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, June 2012).
International Commissions, Consultations and Think-Tanks: At a time when the post-2015 (MDG) debate focuses on the 'big picture,' an examination of how attitudes to domestic violence (DV) may mitigate gender equality and women's empowerment is particularly pertinent and builds on current momentum ensuring DV remains an international priority. This project will make a vital contribution to the UN Commission on the Status of Women and Girls post-2015 consultation processes and debates by stimulating discussion on the development and use of indicators measuring societal attitudes and norms to DV and the systemic transformations required to change societal acceptability of DV. The robust internationally comparable data produced will benefit international organisations (e.g. UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and ICRW) by identifying the structural determinants of DV attitudes and norms, and how they vary across countries and geographic regions thus informing the strategic development of sustainable and effective cross-national DV prevention policies taking into account national and regional variations. This project will contribute to a new global narrative for international development, which includes gender equality as an essential component. Research visits to these international organisations (see Case for Support) provide the applicant an excellent opportunity to engage with and catalyse these discussions and debates.
National Governments: This project will draw attention of national governments and donors to focus on the urgent need to develop national DV prevention frameworks and policies that tackle societal acceptability of DV from a systemic, multi-sectoral and multi-level perspective by targeting discriminatory social institutions, and economic and political factors that influence these attitudes. It will provide an impetus to governments to critically evaluate existing DV legislation and policy, and to view attitudes to DV as fundamental to gender (in)equality and to a nation's social and economic development. In addition, by disaggregating data by gender, this project will generate much needed data for policy makers to make informed decisions about what works for women and girls in each national context, and hence develop DV effective and long-term prevention policies and programmes.
Grassroots Organisations and Advocacy Groups: The project will create a powerful advocacy tool for local women's organisations and other NGOs in these countries. It would provide robust evidence to these groups to call for international development agencies, donors, and their own national governments to spur investment into targeting societal acceptability of DV as a prevention strategy, as integral to empowering women and securing their fundamental human rights, and to view these social norms condoning DV as a development priority.
Given that DV against women is one of the most pervasive yet under-recognised human rights violations across the globe, and its impact on health, economic costs and society, it is hoped that through impacting DV prevention policy and practice nationally and internationally, this project will lead to better outcomes for women, children and societies.
In order to ensure that the research translates to a wide local and international policy and practice audience the dissemination of output to these beneficiaries will be carried out during and after the project life cycle through several activities. These have been discussed in 'Pathways to Impact.'
Organisations
Publications
| Description | This, first ever global-scale study on women's and men's societal attitudes towards domestic violence (DV) has made significant contributions to the DV prevention evidence-base in these important ways: 1) Establishing robust estimates of the global prevalence and geographical distribution of the justification of DV amongst women and men in 49 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Central-, East-, and South Asia, Central Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. o The acceptance of DV is widespread amongst both women and men in LMICs with the prevalence and distribution varying widely across countries and geographical regions. o Societal justification of DV was higher in Sub-Saharan Africa and South (East) Asia compared with Latin America, the Caribbean, Central Asia and Europe o Women were more likely to justify DV in Sub-Saharan Africa and South(east) Asia. o Gender differences in DV acceptance were significant in 45 of the 49 countries. 2) Identifying the independent influence of significant country- and individual/household-level social, economic and political empowerment factors on DV acceptance across the 49 countries, and how these differ by gender. o Political conflict and limited economic rights for women were the strongest predictors of higher societal acceptance of DV amongst women and men. o Men in more democratic countries were less likely to justify DV. o There were higher levels of DV acceptance amongst women in countries with a larger representation of women in national parliament. o The existence of explicit national legislation on DV and the quality of the DV law did not significantly predict societal justification DV. o Commonly-used dimensions in gender (in)equality indices including women's labour force participation in national parliament and female educational attainment levels were not associated with lower levels of societal acceptance of DV. 3) This was one of the first studies globally to apply robust and innovative Bayesian hierarchical modelling techniques to DV and gender-based violence research. These modelling techniques were key to producing reliable data on the multi-level factors associated with DV justification in the Global South. The evidence generated will inform a multi-sectoral approach to (inter)national policies aimed at preventing DV by optimally targeting 'upstream' factors associated with its societal acceptance. 4) This project resulted in the construction of a first-of-its-kind global meta-database on societal attitudes to DV, and a comprehensive range of diverse high quality internationally comparable socio-economic, political and legislative metadata from UN sources and other topic-specific databases. New important data sources were identified in the compilation of this database and a rigorous scrutiny of coding procedures, decision trees and technical papers preceding decisions to use (sub)-indices was conducted to ensure robust and valid data. 5) Important new research questions emerged from this study suggesting the need for research into a) neighbourhood-level characteristics associated with the acceptance of DV, b) the mediating impact of national DV legislation on neighbourhood attitudes, and c) the justification of DV in conflict-affected societies. These identified gaps in knowledge have resulted in the development of a new ESRC Standard Grant proposal 6) In addition to already existing and established networks, research collaborations have also been formed with other UK and US Universities (LSHTM, University of Kent, University of Southampton, Maynooth University and University of Lancaster, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, George Mason University, Emory University, and UCLA) and multilateral organisations including UN Women, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, Fundamental Rights Agency, Organisation for Security and Conflict in Europe and UNODC. |
| Exploitation Route | Research visits and invited presentations to international academic and multilateral organisations have enabled wider dissemination throughout the course of the project, extending and strengthening new and established collaborations. These networks and collaborations are continuing to play a pivotal role in maximising the impact of this research, and have inputted into the development of a recently submitted ESRC grant proposal that builds on this project. They have agreed to serve as collaborators and Expert Advisory Board members of the proposed project. The collaborating organisations (e.g UN Women, WHO, the World Bank, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins amongst others) have expressed great interest in the project's data and findings on the prevalence and distribution of DV justification in LMICs, and the country-level empowerment indicators associated with the societal justification of DV. In particular, there are ongoing consultations with: 1) UN Women on using the project's data and findings to feed into the Spotlight Initiative, a new, global, multi-year, Euro 500 million initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls; 2) World Health Organisation on incorporating the findings into the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 (SDG) as a tool for effective monitoring and evaluation of the SDG5 (Gender Equality and Empowerment of all women and girls) and SDG 5.2 (Elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls); 3) World Bank Gender team and the Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Unit of UN Women on collaborative research focussing on the risk and protective factors for DV acceptance and DV perpetration in conflict-impacted societies with a view to influencing tailored prevention policies and programmes at the national-level. As Expert Advisor, the in-depth knowledge of the data, methods and statistical expertise applied by the PI in the research project will be used to input into the OECD Development Centre's Social Institutions and Gender Index; the Organisation for Security and Conflict in Europe's survey on violence against women in the conflict-impacted Balkan States; and as Technical Expert Adviser to the WHO-UN Women joint program on establishing updated global estimates on intimate partner and non-partner violence against women using Bayesian estimation techniques. The unique multi-country database created during the project on the prevalence of DV acceptance across countries and regions, and the associated country-level social, political and economic indicators will serve as an accessible and evidence-based resource to international researchers and policy-makers seeking to address discriminatory gender norms including societal attitudes to DV, thus informing effective DV prevention strategies and programmes across LMICs. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Description | This research has gained great interest by the international media with a very high coverage in India and the Global South including the Asian Age, Indian Business Standard, Asian News International, Eurasia Review amongst others. National Public Radio (NPR) in the US interviewed the PI, and the article was published 12 Nov 2018 by NPR and the article was reproduced 73 times across the U.S. Coverage of the article also appeared in languages other than English, namely, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish media outlets The PI has also been invited to be interviewed by BBC World News for the 100 Women season, on the 26th of Nov. The ESRC's Society Now will also be featuring the article in their December 2018 review Research visits and invited presentations to international academic and multilateral organisations have enabled wider dissemination throughout the course of the project, extending and strengthening new and established collaborations. These networks and collaborations are continuing to play a pivotal role in maximising the impact of this research, and have inputted into the development of a recently submitted ESRC grant proposal that builds on this project. They have agreed to serve as collaborators and Expert Advisory Board members of the proposed project. The collaborating organisations (e.g UN Women, WHO, the World Bank, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins amongst others) have expressed great interest in the project's data and findings on the prevalence and distribution of DV justification in LMICs, and the country-level empowerment indicators associated with the societal justification of DV. In particular, there are ongoing consultations with: 1) UN Women on using the project's data and findings to feed into the Spotlight Initiative, a new, global, multi-year, Euro 500 million initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls; 2) World Health Organisation (WHO) on incorporating the findings into the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 (SDG) as a tool for effective monitoring and evaluation of the SDG5 (Gender Equality and Empowerment of all women and girls) and SDG 5.2 (Elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls); 3) World Bank Gender team and the Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Unit of UN Women on collaborative research focussing on the risk and protective factors for DV acceptance and DV perpetration in conflict-impacted societies with a view to influencing tailored prevention policies and programmes at the national-level. As Expert Advisor, the in-depth knowledge of the data, methods and statistical expertise applied by the PI in the research project will be used to input into the OECD Development Centre's Social Institutions and Gender Index; the Organisation for Security and Conflict in Europe's survey on violence against women in the conflict-impacted Balkan States; and as Technical Expert Adviser to the WHO-UN Women joint program on establishing updated global estimates on intimate partner and non-partner violence against women using Bayesian estimation techniques. The unique multi-country database created during the project on the prevalence of DV acceptance across countries and regions, and the associated country-level social, political and economic indicators will serve as an accessible and evidence-based resource to international researchers and policy-makers seeking to address discriminatory gender norms including societal attitudes to DV, thus informing effective DV prevention strategies and programmes across LMICs. The findings from the multi-level modelling analyses is being used by the WHO team working with adolescent girls on education, sexual health and decision-making (Sexual and Reproductive Health Research department) Building on the findings of this research the PI applied for and was successfully awarded an ESRC Standard Grant that looks at neighbourhood-level protective and risk factors associated with the justification of intimate partner violence. This recently funded project will also use innovative Bayesian and geo-spatial modelling techniques that will help identify 'hotspots' of attitudes justifying intimate partner violence with the view to informing locally targetted interventions and policies. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Addition of Gender and Development to course on the Masters in Policy Research and Masters in Public Policy |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The postgraduates at these courses are an international cohort. The discussions and written feedback after the course were very positive in terms of influencing their thinking about gender inequalities in the context of global development, women's empowerment strategies and the SDGs. Some postgraduate researchers also opted to do their essays and dissertation on the topic. |
| Description | Expert Group member of the OECD Development Centre's Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Expert Group member of the Organisation for Security and Conflict in Europe (OSCE) |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Expert Group member on the European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE) on updating the Gender Equality Index to include measures on violence against women |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | New addition of Survey measurement of the prevalence of domestic violence and attitudes towards domestic violence on the Masters in Policy Research course on "Domestic Violence: Research Policy and Activism" unit |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The postgraduates at these courses are an international cohort and come from a wire range of backgrounds. These include the practitioners and researchers from the third sector, policy makers and academic researchers. The course received extremely positive feedback. It stimulated in-depth discussions of the quantitative-qualitative debate that has been on-going in the field of gender (violence) research and the advantages and challenges in the use of quantitative methods. This encouraged students to opt for dissertations that applied quantitative methods with a focus on gender violence. |
| Description | New addition of Survey measurement of the prevalence of domestic violence and attitudes towards domestic violence on the Masters in Public Policy course 'International Perspectives in Gender-based violence |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The postgraduates at these courses are an international cohort and come from a wire range of backgrounds. These include the practitioners and researchers from the third sector, policy makers and academic researchers. The course received extremely positive feedback. It stimulated in-depth discussions of the quantitative-qualitative debate that has been on-going in the field of gender (violence) research and the advantages and challenges in the use of quantitative methods. This encouraged students to opt for dissertations that applied quantitative methods with a focus on gender violence. |
| Description | International Strategic Fund |
| Amount | £2,700 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Department | ESRC-DFID Joint Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 07/2017 |
| Description | A two -week research visit to the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was invited for a 2 week research visit by the Head of Sector Statistics at the EU Fundamental rights agency to share and exchange information and expertise around surveys on domestic violence in low- and middle-income countries (DHS) and surveys on violence against women in Europe (FRA EU-wide survey on violence against women). While there we discussed the potential for collaborative work between FRA and the School of Policy Studiies, University of Bristol where I am based. While at FRA I also established links and had meetings with the Organisation of Security and Conflict in Europe (OSCE) and the UNODC |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Advisory and stakeholder Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a meeting of the interdisciplinary advisory board set up to provide feedback on study design, choice of data sources, advice on statistical plan of analysis and preliminary and main findings, planned outputs, and dissemination. There were 13 attendees including internationally recognised including Dr Claudia-Garcia Moreno (WHO), Dr Sunitha Kishor (DHS Program) and Dr Lori Heise (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). There were detailed discussion around: Finalising the scope of the project and suggested changes in Phase 2 of project; Selection of mirco and metadatasets, and the challenges in comparison of data across international contexts, and addressing this. The output and dissemination strategy including potential academic journals to target, a Special Edition with advisory board members also contributing, setting up the project website Identifying and targeting relevant conferences The international visits to the OECD, DHS, WHO and UN Women were confirmed I was invited to be a member of the Working group on Secondary Data at the Gender Violence and Health Centre by Lori Heise I was also invited to participate in the development of the Sustainable Development Goals specifically around attitudes towards violence against women and prevention strategies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | European Conference on Domestic Violence, Porto, 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A biennial European conference with a focus on domestic violence. 350-400 from academia, policy and practice attended. The presentation on the research methods and findings received great interest and with questions and discussions during an after the presentation. There were invitations to discuss collaborative research bringing together the PI's research focus and expertise in low- and middle-income countries, and the collaborators whose research focused on high-income settings. These discussions are on-going and it is hoped that this will lead to a collaborative grant application. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | European Network on Gender Violence Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a paper at this international conference based on my ESRC Future Research Leaders project focusing on attitudes justifying domestic violence in low- and middle-income countries. The presentation generated a lot of interest and discussion around the measurement of attitudes, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the potential and timeliness of the project were complimented. The Head of Sector Statistics from the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) who was attended the presentation invited me for a research visit to FRA to share about my project and also discuss future collaboration using the FRA EU-wide survey on violence against women. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2016 |
| Description | International Conference: Sexual Violence Research Initiative |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This was the 5th international conference, the SVRI Forum 2017. Through this event, the SVRI brought together over 500 researchers, gender activists, funders, policy makers, service providers, practitioners and survivors from around the globe who are working to understand, prevent and respond to sexual and intimate partner violence. With the recent launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - the 17 goals which the 193 UN member states have committed to achieving over the next 15 years - SVRI Forum 2017 was a timely space to discuss and share the interim findings of this research project within the strategies for achieving SDG targets aimed at ending all forms of violence against women and girls. This project elicited great interest among international organisations (UN Women, WHO, Unicef, UNDP and ICRW) as well as academics from Johns Hopkins, LSHTM, Emory, and George Washington University. Participating in the SVRI has resulted in strengthening existing and building new networks and collaborations, and the PI is now collaborating with some of these new networks in putting together 2 joint research projects taking forward her ESRC Future Research Leaders work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | International Family Violence Prevention Initiative |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A paper on the country-level predictors of attitudes justifying domestic violence was made at this international conference hosted in at the University of Jyväskylä with an audience of academics, researchers and policy-makers. The paper presentation was well received and networks were established with other quantitative researchers working on large population-based datasets in Europe and was an excellent knowledge exchange opportunity that is now ongoing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Media Interviews with NPR and BBC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | On publication of the main paper and key findings from this research project in PlosOne I was invited to be interviewed by NPR (US) and the BBC to talk about the research findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Research Organisation visit (CEHAT, India) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Visited and presented my ESRC FRL project to a research organisation in India, CEHAT (Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes) and UNFPA. There were lively discussions after the presentations and several key suggestions on involving international grassroots stakeholders in the research project especially during Phase 2 that has in-depth qualitative research in case study countries and on how to engage these audiences in dissemination of findings, and guiding the development of domestic violence prevention interventions. The organisations have also agreed for the project to be linked to their websites thus ensuring wider dissemination. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015 |
| Description | Research visit and invited speaker to UN Women, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UN Trust Fund, New York, and the World Bank, Washington D.C. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Several presentations were made and meetings held with the teams at UN Women, UN Trust Fund, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and the World bank as part of the research visit to the UN, New York and to Washington D.C. There was strong interest in the research and it was suggested that this project's findings could inform the UN Spotlight Initiative and these discussions are underway. These organisations are also collaborators on a recently submitted ESRC grant proposal that builds on this project to look at neighbourhood-level attitudes towards DV across 54 countries in relation to the prevalence, spatial distribution and associated risk and protective factors with the aim of developing more local strategies and programmes to target the acceptance of DV and to identify the 'hotspots' where DV prevention efforts would need to be prioritised. Consultations are also ongoing with the World Bank Gender team on potential collaboration in taking forward the research agenda on DV acceptance and prevention in conflict-impacted societies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Research visit to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This visit by the PI was made as a result of an invite by the Dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health whlist the PI was at an Expert Advisory Board meeting at the OECD in the Autumn of 2016. The invitation was to discuss possible research collaboration with the WOLRD Policy Analysis Centre around gender equality and measured to prevent violence against women. The visit was an opportunity to learn more about the WORLD centre, their current work and the potential for extending their work in the area of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. The Dean of UCLA and Director of the WORLD centre were keen on drawing on the PI's expertise on gender norms especially in relation to domestic violence, and the role of domestic violence and other gender-related legislation. This visit resulted in several joint meetings and plans to take this collaborative work forward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Research visit to the Demographic and Health Survey Program, Maryland, US |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This research visit to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program was arranged as the project largely used DHS data and this was an opportunity to discuss with DHS experts the methods and analytical techniques being used, as well as to present on the project's interim findings. This research visit provided an ideal platform for knowledge exchange and dissemination of the research methods and findings.Dr Kishor, the Director of the DHS arranged for a meeting of the PI with Dr Mary Ellsberg, Founder of the Global Women's Institute, George Washington University where the PI was further able to discuss the research. Potential future research collaboration between the PI (University of Bristol) and Dr Ellsberg (GWI/GWU) was discussed to take forward this project's work. The PI has put together an ESRC Standard Grant application building on the Future Research Leaders work and GWU/GWI is one of the proposed project's collaborators. Similar discussions were had with Dr Kishor and the GIS team at the DHS, who inputted into the development of the follow-up research. They will also act as Technical Advisors on the proposed project's Advisory Board. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Research visit to the World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The research data and findings were presented to the WHO, and they expressed keen interest in using the data to inform the UN Sustainable Goals Agenda 2030 (SDG) as a tool for effective monitoring and evaluation of the SDG5 (Gender Equality and Empowerment of all women and girls) and SDG 5.2 (Elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls). Discussions and consultations on taking this forward are currently ongoing and the PI has been invited as Technical Expert on Violence against Women Data and Research, WHO |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.bris.ac.uk/sps/news/2018/sardinha-who.html |
| Description | Six week research visit to the OECD Development Centre's Social Institutions and Gender Index team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Social Institutions and Gender Index developed by the OECD Development Centre in 2009 and updated every two years was one of the main sources of data for my fellowship. While on my visit I conducted some analyses on the SIGI 2014 and advised on the development of SIGI 2018. I was invited to join the Expert Group on the updating of SIGI 2018 especially in relation to the sub-indices of violence against women and attitudes to domestic violence. I also contributed the Expert panel on this research visit to the OECD. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | UK Domestic Violence and Health Research Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I have set up, organise and coordinate the UK Domestic Violence and Health Research Forum that brings together experts in the area of domestic violence and health in the UK. This forum meets biannually with the aim of presenting and sharing research in the field of domestic violence and health. Invited papers and presentations include research in progress, completed research studies and the future direction and challenges arising within these studies, prospective areas of research as well as news and events. This forum is also a platform for networking and establishing new collaborations. During the period of the grant I have further built on this forum and am setting up a forum that focuses in international research on global development, gender equality and prevention of domestic violence. The first forum will be held in the autumn of 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| Description | Visit and meeting with the UNODC, Vienna |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I had a meeting with the Chief of the Crime Research Section and team at the UNODC, Vienna. This visit was mainly to discuss the potential for future collaboration building on my current ESRC Future Research Leaders project and to develop links between the UNODC and the Centre for Poverty and Social Justice and the Centre of Gender Violence Research - the two departmental Centres I work across at the University of Bristol |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Visit and meetings at the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Conflict in Europe) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to the OSCE to talk about my ESRC Future Research Leaders project, share my knowledge about questionnaire development in violence against women surveys and data sources on violence against women in conflict zones. As a result of this meeting I was invited to be part of the expert panel advising on the survey being developed by the OSCE looking at violence against women in the Balkan States and advising on focus groups as a method of questionnaire development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Visit to INED (Institut Demographique), Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | While at the Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna, I established links with the Gender team at INED that have been working on a national survey on violence against women in France. This visit with the team was to mainly explore the potential of developing joint research proposals building on my ESRC Future Research Leaders project that currently focuses on low- and middle-income countries |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |