Healthy, Secure and Gender Just Cities: Transnational Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Rio de Janeiro and London

In Brazil an estimated 15 women are killed by men every day. Within the past three decades, at least 92,000 women have been killed, many at the hands of their partners representing a rise of 230% between 1980 and 2010. The situation in Rio de Janeiro is no less alarming where 17 women a day are victims of gender-based murder and sexual violence.

This project provides an opportunity to make an important contribution to understanding Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), which is one of the world's major public health and development concerns, with a view towards reducing it in order to make the cities of Rio and London ultimately healthier as well as to develop a mutual learning partnership between the Global North and Global South.

The research explores the nature of VAWG in Rio de Janeiro with a simultaneous examination of such violence among London's Brazilian diaspora. It develops an innovative inter-disciplinary framework that builds on the strengths of the research team to bridge geographical and disciplinary borders. It combines the analytical approach of the social sciences with the traditions of knowledge production in the humanities, and the ability of theatre to explore new relationships between authors and audiences. It recognises growing linkages between cities of the Global South and North, connected through globalisation and international migration, as well as the need to learn from cities of the South.

The research is rooted empirically in two urban locations 1) in the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Complexo da Maré, where residents are predominantly poor and where everyday VAWG is endemic; and 2) among the diasporic community of Brazilians in London, which is one of the fastest growing migrant groups in the city and the largest component of the wider Latin American population. With no existing systematic analysis of the nature of VAWG in either the territorial or diasporic community, the project explores the nature, causes and consequences of VAWG and the health outcomes locally and across borders. Specifically, it uses a range of mainly qualitative methodologies such as participatory appraisals, testimonial interviews, mapping of service provision, theatre production and film as tools to explore what happens to women in one of Latin America's most violent cities and examine how this violence affect linkages and movement across borders between Rio de Janeiro and London. This is facilitated through the close links the research teams have with the communities, especially through their collaborating partners - in Rio, Redes da Maré (a community organisation); in London, the Latin American Women's Rights Service (LAWRS), and the People's Palace Project (an arts-based research centre working on London and Brazil, based at QMUL).

Theoretically, the project aims to develop new understandings of VAWG that move beyond the traditional epidemiological approach to explore how participatory appraisal and theatre in particular can uncover processes that have previously been hidden. As part of this approach, the project aims to develop a nexus ('multi-scalar-VAWG-health-nexus') that will assist in explaining why VAWG occurs and especially how this occurs across borders, the sources of support available, and how VAWG motivates women's movement to the UK from Brazil as well as how this affects health inequalities.

It actively considers the potential for learning from existing community interventions and especially those revolving around theatre and performance, and in creating new interventions to reduce VAWG and reduce the urban public health risks associated with it. It also proposes to devise effective tools to increase women and girls' knowledge about their rights in relation to the experience of violence. Thus, it will raise awareness of VAWG transnationally as a means to strengthen and build capacity, compare experiences, promote alternative narratives and impact on policy debates in both countries.

The importance of VAWG as a community, city, national and international public health, development and gender equality concern cannot be overstated. This project has a potentially extremely wide remit in terms of its impact across different arenas and scales that will improve understanding of VAWG transnationally, raise awareness, inform state and civil society practitioners, and influence public policy-makers in their interventions in Brazil the UK and beyond. The aim is create mechanisms that lead to managing and preventing VAWG and their associated health inequalities more effectively in the short-term through the life of the project and in the long-term.

The specific beneficiaries and potential impacts are as follows:

1. Community level individual research participants in Rio's favelas and the Brazilian migrants in London, the project will provide the opportunity for women to voice their experiences, be signposted to relevant organisations for assistance and to raise awareness beyond direct participants.
Indicator of success and impact: measurements of the number of women consulting the specialist services for female survivors of violence in Rio and London at the beginning and end of the research process.

2. Verbatim theatre performances and film production at community, city, national and transnational levels will be used to raise awareness among the general public and as a policy-tool for campaigning and policy intervention work by civil society and state organisations.
Indicator of success and impact: measurement of the number of people in theatre audiences, documenting responses at post-show discussions and an evaluation questionnaire, and the number of film views and social media shares from YouTube.

3. Community level VAWG theatre workshops: to include young women and men (some from initial research stages) to encourage young people to develop alternative narratives on the cultures of VAWG with a view to resisting it and improving their well-being and promote transnational learning.
Indicator of success and impact: measurement using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) developed by NHS Scotland to address mental health and well-being at the beginning and end of workshops.

4. Dissemination of three bilingual policy briefings to key policy-makers at city, national and transnational levels via a dedicated website.

5. Two public dissemination events in London and Rio will bring together invited practitioners and policy makers to disseminate the results in both countries.
Indicator of success and impact: measurement using website hits and downloads

The main beneficiaries and stakeholders in both countries will therefore be:
1) Community members in Maré, Rio and diasporic Brazilians in London (through specific groups such as CRMM (Centro de Referencia dos Direitos da Mulher da Maré) in Rio and the Casa do Brasil in London
2) Civil society groups working on women's rights, VAWG, and migrant rights organisations and community justice in London (IRMO, Casa Latinoamericana, Latin American Women's Aid [LAWA], Women's Resource Centre, Refuge, Womankind, and Migrant Rights Network) and Rio (Advocacia Cidadã pelos Direitos Humanos Centro, Anistia Internacional, Associação de Mulheres Beth Lobo, Movimento Defesa da Mulher) as well as regionally and internationally (especially within Europe and Latin America such as WAVE, MPI, Huariou Commission, ICRW, ICRC)
3) Local and national governments (DFID, Southwark Council, UK; CEDIM (Conselho Estadual do Direito da Mulher), Prefeitura Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, and National Women's Secretariat of the Presidency, Brazil.
4) International multilateral organisations such as the WHO, UN Women, UNRISD, and IOM.