Bridging religious studies, gender & development and public health to address domestic violence: A novel approach for Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
School of Oriental and African Studies
Department Name: Sch of History, Religions and Philosophy
Abstract
This project responds to problematic understandings and alleviation approaches to domestic violence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In recent decades, these have tended to prioritise Anglo-American epistemology and experience, and have oftentimes neglected or simplistically portrayed the influence of religious belief and spirituality in domestic violence experience. With this project, I aspire to consolidate a decolonial approach that prioritises local worldviews, integrates religio-cultural parameters more substantively in the ecological model of violence and leverages on theology and religious actors resourcefully as appropriate to each context.
The project is informed by my decade-long experience in international development practice and unique specialisation in gender, religious & theology studies. It responds to previous gender-sensitive research with religious communities in sub-Saharan Africa and more recent investigations of intimate partner violence (IPV) among the Ethiopian Orthodox in Northern Ethiopia. These have consistently shown the importance of religious idiom in public and private life and the intersection with gendered norms, but especially tensions between theology and folklore understandings, with 'religion' being juxtaposed to 'culture' in intricate ways to preserve or discontinue pernicious behaviour.
At the theoretical level, the proposed project aims to build the evidence base around the intersection of religious beliefs, human psychology and intimate partner behaviour, which is a highly under-theorised field dominated by industrialised societies' experience. I am especially interested in exploring how religious idiom may be used to provide psychosocial support to members of religious communities perpetrating or facing abuse. This increased understanding is important for the development of more integrated, religio-culturally sensitive domestic violence services in traditional religious societies, such as Ethiopia and Eritrea, but also in societies with diverse migrant populations, such as the UK.
As a pilot, the project will engage the prevalent Amharic- and Tigrigna-speaking Orthodox populations in Aksum, Northern Ethiopia, in Asmara, Eritrea and the surrounding countryside, and three cities in the UK (London, Manchester, Birmingham). In Northern Ethiopia, the project aims to build the preparedness of Orthodox clergy to respond to domestic violence and to sensitise the community of believers by improving literacy in Orthodox theology to reverse folklore understandings of gender and marriage that contribute to IPV. In Eritrea, the project seeks to contextualise domestic violence in religio-cultural worldviews, while building capacity among religious and secular stakeholders to respond better. An overarching objective is to cultivate more nuanced understanding among the various stakeholders in order to reverse simplistic representations that currently hinder integrated, collaborative and multi-sectoral approaches.
The study seeks to employ knowledge and experience emanating from the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities to inform debates and approaches in the UK domestic violence sector, which is increasingly called to cater to diverse communities. The project will combine an ethnographic look into the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox population and research with other migrant communities with a country-wide investigation into the UK domestic violence sector. The aim is to establish the degree to which domestic violence providers, migrant community organisations and religious stakeholders from diverse religious communities currently recognise the importance of and engage with religio-cultural parameters to respond to victims and perpetrators. Knowledge exchange and public engagement activities comprise the project's fundamental tool for building bridges among secular and religious stakeholders, who still lack a common platform for mutual understanding and substantive collaboration.
The project is informed by my decade-long experience in international development practice and unique specialisation in gender, religious & theology studies. It responds to previous gender-sensitive research with religious communities in sub-Saharan Africa and more recent investigations of intimate partner violence (IPV) among the Ethiopian Orthodox in Northern Ethiopia. These have consistently shown the importance of religious idiom in public and private life and the intersection with gendered norms, but especially tensions between theology and folklore understandings, with 'religion' being juxtaposed to 'culture' in intricate ways to preserve or discontinue pernicious behaviour.
At the theoretical level, the proposed project aims to build the evidence base around the intersection of religious beliefs, human psychology and intimate partner behaviour, which is a highly under-theorised field dominated by industrialised societies' experience. I am especially interested in exploring how religious idiom may be used to provide psychosocial support to members of religious communities perpetrating or facing abuse. This increased understanding is important for the development of more integrated, religio-culturally sensitive domestic violence services in traditional religious societies, such as Ethiopia and Eritrea, but also in societies with diverse migrant populations, such as the UK.
As a pilot, the project will engage the prevalent Amharic- and Tigrigna-speaking Orthodox populations in Aksum, Northern Ethiopia, in Asmara, Eritrea and the surrounding countryside, and three cities in the UK (London, Manchester, Birmingham). In Northern Ethiopia, the project aims to build the preparedness of Orthodox clergy to respond to domestic violence and to sensitise the community of believers by improving literacy in Orthodox theology to reverse folklore understandings of gender and marriage that contribute to IPV. In Eritrea, the project seeks to contextualise domestic violence in religio-cultural worldviews, while building capacity among religious and secular stakeholders to respond better. An overarching objective is to cultivate more nuanced understanding among the various stakeholders in order to reverse simplistic representations that currently hinder integrated, collaborative and multi-sectoral approaches.
The study seeks to employ knowledge and experience emanating from the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities to inform debates and approaches in the UK domestic violence sector, which is increasingly called to cater to diverse communities. The project will combine an ethnographic look into the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox population and research with other migrant communities with a country-wide investigation into the UK domestic violence sector. The aim is to establish the degree to which domestic violence providers, migrant community organisations and religious stakeholders from diverse religious communities currently recognise the importance of and engage with religio-cultural parameters to respond to victims and perpetrators. Knowledge exchange and public engagement activities comprise the project's fundamental tool for building bridges among secular and religious stakeholders, who still lack a common platform for mutual understanding and substantive collaboration.
Planned Impact
The proposed project will explore and develop more integrated and religion-sensitive approaches to domestic violence provision in Eritrea, Ethiopia and the UK. In the short term, the project will benefit affected communities through research & sensitisation interventions and through direct engagement with domestic violence service providers (clergy, state agencies, charities, etc.) to improve their understanding and to build capacity. In the mid-term, Ethiopian and Eritrean migrant communities, clergy and community organisations in the UK will be supported to improve their responsiveness to domestic violence, with benefits extending to other religious communities. In the longer term, improvements in the domestic violence sectors in the three countries are envisioned through increased religious literacy, the development of more integrated systems and state-led initiatives. Through knowledge exchange activities and online dissemination platforms, the project is anticipated to impact on relevant stakeholders internationally.
Research & sensitisation activities with affected communities include interactive surveys with the male population in Aksum, focus group discussions (FGDs) with female survivors of domestic violence in Addis Ababa and FGDs with men, women and clergy in Asmara and rural Eritrea. These will provide an immediate platform for reflection, sensitisation and self-empowerment for the participants. A trilingual website will produce impact by offering a permanent resource of theology-informed materials on gender issues and domestic violence. In addition, the direct involvement of local communities in the production of a series of educational videos is anticipated to reverse societal taboos about domestic violence. In the UK, affected communities will benefit indirectly from improved religio-cultural sensitivity in the domestic violence sector and better responsiveness among religious personnel and community organisations.
Research & sensitisation activities with clergy and seminary students in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities will include workshops with clergy in Aksum and students and staff of theological colleges, including the Frumentius Theological College, a collaborator to this project, and other seminaries in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Orthodox clergy in the UK will also be engaged in research activities, consultations and trainings with the aim to improve their understanding of domestic violence and their preparedness to respond better. Theology-informed online training resources will be made available to them and, in the long-term, to religious personnel in other religious communities by integrating Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or other exegetical material.
The third beneficiary group includes domestic violence providers in these countries, who will be involved in trainings and capacity-building activities co-facilitated by the PI and international domestic violence and religious experts. They include the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association (EWLA) in Addis Ababa, a partner to this project, the Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs and the National Union of Eritrean Women. In the UK, secular domestic violence providers, community-based organisations and faith-based charities and platforms will be reached through workshops, trainings and online toolkits and materials aiming to build their capacity to cater to multi-religious/cultural groups.
At the theoretical level, the project will improve current understanding around religious parameters, human psychology and domestic violence, establishing spiritual cognitive therapy as a new field of practice. Additionally, the project will improve public knowledge and achieve better engagement with foreign religious traditions in western academia. In the longer term, the project can pioneer an impact-oriented field that bridges Religion & Public Health for the alleviation of health-related issues in LMICs and their migrant populations
Research & sensitisation activities with affected communities include interactive surveys with the male population in Aksum, focus group discussions (FGDs) with female survivors of domestic violence in Addis Ababa and FGDs with men, women and clergy in Asmara and rural Eritrea. These will provide an immediate platform for reflection, sensitisation and self-empowerment for the participants. A trilingual website will produce impact by offering a permanent resource of theology-informed materials on gender issues and domestic violence. In addition, the direct involvement of local communities in the production of a series of educational videos is anticipated to reverse societal taboos about domestic violence. In the UK, affected communities will benefit indirectly from improved religio-cultural sensitivity in the domestic violence sector and better responsiveness among religious personnel and community organisations.
Research & sensitisation activities with clergy and seminary students in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities will include workshops with clergy in Aksum and students and staff of theological colleges, including the Frumentius Theological College, a collaborator to this project, and other seminaries in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Orthodox clergy in the UK will also be engaged in research activities, consultations and trainings with the aim to improve their understanding of domestic violence and their preparedness to respond better. Theology-informed online training resources will be made available to them and, in the long-term, to religious personnel in other religious communities by integrating Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or other exegetical material.
The third beneficiary group includes domestic violence providers in these countries, who will be involved in trainings and capacity-building activities co-facilitated by the PI and international domestic violence and religious experts. They include the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association (EWLA) in Addis Ababa, a partner to this project, the Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs and the National Union of Eritrean Women. In the UK, secular domestic violence providers, community-based organisations and faith-based charities and platforms will be reached through workshops, trainings and online toolkits and materials aiming to build their capacity to cater to multi-religious/cultural groups.
At the theoretical level, the project will improve current understanding around religious parameters, human psychology and domestic violence, establishing spiritual cognitive therapy as a new field of practice. Additionally, the project will improve public knowledge and achieve better engagement with foreign religious traditions in western academia. In the longer term, the project can pioneer an impact-oriented field that bridges Religion & Public Health for the alleviation of health-related issues in LMICs and their migrant populations
Publications
Istratii R
(2023)
A Scoping Review on the Role of Religion in the Experience of IPV and Faith-Based Responses in Community and Counseling Settings
in Journal of Psychology and Theology
Istratii R
(2023)
On the Significance of Religion in Violence Against Women and Girls , by Elisabet le Roux and Sandra Iman Pertek
in Religion and Gender
Istratii R
(2023)
Gender-Based Violence: A Comprehensive Guide
Istratii R
(2023)
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration
| Title | Artwork developed with the help of Ethiopian artist to be used in research on domestic violence engaging the male population in Ethiopia |
| Description | The artwork refers to a series of six drawings depicting different scenes of domestic violence as defined by communities in Ethiopia. The artwork was created on paper using water colour by an Ethiopian artist, Mr Yared Tadesse. It was curated by Dr Romina Istratii, who conceptualised a new culture-appropriate research approach using visual materials to instigate participants to share their views and perspectives on sensitive issues. The artwork was produced by the artist under close consultation with Dr Istratii, who explained the specifications and details of each domestic violence scene and worked to guide the artist in developing a product that could be effectively used for research purposes. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The development of the artwork enabled the project to undertake collaborative research with its partner EMIRTA to explore the extent to which religious conscience can serve as a deterrent to intimate partner abusiveness among the male population in Ethiopia. The artwork used in this research led the partner EMIRTA to appreciate the use of visual methods in research and to consider engaging with such methods more extensively in future practice. The artwork will be published on the project's website together with the research findings in an open access report. It will be published also as a separate item to be used by researchers, practitioners and activists freely for research and awareness-raising purposes. The impact of is publication will be discussed in a future submission to the funder. |
| Title | Documentary on Domestic Violence and Religion in Ethiopia |
| Description | A documentary is currently being developed by Dr Romina Istratii with the support of Exiles Pictures, a film production company combining UK-based and Ethiopian expertise. The documentary relies on Dr Istratii's previous research on domestic violence in Tigray, Ethiopia and aims to educate audiences nationally and internationally on the complex reasons behind the continuation of the problem in society, factors that contribute to victim/survivor silence and the role of religious beliefs and the clergy in societal and victim/survivor attitudes and shaping help-seeking responses. The documentary will rely on first-person accounts as collected through extensive interviews in the field and will be made available in three languages to ensure its accessibility within and beyond national borders. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The documentary is currently at the final post-production stage. Dr Istratii is currently coordinating the translation of the scripts in numerous Ethiopian languages, alongside English. The post-production stage is being finalised by the UK-based filmmaking company Exiles Pictures. The documentary is forthcoming in 2023. |
| Description | The project is currently on-going, but an effort is made below to outline how the project's key objectives were pursued in the first year of the project and until the date of submitting the current report. The FLF-funded project, known as project dldl/????, was designed with three overarching objectives in mind. These objectives were to: 1. Consolidate a decolonial approach to domestic violence research that prioritises local worldviews and that promotes equitable research processes and partnerships 2. Integrate religio-cultural & psychological parameters more substantively in domestic violence alleviation systems to improve religio-cultural literacy and to better serve religious communities in Eritrea, Ethiopia and the UK 3. Equip religious personnel as appropriate to different contexts to respond sensitively and appropriately to victims & perpetrators of domestic violence These objectives were pursued through three different strands of activity, which included: research, interventions & integration activities and knowledge exchange. The section below outlines key activities undertaken in the project's first two years and outcomes and outputs achieved under each objective. Some of these activities are on-going and their findings and outcomes will be discussed in future submissions to the funder. OBJECTIVE 1 - Consolidate a decolonial approach to domestic violence research that prioritises local worldviews and promotes equitable research processes and partnerships • New research projects designed and started in both Ethiopia and Eritrea (although Eritrean partnerships were later ceased as a result of the war situation in East Africa); culture-sensitive, community-centred methods and approaches developed in both countries : a) research employing visual methods designed by Dr Istratii and implemented by EMIRTA research centre (a project partner in Ethiopia) to explore if religious conscience can deter abusiveness in the male population in Amhara region, Ethiopia; b) cross-cultural research co-designed with six Eritrean researchers affiliated with the College of Business and Social Sciences at Adi Keih and the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) recruited through Waniney training centre, a formal project partner in Eritrea, to explore domestic violence in the country and the influence of religio-cultural parameters and clergy in mediating marital issues and supporting victims of domestic violence (again, there were later ceased as a result of war-related factors). • New partnerships developed and dialogical working modus operandi fostered and established: a) in Ethiopia a partnership was successfully established with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Commission (EOC DICAC) to pilot an intervention for building the preparedness of Ethiopian Orthodox clergy to respond to domestic violence; the programme's evaluation showed that the training approach was appropriate and successful; b) in Ethiopia a new partnership was also established with EMIRTA to conduct domestic violence research with the male population; the data analysis and the writing of the results is currently proceeding collaboratively; c) in Eritrea, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Waniney (the sister branch of the project's formal partner Diversity Research International) and the College of Business and Social Sciences in Adi Keih to recruit researchers and to ensure that an in-country ethics review can be conducted; contracts with six researchers were signed; the research was being led locally with the mediation and support of the National Union of Eritrean Women; the data analysis and the authoring of final publications were left incomplete due to the escalation of the war situation and the ceasing of all activity. • Trainings provided to team members and wider stakeholder groups: a) a first all-team training was provided on project objectives, data management expectations, research ethics and standards, and other topics to all partners and collaborators at the time; b) trainings and mentoring was delivered to EMIRTA research team on domestic violence safeguarding in research, research ethics, data management, ethical review processes prior to starting research in Amhara, Ethiopia; c) training was delivered to Eritrean research team on domestic violence safeguarding in research, research ethics, data management, ethical review processes prior to the start of the research in Eritrea and trainings on conducting systematic literature reviews provided during Dr Istratii's visit to Eritrea; d) course on Research and Public Engagement organised by SOAS University of London was provided to all staff members and partners in Ethiopia and Eritrea • International dissemination opportunities: a) team members in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK were invited to co-author blogs, reports, working papers and other resource materials published by the project; b) team members in all project countries were invited to co-present or present in international webinars organised by the project and external events to which Dr Istratii was invited to speak; c) team members were invited to write for the project blog (however, the majority have not yet leveraged on this opportunity due to lack of time and conflicting priorities) • One-to-one peer mentoring by Dr Istratii provided to team members: a) different team members have been advised on career development paths and publishing opportunities on a one-to-one basis by the PI of the project; b) 10+ scholarship and funding opportunities circulated by Dr Istratii to more than 21 team members throughout the year to promote their career development. OBJECTIVE 2 - Integrate religio-cultural and psychological parameters more substantively in domestic violence research and practice and improve religio-cultural sensitivity in secular governmental and non-governmental domestic violence support systems • Numerous stakeholders in Ethiopia were approached to share evidence with directly, including the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate in the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in Ethiopia, organisations working to address gender issues and sustainable development in the country, such as Setaweet, the Peace and Development Centre and the Jerusalem Children and Community Development Organisation, mental health and psychosocial counselling providers such as Erk Mead and Fnot (now a partner to the project), religious bodies working to address gender-based violence (GBV) in faith-sensitive ways such as EOC DICAC (now a partner to the project), research institutes such as EMIRTA (now a partner to the project), as well as many international organisations with a local grounding working with faith communities and theology to respond to GBV, such as the Norwegian Church Aid, and international development agencies and embassies, such as the UK's FCDO, the British Embassy and Germany's development department GIZ. • Awareness-raising and evidence-sharing activities were undertaken involving academic communities through webinars, research papers disseminated via the project email list and directly to contacts in these establishments, leading inter alia to increased attention being paid to decolonising research and public health practices by colleagues at EMIRTA and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. • Domestic violence practitioners, religious personnel and researchers were reached via the project's multilingual platform and numerous resources were made available for immediate use by each group. Top country visitors have come from: UK, US and Ethiopia followed by Finland, Canada, Russia, India and Australia, with Eritrea only appearing at the bottom of the list due to lack of Internet connectivity/accessibility in the country. • Established multi-stakeholder mailing list that has brought together religious stakeholders, domestic violence researchers and domestic violence practitioners to promote more integrated faith-sensitive responses internationally. The list currently has 136 members. • Organised first annual conference in Ethiopia that brought together practitioners, researchers and religious stakeholders, contributing to a bridging of geographies, sectors and disciplines as was envisioned by the project. • Produced new evidence by completing two literature reviews: a) on war and domestic violence completed by Dr Istratii with the support of an Ethiopian colleague who opted to remain anonymous, and b) on religious beliefs, intimate partner violence and faith-based interventions with co-Investigator Professor Parveen Ali, based at the University of Sheffield in the UK. A third literature review is currently under way on religio-cultural sensitivity in domestic services provision in the UK. The literature review on war and domestic violence was published as part of the project's open access working paper series on its website and the second literature review was published open access on Research Square as a preprint to be made available to practitioners without delay and then accepted and published by the Journal of Psychology and Theology. • New contract was signed with Exile Productions, a British and Ethiopian production team, to produce the project's first documentary on the topic of domestic violence and faith in Ethiopia. The film relied on previously completed research in northern Ethiopia involving over 200 laywomen, laymen and clergy and seeks to educate the public and religious stakeholders on the complex realities of domestic violence in the country, contributing factors for the continuation of the problem, especially the role of faith and the clergy, and how the latter could be leveraged to respond to domestic violence in the community more effectively OBJECTIVE 3 - Equip religious personnel as appropriate to different contexts to respond sensitively and appropriately to victims & perpetrators of domestic violence • Developed and published booklets in Amharic and English for Ethiopian Orthodox clergy that respond to the knowledge gaps of the clergy around domestic violence and provide them with training material on how to respond to victims/survivors and perpetrators with sensitivity and awareness of safeguarding risks. Two hundred copies were used or distributed and circa 40 booklets were gifted to EOC DICAC for dissemination to church stakeholders. • Launched, delivered and evaluated a pilot intervention with Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Clergy comprising of a series of workshops to build the preparedness of the clergy to respond to domestic violence in Amhara region of Ethiopia. Workshops were delivered in Amharic and included ethnographic, theological and safeguarding training units. Seven workshops have been completed, with circa 155 clergy trained, followed by a series of refresher workshops with the same clergy to ensure training effectiveness and to evaluate the impact of the pilot. • While the war in Tigray has made it impossible to work with the Tigrayan partner institutions to develop a new course on Gender and Theology and Gender and Religion respectively as planned in the original proposal (these partnerships were terminated due to force majeure), the idea to convert the workshop trainings with Ethiopian Orthodox clergy into audio-visual educational material to be disseminated to theological colleges, churches and religious departments of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Ethiopia has been discussed and may be pursued in the future. Challenges and unmet objectives The broad objectives that the project had for its first two years of existence have been met, although the many challenges faced have meant that numerous adjustments needed to be made and that the original plans were not always faithfully followed. The COVID-19 pandemic brought important challenges, most importantly by curtailing mobility to and within the project countries, and posing significant constraints for research and its applications in society. Given the need to shift numerous activities online and to focus on the virtual possibilities of the project in the first six or so months of the project, new needs emerged for communications support that had not been accounted for in the original budget. This work had to be undertaken by the PI with the Project Manager providing partial support. This caused additional strain on the PI, requiring longer working hours per day and during weekends. The pandemic was not the only challenge that the project had to face: a sudden war that erupted in Tigray region in Northern Ethiopia four days after the official start date of the project created deep uncertainty about the future of the project and posed significant implementation challenges in the short term. The research that had guided the development of this project had taken place in Tigray region, where the project proposed to start by implementing the pilot intervention with the Ethiopian Orthodox clergy to build their preparedness on domestic violence. Alongside the intervention, the project planned to implement research with the male population in Tigray to understand better the relationship between religious conscience and abusiveness. In order to be able to proceed with the project, the PI not only had to deal with mobility restrictions to travel to Ethiopia and face a lengthy bureaucratic process to obtain a working and residence permit in the country, but also had to restructure the project's first work package and to shift activities to a region of Ethiopia not affected by conflict, while ensuring that the work was relevant to the new project site. This required finding a new collaborating organisation to support the activities in the new project site in Amhara region, Ethiopia, as well as adapting the workshop material to the new context in a methodologically sound manner. The start of activities in Eritrea, which came a bit later, was also challenged by the pandemic, with commercial flights being ceased and entry in the country becoming infeasible for the Project Coordinator in Eritrea. Later, the escalation of the war in East Africa, that involved both Ethiopia and Eritrea made it impossible for the team to continue their work in Eritrea, with partnerships ending before the completion of data analysis and publication. In Ethiopia, Dr Istratii managed to proceed with the clergy intervention in a different region of the country. The PI also succeeded to identify a new partner organisation to undertake the research with the male population in another region of Ethiopia. However, the adaptations that took place and the delays due to the insecurity on the ground meant that the team was unable to faithfully followed the project plan. In responding to these challenges, the PI, PM and PC tried to assess their respective situations thoroughly, identify alternative pathways to promote the agreed objectives and to leverage on new opportunities to maximise the project's impact. While the team allowed more time for key activities to be completed, it also acted promptly to leverage on new opportunities and needs to increase the influence and impact of the project in the changing conditions. For example, more emphasis was placed on knowledge-sharing with stakeholders in the UK, when work in Ethiopia and Eritrea was progressing slowly or ceased respectively. Moreover, Dr Istratii was directly involved in providing guidance to the humanitarian response in Tigray for it to proceed in a religio-cultural sensitive manner. |
| Exploitation Route | The key lessons and findings from the first year of the project that can be taken forward emerge from the series of workshops held with Ethiopian Orthodox clergy, two literature reviews completed in collaboration with a project assistant and a co-Investigator and a series of webinar series and knowledge exchange activities completed by the project in year one. These outcomes and impact of each of these activities has been discussed in the Narrative Impact. The project team is currently working to establish a wider dissemination strategy that seeks to reach more international stakeholders and specifically policy-makers and state bureaucrats. For example, the PI and team are working to develop a policy brief about the project's approach, activities and findings intended for international development organisations and UN agencies to use. The evidence from the initial research in Ethiopia that led to the development of this project, complemented with findings and insights from the project's first two years of activities will be disseminated further to a wider audience via the production of a documentary film on domestic violence. This film will be made available in three languages and English so that it is accessible to both national and international audiences. On the other hand, the findings from the completed systematic review on religious beliefs, intimate partner violence and faith-based interventions are currently informing the development of a faith-sensitive counselling approach for victims and perpetrators of domestic violence by the project team and their Ethiopian partner Fnot. This intervention was planned for the fourth year of the project, when it was assumed that the context would be fruitful to develop such an intervention. However, the project's successful integration in local infrastructure and domestic violence responses in Ethiopia has created the fruitful context and momentum to proceed with this component at this time. Local psychosocial counselling organisation Fnot has been identified could help to co-develop and implement the pilot, as well as ensure that the model will continue to be refined and used after the ending of the project or the completion of activities in Ethiopia. In the first two years of the project, the PI has been considering how to scale out the impact of the project in the project countries to achieve continuity and more long-term societal benefits. The PI has been exploring the option of setting up a non-governmental entity (NGO) or social enterprise that will assume the responsibility of expanding the work started or piloted through the project in one or more of the project countries. Many of the programmes that the project engages with and responds to in the sector of international development and public health lack sustainability and the impact that is often achieved during the projects' lifetime is often lost once the projects or their funding ends. By establishing an NGO or social enterprise, the project will not only have a local organisation to scale out some of the project's pilot activities while the project is still on-going, but will also provide the platform to develop an independent mechanism for fundraising and impact-generation so that the benefits of the project can continue beyond and after the lifetime of the currently funded project. Already the PI has corresponded with the funder to seek approval and obtain feedback on this option and has liaised with specialists in Ethiopia and relevant departments at the host institution in the UK to seek advice. A lack of specialised knowledge at the host institution and the unpredictable security situation in Ethiopia has combined to postpone any final decision in this area. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| URL | https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/romina-istratii |
| Description | The current project was designed with three overarching objectives in mind, which are to: 1. Consolidate a decolonial approach to domestic violence research that prioritises local worldviews and promotes dialogical research partnerships 2. Integrate religio-cultural & psychological parameters more substantively in domestic violence alleviation systems in LMICs (Ethiopia) and in multi-ethic HICs (UK) to improve religio-cultural literacy and better serve religious migrant populations 3. Equip religious personnel as appropriate to different contexts to respond sensitively and appropriately to victims & perpetrators of domestic violence The project employs three strands of activity to pursue these overarching objectives, which are: research, engagement & integration, and knowledge exchange. The activities undertaken in each of the project countries (Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK) to pursue these objectives slightly differ according to context needs. Moreover, the project is structured to proceed sequentially, from Ethiopia to the UK motivated by the project's commitment to promote a decolonial, more equitable approach to knowledge sharing, with findings in Ethiopia informing approaches to respond to domestic violence in faith-sensitive ways in the UK, an increasingly multi-cultural/religious society. In November 2022 the project completed its first two years of activity. Despite the many challenges faced (a war in Ethiopia and the COVID-19 pandemic), the project has achieved numerous outputs and important outcomes that have promoted the overall aims of decolonising and promoting faith-sensitive, integrated responses to domestic violence in the project countries and internationally. Due to the war in East Africa, it was not possible for the project to work in Eritrea as envisioned and hence the outcomes discussed here refer to Ethiopia and the UK only. Some of these are presented below briefly with a discussion of what impact these outcomes might have had on the respective sectors and stakeholder groups. Training 155 Ethiopian Orthodox Täwah?do clergy on domestic abuse and violence One of the major programmes completed by the project, now known as project dldl/????, was a series of workshops with Ethiopian Orthodox clergy to build their preparedness to respond to domestic violence by means of imparting to them theological, psychological and safeguarding knowledge. The theological content was developed by Dr Romina Istratii over many years of studying Patristic works and translating them with the support of theologians in Ethiopia. The workshops were designed to be culturally appropriate and were delivered in Amharic by Dr Istratii and two trainers, a certified psychologist and EOTC deacon, Mr Henok Hailu, and a practising attorney affiliated with EWLA, Ms Bezaweet Birhanu. Over the period of a year, 155 members of the clergy were recruited and trained from the town of Debre Birhan and surroundings in Amhara region, Ethiopia. The project worked through established structures by entering in a collaboration with the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwah?do Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOTC DICAC), which acts as the development wing of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwah?do Church and has working relations with clergy training centres and diocese offices across Ethiopia. The workshop content development and delivery was also supported by the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association (EWLA). The evaluation of the pilot showed an overall positive response from the participants, including a strengthened conviction among the clergy that the workshop content and format they were exposed to enabled them to respond with more confidence to the problem of domestic violence and marital conflict issues in their community. Clergy asked for the trainings to be continued and to be extended to other groups, including priests' wives and couples preparing for marriage. Following the completion of the pilot, an interfaith meeting was held with religious leaders from all other religious groups represented in the region and with the local government bodies supporting the project to explore how the pilot programme could be expanded to other communities. The pilot has been well-received in Ethiopia, as well as among many in the Ethiopian diaspora in the UK and internationally. EOC DICAC, the partner organisation that co-delivered the pilot, has continued to use the training materials in other clergy-training programmes on Gender Based Violence. Moreover, the annual project conference that was organised in November 2022 in Ethiopia to promote integrated and faith-sensitive responses to domestic violence contributed to the dissemination of the theology-informed training model used by the project, resulting in its uptake by others working in this area, including government staff, community organisations, clergy and development departments of religious institutions. Additionally, the Faith & VAWG Coalition based in the UK has shown interest in the training materials and has initiated a collaboration with the project and EOTC clergy to potentially develop a training manual customised to the needs of diaspora clergy by combining the project's and the Church's previously developed training materials. In the UK, the training approach has also attracted attention from organisations who work with Churches and Christian clergy of different denominations, as well as other organisations and providers that the project has been connected to through its membership in numerous international platforms, including the Faith & VAWG Coalition and the JLI Leadership Council. Research on domestic violence with male participants using visual methods Dr Istratii's previous research in Northern Ethiopia had found that men who were not abusive cited a faith-based conscience as their deterrent factor, emphasising their desire to be moral and righteous and avoid sinning. Building on these findings, project dldl/???? completed new research to explore how a larger male sample rationalised domestic violence and abuse and how religious language and beliefs were invoked by men to rationalise (justify or condemn) domestic violence or to deter abusiveness. The research was also designed to serve as an intervention using interactive virtual methods to raise-awareness and to help the male participants envision possible deterrence mechanisms. The research method combined a questionnaire with an series of visual scenario exercises that presented the participants with different situations described in previous research as harmful, and asked the men to describe them, consider if they agreed with the action or not, discuss the reasons behind the action and consider what they would do if they were in the protagonist's position. The visual materials were prepared by Ethiopian artist Mr Yared Tadesse with close guidance from Dr Istratii. This fieldwork itself was completed in collaboration with EMIRTA Research, Training and Development, an indigenous research organisation in Ethiopia. The field team comprised of four male researchers from EMIRTA, Dr Zinawork Assefa, Mr Tesfaye Gonite, Mr Yonas Habte and Mr Yohannes Demiss, with Dr Istratii guiding the team during research, data coding and analysis. Interactive surveys were completed with 72 male participants recruited from the areas surroundings of Debre Birhan in Amhara region, Ethiopia. The research experience showed that the participants appreciated that they were invited to be part of research on domestic violence, since they had been excluded in the past, but found also useful the opportunity to place themselves in the position of the male protagonist and to associate their own lives to the situations depicted in the drawings. The process of describing the situations of domestic violence they were presented with led many men to share their own life stories, to realise their abusive actions and to regret them. The report from this research is currently being written and it is anticipated that it will inform future engagements with men in the context of domestic violence research and interventions. So far, impact has been seen in relation to the partner organisation's approach to research. The EMIRTA researchers had not previously worked with visual methods and were not familiar with the positive effects that such an innovative approach can have in community work. Following the fieldwork, the Ethiopian research team expressed appreciation for the method and committed to integrate them in organisational practice. Moreover, the research, which was disseminated through numerous UN and other international webinars and platforms while it was still active, has found resonance in other African audiences. Many African organisations have approached Dr Istratii to expand collaborations to neighbouring countries, including Kenya. A podcast series In 2021, Project dldl/???? set up a podcast series (in Amharic and English) to engage the public in Ethiopia in the discussion on domestic violence and share resources and directions to overcome norms that maintain silence around the problem. The series featured interviews with representatives from prominent organisations working to respond to domestic violence and women's abuses using both faith-sensitive and secular means. Organisations featured included the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission, Ethiopia's feminist platform Setaweet, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers' Association and the psychosocial counselling organisation Fnot. While using podcasts for awareness-raising is an innovative technique in Ethiopia, the podcast series attracted attention from organisations working to educate the public on domestic violence and was well-received in the sector. The podcast series also reached members of the Ethiopian diaspora in the US, who appreciated the bilingual nature of the series. A film to raise awareness on the role of faith in domestic violence experiences As part of project's dldl/???? impact pathways, Dr Istratii collaborated with the UK-based company Exile Pictures to produce a multilingual docudrama on domestic violence in Ethiopia. The film's storyline is a collation of stories and testimonies of real people as they were communicated to Dr Istratii in her previous anthropological research in Northern Ethiopia. The aim of the film is to share the research findings in a more accessible format with the public and other key stakeholder groups in Ethiopia to nuance current understandings about domestic violence and how this is experienced in reference to religio-cultural beliefs, practices and norms in Ethiopian rural society. The film is particularly interested in educating religious leaders, clergy and laypeople on the complex role that religious rationalisations and the clergy have in the experience of domestic violence in Ethiopia and to suggest how faith and religious leaders could become more resourceful and effective in responding to the problem. Exile Pictures is led by Ms Hermon Hailay, who is Ethiopian, and Mr Max Conil, who has extensive experience and knowledge of filming in Ethiopia and the UK across a range of sensitive subject matters. Ms Hailay and Mr Conil are supported in Ethiopia by a local production crew led by Mr Yidnekachew Shumete, who is co-Founder and General Manager of the production company Kurat Pictures. The production of the docudrama has been enabled by an innovative model of collaboration or co-production between Dr Istratii and the film producers. At an initial stage, Ms Hailay and Mr Conil guided Dr Istratii in the development of the film's storyline and script, paying attention to the creative vision that Dr Istratii shared with the company. The script was written by Dr Istratii relying on first-person accounts and select passages from over 200 interviews with research participants. In the second stage, Dr Istratii worked with Exile Pictures in the UK and Mr Shumete's team in Ethiopia to move from pre-production to film production. Extensive discussions were held about the ethics of producing a docudrama on the sensitive topic of domestic violence, the ethics around engaging real communities in this process, and security concerns in a currently conflict-affected Ethiopia to minimise risks for the production team. The film is in the stage of post-production and its release is anticipated this year. Therefore, the impact of this collaboration is not clear yet. However, it is anticipated that the film (available in three languages of Ethiopia and English) will reach a large population to improve in-country awareness of domestic violence and the role of faith and clergy in supporting survivors. The film will be communicated to the Church and Church-related organisations battling domestic violence and gender-based violence in the country. Since it will be released open access, it will be accessible for anyone to use in their awareness-raising work. The film is also anticipated to reach and international audience through available subtitles in English and its nomination in international festivals. Already in the past year, Dr Istratii has been part of a Plus Funds project focusing on the use of creative industries in impact-oriented research. Participation in this project has provided Dr Istratii with the opportunity to share the innovative co-production model used to produce the film, thus already influencing researchers' thinking around engagement of creative industries in research. Annual hybrid international conference to promote integrated responses The first two years of the project culminated in the Project dldl/???? Annual Conference, which was organised physically in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 11-12 November 2022 with the option for UK speakers and audiences to join online. The Project dldl/???? Annual Conference was co-organised with project partner EMIRTA/???? Research, Training and Development Institute and brought together religious, secular, government and non-governmental stakeholders working to address domestic violence in Ethiopia and internationally to facilitate the communication of new evidence and to promote cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral knowledge exchange and new collaborations. The conference featured numerous panels with presenters from different parts of Ethiopia and internationally, and a series of workshops delivered by international specialists from the UK, USA, Kenya and other countries. It culminated in a livestreamed roundtable discussion which brought prominent feminist and religious organisations, government officials and international specialists to explore a better integration pathway for religious, feminist and state resources to respond to domestic violence in Ethiopia and internationally. The impact of the annual conference is manifold and not easy to capture or to describe. First and foremost, the conference brought together practitioners, researchers and religious stakeholders, contributing to a bridging of geographies, sectors and disciplines as was envisioned by the project. This has opened the space for a more integrated responses to domestic violence in Ethiopia, with implications for UK practice. The decision to hold the first annual conference in Ethiopia was made in order to subvert geographical barriers that hinder African researchers from participating in European conferences. By successfully holding the conference in Ethiopia and providing a hybrid option for international participants to participate (albeit faced with IT limitations) the project achieved to promote Africa-based research and indigenous knowledge that was previously marginalised in mainstream research and knowledge production. Together with the project's partnerships model in research and interventions, reflected also in the conference's organisation with an Ethiopian partner, the conference contributed to strengthen local infrastructures and responses to domestic violence, fostering a re-appreciation of the resourcefulness of religious, cultural and other religious knowledge and wisdom to respond to societal problems, including gender inequality, domestic abuse and violence, Female Genital Mutilation and others. Public reach and engagement In the first two years, the PI and members of the team also met with numerous religious, feminist, and government stakeholders and organisations in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK an effort to share evidence and to integrate the project's activities and approaches with initiatives and infrastructures already existing and operating in each of the project countries. This has resulted in new evidence being disseminated via the project's multilingual website and associated video platform, which has been visited over 30,000 times and hundreds of times respectively. It has also resulted in new partnerships, with future collaborative activity and knowledge exchange pathways being identified in the context of these formal and informal collaborations. In addition, Dr Istratii and part-time project manager, Ms Haben Hill, collaboratively contributed abstracts to numerous conferences and workshops to share evidence and project lessons. Additionally, Dr Istratii was invited by numerous academic, media and domestic violence platforms to be interviewed or consulted on the subjects of the project, further promoting public engagement and knowledge exchange in the context of this project. For example, the project was invited to advise the humanitarian response of the FCDO and the British Embassy in Tigray region, Ethiopia, as and to offer training to staff on faith-sensitive responses to domestic violence as part of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign against Gender-Based Violence. The evidence sharing and the dissemination of the project's unique approach has, more broadly, led to raising awareness about the need for decolonial and integrated approaches in addressing domestic violence in religious communities, generating new requests for information, guidance and advice from diverse stakeholders, including PhD students conducting innovative research in the areas of domestic violence, faith and cultural sensitivity, faith-based and feminist organisations aiming to promote faith-sensitive approaches to domestic violence, practitioners and government-affiliated organisations working in the GBV sector, media platforms interested in the work of the project, and others related to the subject matter. There is no doubt that the reach of the project has been international, with the project being invited to memberships and groups working on faith and domestic violence in the UK and more internationally and receiving important distinctions that recognise its contributions to battling domestic violence in religious communities and promoting reflexive, decolonial and equitable models of collaboration between LMIC and HIC research and project teams. In each of the project countries, the effects have differed, and while in Ethiopia the impact has been discernible, in the UK the effects are fewer due to the still inchoate stages of the project. One of the major achievements in the UK has been the completion of a systematic literature review by Dr Istratii and Professor Parveen Ali, a co-investigator to the project, on the role of religion in the experience of IPV and faith-based responses in community and counselling settings. The paper was pioneering in numerous ways, firstly in bridging together evidence from numerous sectors, and secondly in aiming to decolonise definitions of religion and domestic violence in the context of the review. The systematic review findings were made available initially as a preprint for easy access and were later published by the Journal of Psychology and Theology. Since February 1, 2023 it has been viewed and downloaded close to 500 times. The paper has also been shared through the GBV AOR list serv to thousands of practitioners working on international development and humanitarian responses to Gender Based Violence. Additionally, the project team is currently working on three research activities in the UK, which will seek to explore the extent and ways in which religious sensitivity is addressed and integrated in domestic violence services supporting ethnically diverse communities in the UK and how to achieve a better integration of community resources and religious stakeholders in mainstream domestic violence services. Dr Istratii has been working closely with Professor Gene Feder at the University of Bristol and Professor Parveen Ali at Sheffield University to design a literature review, produce a sector-wide survey, and plan community-based research with migrant and ethnic minority communities. The research activities in the UK are being support by a new postdoctoral researcher, Dr Linda Mshweshwe, and a number of community-based research consultants (TBD). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Outcomes from project's annual conference on 'Domestic Violence-Gender-Faith: Promoting integrated and decolonial approaches to domestic violence cross-culturally' held in Ethiopia on 11-12 November 2022 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The conference culminated in a roundtable that helped to advance knowledge on how to achieve effective integrated and faith-sensitive responses to domestic violence in Ethiopia and the UK. The discussions and key insights that emerged were captured in a post-conference report that was widely circulated to relevant stakeholder groups via international and national platforms. The report has also been downloaded hundreds of times from the project website. The conference also resulted in new ideas for collaboration within Ethiopia and between Ethiopian and UK-based organisations, researchers and stakeholder groups. Some of these collaborations are currently being taken further by different parties. One such collaboration, which is mediated by the project, is between the Faith & VAWG Coalition in the UK, clergy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Ethiopia and the project's Principal Investigator to increase the reach of the project's training programme for clergy on domestic violence to clergy of the Ethiopian diaspora. The media coverage of the conference, together with the recordings from the full event, have helped to make the conference discussions, evidence and insights accessible to a wider international audience, anticipating increased understanding of religious beliefs and clergy mediation in domestic violence experiences and new directions for integrating faith parameters in community- or state-led responses to domestic violence. Following the conference, Dr Romina Istratii was approached by a member of the Ethiopian parliament working on gender issues to request follow up meetings and evidence sharing. |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/annual-conference/ |
| Title | Design of new research method using visual and interactive techniques and improvement of partner organisation's research capacity |
| Description | A new research approach was developed by Dr Romina Istratii in 2021-2022 to conduct sensitive research on domestic violence and religious beliefs with male participants. The research approach combines an interactive survey approach with a visual methods technique, using drawings of domestic violence scenes (identified and defined in previous research and created with the help of an Ethiopian artist) to incite participants' opinions and thoughts on different forms of domestic violence and to encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions, revealing associations with religio-cultural upbringing and beliefs. The survey includes questions about intergenerational violence and other participant background characteristics in an effort to relate participant psychological characteristics with attitudes on domestic violence and religious experience. The research tool has been shared with EMIRTA, a formal partner to this project, who are supporting the implementation of the research in Ethiopia. Numerous trainings were provided to a team of four EMIRTA-affiliated researchers to build the organisation's capacity to conduct sensitive research on domestic violence, as well as to enable the researchers to use this innovative interactive visual methods technique in current and future research. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The research is currently on-going and the interactive visual survey method is still being piloted. The research approach and its effectiveness will be presented and discussed in a report of the research findings that is currently being co-authored by the research partners and is forthcoming in 2023. |
| Title | Ethiopian Orthodox clergy assessment of workshop series on domestic violence delivered by Project dldl/???? in collaboration with EOC DICAC in Ethiopia (2021) |
| Description | The current dataset includes assessment questionnaire responses by clergy participating in a workshop series on domestic violence that was designed by Project dldl/???? and co-delivered with the support of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC DICAC) in Amhara region, Ethiopia. The questionnaires were collected as part of the programme's evaluation approach, which comprised of a pre-workshop interest form that asked participants background information and a post-workshop assessment that asked them to assess different aspects of the workshops. A total of 155 assessment questionnaires were collected from clergy participants across 7 workshops. The participants were asked to respond to 7 assessment questions at the end of each workshop. Their responses were transcribed from the paper-based questionnaires in Amharic and were subsequently translated to English with the help of professional and native-speaking translators. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The database and supplementary materials have been submitted to the UK Data Service Reshare and is currently under review. Provided that the dataset is approved for publication on the UK Data Service, this will be published open access and a DOI will be generated, which will enable its wider dissemination and use by the relevant stakeholder groups in Ethiopia and internationally, including religious organisations working in the areas of Gender-Based Violence and domestic violence, as well as researchers who are focusing on the intersection of religious beliefs and domestic violence and the effectiveness of faith-sensitive and culturally-adapted domestic violence interventions. At this stage, the dataset has been shared with the partner organisation in Ethiopia, EOC DICAC, who supported the delivery of the intervention on the ground. The findings will inform the organisation's future programmes and approaches. |
| Description | Participation in Wellcome Trust funding bid that aims to build research capacity and strengthen VAWG responses in the health sectors in LMICs |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Department | Centre for Academic Primary Care |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Dr Istratii was invited as an advisor at the stage of bid development and research approach design to advise on integrating a decolonial angle along the lines of the UKRI-awarded project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The proposal, which was led by the partners, was not successful during this round. |
| Impact | No outputs produced. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | A Visit to the College of Business and Social Sciences at Adi Keih, Eritrea and presentations delivered to staff and students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The project's Principal Investigator, Dr Romina Istratii, and the project's Coordinator in Eritrea, Ms Mebrak Ghebreweldi, completed a two-day visit to the College of Business and Social Sciences at Adi Keih in Eritrea. The visit included two presentations by Dr Istratii on decolonial approaches in researching and addressing domestic violence, research methodology and writing, research ethics and data management. The presentations were followed by remarks by Ms Ghebreweldi, which aimed at encouraging staff and students to lead with the design and implementation of research in their respective disciplines and sectors. The presentation was attended by at least 100 members of staff and between 100-150 students. The presentations were positively received by the students and staff, who afterwards approached Dr Istratii and Ms Ghebreweldi to share research ideas, ask for advice and directions and share their challenges. Some students were inspired by the decolonial approach discussed and expressed the desire to explore such approaches. Some reported that while previously they hesitated to discuss their subjectivity in research, the presentations helped them to realise the biases and limitations of all research and how to navigate those transparently. The visit resulted in strengthened relations with the College and discussions with the Dean of the College for new and larger collaborative projects in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/engagement-and-awareness-raising/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii invited to do episode on the Know Show Podcast on Decolonising Knowledge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii has been actively engaged in the effort to decentre Anglo-American epistemology from the domain of knowledge production and to bridge scientific research with lived experiences and societal issues. In 2021, Dr Istratii was invited to record a podcast and video episode with The Know Show, as one of the leading decolonial practitioners, researchers and activities. In this podcast, Dr Istratii discussed her insight on methods for decolonising knowledge and subverting the centre-periphery dynamic that governs the current system of knowledge production, the need to reduce dependency on English language and to ensure that research relevant to non-English speaking societies is translated with reflexivity and effectiveness to make such research useful and meaningful to those it is most relevant to. The podcast and video have been listened and viewed hundreds of times on the different media available (Know Show official website, Know Show YouTube channel, iTunes, Acaudio mobile app, etc.). The interview with the Founder of The Know Show Podcast, Hussein Ahmed, led to a proposition for future collaboration with Dr Istratii to further the decolonial aims of opening scientific knowledge production to wider audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://theknowshow.net/2021/03/24/decolonising-knowledge/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii and associated project specialist Selamawit Reta presented at LIDC event 'Decolonising Digital Education: Bridging the Great Divide' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On 8 February 2023, the London International Development Centre (LIDC) explored the digital education gap with a webinar co-hosted with the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange and the Centre for Online and Distance Education at the University of London. The speakers included Dr Romina Istratii and Ethiopia-based associated specialist Selamwit Reta. The presentation resulted in many engaging questions and positive comments from the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://lidc.ac.uk/event/de-colonising-digital-education-bridging-the-great-divide/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii attended Faith & VAWG Networking event in the UK to promote the work of the project to policy makers and build collaborations with frontline VAWG respondents |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | On 23 September 2022, Dr Istratii attended a networking event organised by the Faith & VAWG Coalition to promote collaborations and coalition-building with organisations responding to VAWG in the UK. Participation in the event offered Dr Istratii the opportunity to connect to policymakers developing VAWG policies in the country, including the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, who showed interest in the project's innovative and decolonial approach to domestic violence in religio-culturally diverse contexts, and invited the PI to share more information. The event also provided the platforms to build new collaborations with frontline VAWG respondents, who will be invited to become involved in research and public engagement activities delivered by the project in the project's next two years. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/connecting-communities-conference-networking-in-person-tickets-396462... |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii consulted on UK's response to the humanitarian crisis and extensive SGBV in Tigray region |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In July 2021, Dr Romina Istratii was invited to meet with colleagues at the British Embassy in Ethiopia and the UK's FCDO department in order to discuss the current humanitarian crisis in Tigray and appropriate responses to extensive SGBV in the region. Dr Istratii was approached due to her specialised research in the region and as a result of the more recent work conducted within the context of project dldl/???? that explored the relationship between war violence, mental health trauma and domestic violence. Dr Istratii discussed thoroughly the need for evidence-based religio-culturally sensitive approaches that leverage on productive collaborations with local researchers in Tigray and Ethiopia and more reflexive community engagement approaches that do not perpetuate colonial dynamics as seen often in the humanitarian sector. This consultation resulted in establishing close relations between the project and the British Embassy in Ethiopia, as well as other programmes funded by the UK and operating in the country such as the Dutch Ethiopia Migration Programme. Dr Istratii was subsequently re-approached by the British Embassy to provide specialised advice to other colleagues working in the sector. Moreover, opportunities for collaborative initiatives on the 16 Days of Activism were explored, which did not materialise due to a deteriorating security situation in the country at the time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/engagement-and-awareness-raising/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii contributed to the organisation of and as speaker at Open Event: De-colonising Development organised by the London International Development Centre (LIDC) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii, as a member of a decolonising development working group set up by LIDC, contributed to the organisation of an open event on Decolonising Development for practitioners delivered by LIDC. Dr Istratii was herself invited to contribute with a presentation titled 'Decolonising Development Theory and Practice: The Role of Religious Knowledge.' The event reached hundreds of practitioners in international development, public health and related sectors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://lidc.ac.uk/event/de-colonising-development-an-open-event-for-practitioners/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii delivered lecture on 'Decolonising Religions and Development Theory and Practice' to University in Morocco |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | On 21 July 2022, Dr Istratii was invited to present as part of the series Academic Encounters organised by Dr Layachi Habbouch at the Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Tetouan, Morocco. The Academic Encounters Series gathers audiences from Morocco, Gibraltar, Great Britain, the Arab and the Muslim world, the United States and Canada to explore decolonial scholarship in Africa. The series is an ambitious project that seeks to introduce Moroccan scholars, early-career researchers, and BA, MA and PhD students to different fields of research and diverse areas of scholarship across the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and to build cross-sectoral and cross-cultural collaborations. The title of Dr Istratii's talk was 'Decolonizing Religions and Development Theory and Practice : Why is it Needed and How Can it be Achieved?' (In Arabic: ????? ?????? ???????????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ??????? : ????? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ???? ???????). The presentation led to further connections being built between Dr Istratii and Dr Layachi Habbouch, who invited Dr Istratii to jointly deliver a Masters' programme combining their respective specialisations to students in Morocco. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii delivered presentation on decolonising Research Capacity Building to UKCDR |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dr Maru Mormina and Dr Romina Istratii presented to UKCDR on their previously co-authored paper "'Capacity for what? Capacity for whom?' A decolonial deconstruction of research capacity development practices in the Global South and a proposal for a value-centred approach." In the paper, the authors apply a decolonial lens to the technoscientific paradigm that governs RCD and unpack some of the underlying colonial and Eurocentric assumptions about conceptions of development and valid knowledge. The presentation was aimed at UKCDR and member organisations working in Research Capacity Development/Research Capacity Strengthening. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii delivered talk on research ethics, reflexivity and data management to the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) in Eritrea |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | During a visit to Eritrea, Dr Istratii was invited by the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) to deliver a talk on research ethics and data management that applied a decolonisation perspective fitting to the context of Eritrea. The talk took place at the NUEW offices and was attended by 30 female members working in different civil service and government sectors. The talk, which lasted over two hours, covered themes such as research integrity and misconduct, obtaining informed consent, respecting confidentiality and/or anonymity, data management and accountability, as well as research reflexivity about one's positionality in research. The talk resulted in numerous requests by the participants for more information and guidance with their research projects. It also led to some members feeling motivated to challenge research norms applying a decolonial perspective and to pursue research projects that they otherwise would have not pursued. A participant asked Dr Romina Istratii to review their research proposal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii delivered talk to the Centre of World Christianity at SOAS University of London on the Tigray conflict and humanitarian responses in the region |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this invited presentation, Dr Romina Istratii delivered a talk to the Centre of World Christianity to share the experiences of project dldl/???? in Ethiopia and while the conflict in Tigray was ongoing 9the original sites of project dldl/????). Dr Istratii presented the second working paper published by the project team, which summarised a literature review that identified the state of evidence on the relationship between political violence and domestic violence in order to deepen the analysis of domestic violence in conflict-ridden Tigray as part of the ongoing work of project dldl/????, as well as to inform humanitarian responses proactively. Dr Istratii argued for the need for humanitarian responses to proactively consider how to address complex and multiple trauma as a result of the ongoing violence, especially related to the extensive sexual violence against women and girls, and to contextualise these interventions in regional history, Tigrayan society and the religio-cultural beliefs of the population. Dr Istratii referred especially to the role that the clergy, as spiritual fathers, can play in community-oriented efforts to raise awareness about the consequences of sexual violence and to minimise the likelihood of re-traumatisation for the survivors and their families. The talk has been viewed over 250 times on YouTube, resulting in numerous media platforms subsequently approaching Dr Istratii for an interview on the humanitarian situation in Tigray. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/event/dr-romina-istratii-delivers-talk-to-the-centre-of-world-christianity-a... |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii interviewed for student-led documentary film 'The Purpose Of Life: Questioning all major Religions and Atheism' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii was interviewed by Yousuf M. and Abdulla Majid for their documentary series that seeks to understand major religious traditions, by posing some complex and provocative questions to scholars engaging with these traditions. Dr Istratii was approached as a prominent scholar and student of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The documentary film has not been released yet. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii invited to feature in Actions to Decolonising Development video series by Development Reimagined |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii was invited to feature in a video series titled 'Actions to Decolonising Development' produced by Development Reimagined. In the video, the Development Reimagined Global Health Program Manager, Osaru Omosigho, discussed with Dr Romina Istratii her experiences in navigating issues around knowledge production in the development sector and how organisations can do better. Dr Istratii was approached as a known expert and leader in decolonising international development and knowledge production. The video has been viewed numerous times on YouTube. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktLNOA4RJYM |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii kicked off 16 Days of Action against GBV with presentation to British Embassy staff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On 24 November 2022 the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia organised a learning event dedicated to the topic of sensitising gender programming to faith in conflict contexts as a way of kicking off the 16 Days of Action against GBV. Dr Romina Istratii was invited as a leading specialist in faith sensitive GBV responses to present to British Embassy staff and partners working in the area of gender equality, such as GIZ. The presentation explored, inter alia, the importance of applying a religio-culturally sensitive lens to GBV in conflict settings, how we can start to sensitise gender programming to religious beliefs and faith, and how we might effectively engage with religious communities and stakeholders, drawing also from the experience of project dldl/???? in Ethiopia's Tigray and Amhara regions. The presentation was recorded to serve as future resource available to all British Embassy staff and implementing partners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii participated in Egypt interfaith retreat on the environment, diversity and heritage on 7-11 May 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Between 7 and 11 May 2022, Dr Romina Istratii participated in a Gingko Fellowship Retreat in Egypt. The Gingko Fellowship is organised by Gingko, a charitable organisation that aims to bridge the divide between West Asia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions and the West. The Gingko Fellowship Programme is a series of annual retreats that bring together scholars of divinity from Al-Azhar University in Cairo and their peers from universities in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America to develop friendships, share about each other's faiths and address together challenging questions about the world. Dr Istratii is the first fellow to graduate from the programme, having joined the fellowship in 2018 and graduated in 2019 when she formally received her PhD in Religious Studies from SOAS University of London. Dr Istratii was invited to participate in the retreat in Egypt as one of the Founding Fellows, along with 22 other fellows. During the retreat programme in Egypt the fellows stayed at the All Saints Garden Conference Centre in Zamalek, Cairo. Activities included an evening reception at the British Embassy hosted by Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt H.E. Gareth Bayley, a visit to the Al-Azhar University, where the fellows listened to a keynote speech by the Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, a Scriptural Reasoning session delivered at the British Council and visits to the Al-Azhar Mosque, the Coptic Museum, and Coptic Churches and the City of the Dead in Old Cairo. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/news/dr-romina-istratii-participates-in-inter-faith-retreat-in-egypt-7-11-ma... |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii presented on decolonising research at AHRC Research Libraries UK - Research Catalyst Cohort Programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii presented on the topic of decolonising research at the organised by UK's Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA). The presentation discussed the importance of applying a decolonial lens to research practices and norms, problematising the centrality of positionality in such efforts. It also described current approaches within and beyond the Higher Education sector to make research processes and practices more reflexive of colonial legacies and continuing inequalities, build more genuinely collaborative partnerships with partners in the wider Global South and promote linguistic and cultural diversity within academic knowledge production. Dr Istratii placed extensive attention also on open access publishing movements and discussed how open access science and publishing can be conducive to and limiting in these efforts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Dr Romina Istratii presented to the African Families Service Link Workers' Forum, London Borough Tower Hamlets |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following a generous invitation by Ms Amma Anane-Agyei, African Families Service Co-ordinator at the African Families Service, Children and Culture Directorate, London Borough Tower Hamlets, Dr Romina Istratii made a presentation of her research on domestic violence to the African Families Service Link Workers' Forum. The presentation was titled 'Exploring the relationship between conjugal abuse, parenting and childhood trauma and the role of faith as a potential deterrent: Ethnographic insights from research in Ethiopia' and presented aspects of Dr Istratii's anthropological research with Ethiopian communities in Ethiopia and the UK between 2016-2017. In this presentation, Dr Istratii cautiously suggested some connections with psychological theories of domestic violence and her observations in the field. She drew primarily from theories of intergenerational violence, attachment theory and personality disorder studies. Dr Istratii suggested these connections to stress the need for integrated responses to domestic violence, but did not in any way attempt to provide a psychological diagnosis of the problem. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Dr Romina presented at webinar organised by the London International Development Centre for International Women's Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dr Romina Istratii was invited to present at a webinar organised by the London International Development Centre for International Women's Day. Dr Istratii's presentation was entitled 'The role of religious traditions in promoting gender equality and responding to domestic violence: What we can learn from project dldl/?????' The talk was well-received by the attendees and led to some expressions of interest to share knowledge and project experience. Some participants commented that they found the work inspiring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://lidc.ac.uk/event/https-lshtm-zoom-us-webinar-register-wn_mu2mu24xrzcj-l9twenara/ |
| Description | EMIRTA's Dr Zinawork Assefa and Dr Romina Istratii presented at 'East and Southern Africa Regional Symposium on Gender Transformative Symposium to engaging Men and Boys in GBV Prevention and Response in Humanitarian Settings' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On Tuesday 28 June 2022, Dr Romina Istratii and Dr Zinawork Assefa presented at the 'East and Southern Africa Regional Symposium on Gender Transformative Symposium to engaging Men and Boys in GBV Prevention and Response in Humanitarian Settings' organised by numerous UN agencies and partners. Dr Istratii and Dr Zinawork presented on a jointly implemented research project on domestic violence in Ethiopia's Amhara region that engaged men to explore religio-cultural deterrence mechanisms to intimate partner abuse in the male population. Dr Istratii first discussed the research that motivated this project and described its approach in the form of an innovative interactive survey that employed visual methods to incite the participants' reactions to different types of intimate partner abuse and to explore their rationalisations and possible deterrence mechanisms. Dr Assefa, as the research lead of this project at the partner organisation EMIRTA then presented on the fieldwork experience and the reactions of the male participants to the visual methods. Dr Istratii concluded with suggestions on how the approach could be implemented in emergency contexts. The audience found the decolonial and locally-led research approach praiseworthy and a good prototype for others to follow. Some participants followed with the presenters by email to explore connections and future collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | EMIRTA's Mr Tesfaye Gonite and Dr Romina Istratii presented at GBV AoR webinar 'Working with Men and Boys to Prevent and Respond to GBV in Humanitarian Settings: Learnings and Opportunities' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On Tuesday 27 September 2022, Dr Romina Istratii and Mr Tesfaye Gonite presented at the webinar 'Working with Men and Boys to Prevent and Respond to GBV in Humanitarian Settings: Learnings and Opportunities' organised by GBV AoR Ethiopia and IOM. Dr Istratii and Mr Gonite presented on a jointly implemented research project on domestic violence in Ethiopia's Amhara region that engaged men to explore religio-cultural deterrence mechanisms to intimate partner abuse in the male population. Dr Istratii first discussed the research that motivated this project and described its approach in the form of an innovative interactive survey that employed visual methods to incite the participants' reactions to different types of intimate partner abuse and to explore their rationalisations and possible deterrence mechanisms. Mr Gonite, one of the researchers on the ground, then presented on the fieldwork experience, including the reactions of the male participants to the visual research and intervention method, key attitudes around domestic abuse and violence, and deterrence mechanisms that the men identified in their discussions. Dr Istratii concluded with suggestions on how the approach could be implemented in emergency contexts. The talk triggered many positive comments by the participants, who praised the project's decolonial and locally-led approach and considered that this could provide an example for others to follow. Some participants followed up with the presenters to explore further connections and collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Invitation to record podcast on project dldl/???? work with Press Red |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Istratii was recently invited to record podcast about the work of project dldl/???? by Press Red, a UK based charity which is educating, empowering and advocating against all forms of violence against women that is also faith oriented (www.pressred.org). Due to a personal emergency, the podcast recording has been postponed to a later date in 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Media broadcast about project annual conference in Ethiopia featuring interview with Dr Romina Istratii in Amharic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The first two years of the project culminated in the Project dldl/???? Annual Conference, which was organised physically in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 11-12 November 2022 with the option for UK speakers and audiences to join online. This was a high-profile event that featured numerous panels with presenters from different parts of Ethiopia and internationally, and a series of workshops delivered by international specialists from the UK, USA, Kenya and other countries. Eleven media channels were present, many of which broadcast the event to the general public in Ethiopia and the diaspora communities. One of them was Belagaru, which featured the conference and an interview with Dr Romina Istratii in a media release. This has also been uploaded on YouTube and has had hundreds of views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCU7p5EKXxw&t=1s |
| Description | New group discussion list set up to promote knowledge exchange on domestic violence in faith communities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In January 2021, the project set up a dedicated JISCMAIL list under the name DV-GENDER-FAITH intended for domestic violence practitioners, researchers and religious stakeholders to share new research, training materials and experiences in order to build beneficial practices together and to promote better-integrated approaches to addressing domestic violence in religious communities. The list followed after the opening webinar of the project 'Addressing domestic violence in religious communities: Taking stock of lessons and approaches in the era of decolonising knowledge', which generated considerable interest from the attendees and pointed to the need for a dedicated platform to continue the conversation on these topics and, in particular, to bridge academics and researchers with practitioners and religious stakeholders. The list is public and its archives are accessible by all. It is open to anyone who would like to join and become part of the conversation. Since its establishment, the list has achieved new subscriptions, numbering now 132 members, including project team members, partners and collaborators and external stakeholders. The list is used for sharing regular project updates, new research findings and project outputs, knowledge exchange opportunities and activities, and other announcements. Significant forms of impact of the group list include: generating new interest in the work of the project, creating opportunities for collaboration and for knowledge exchange with other projects that engage with similar topics in other communities or geographical areas, and achieving evidence-sharing in real time without delays. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DV-GENDER-FAITH#:~:text=The%20list%20is%20intended%20... |
| Description | New multilingual website and blog established to reach clergy and seminarians, domestic violence practitioners and domestic violence researchers in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In April 2021, the project launched its multilingual website to publish research results and findings, manuals and policy briefs for the stakeholder groups it engages with. The website aims to facilitate the impact strategy of the project by creating a dissemination and knowledge-exchange platform in order to promote cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary learning and the fostering of new collaborations. The website publishes regular outputs from research, engagement activities and knowledge-exchange. It also includes a dedicated resources page, which publishes resources intended for clergy, theologians and seminarians, and practitioners and researchers in the area of domestic violence. The website is published in English, Amharic, Tigrigna and Afaan Oromo, with most publications being published in English and Amharic. While many of these resources are specific to the project countries, others have wider relevance and seek to inform international approaches to the study and alleviation of domestic violence within religious communities. Since its launch in April 2021, the website has attracted 4,885 unique visitors and its pages have been viewed 29,874 times. The website has attracted new expressions of interests for involvement and participation from within the project countries and internationally. It has also helped to improve awareness about domestic violence in religious communities, with many of its publications being picked up and republished by international news platforms (e.g. OCP News). The website also publishes a blog to facilitate the communication of new knowledge within the project's thematic areas across academic, practitioner and faith sectors. Topics explored include: intersections between religious beliefs, human psychology/mental health and domestic violence; approaches that integrate the clergy, theology, religious beliefs or spiritual parameters in domestic violence interventions and psychosocial support, and ways to measure the effectiveness of such initiatives; efforts to train clergy and seminarians in gender issues, and marital and domestic violence issues, and to streamline such training in seminary education; experiences of and responses to domestic violence in migrant and ethnic minority groups, analysed with sensitivity to gender and faith parameters. The blog has published numerous entries by the PI as well as entries by external contributors. The blog has led to new expressions of interests for submissions and has improved the team's knowledge of pioneering projects and approaches in the relevant thematic areas from different geographical areas in the world. This has indirectly helped to improve the project's impact pathways and to expand its reach internationally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/ |
| Description | Principal Investigator and Project Manager selected to participate in NCRM workshop 'Research Methods, Strategy and Covid-19' |
| 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 | In 2021, the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) called for participants with ongoing research projects to join a series of three online workshops exploring research methods, uncertainty and Covid-19. The Centre sought to run a short series of three workshops to explore in-depth how researchers engage with the uncertainty of Covid-19, manage methodological contingencies, adapt and innovate over time, probing the temporal, spatial and relational dimensions of researching in pandemic/pandemic legacy conditions. The Principal Investigator, Dr Romina Istratii, and part-time project manager, Ms Haben Hill, submitted an expression of interest that presented the project's challenges with uncertainty (pandemic and war-related) and were invited to participate in the first workshop, which was held in December 2021. The workshop involved researchers from different parts of the UK, some based internationally, and comprised of numerous discussion and brainstorming sessions to explore questions around research and uncertainty. The project team shared its experiences and insights, informing the direction of the conversations. It is anticipated that the workshops will result in a special issue targeted at the wider research community with the potential to inform current and future approaches to managing uncertainty and adapting to change in funded research projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Project dldl/???? Principal Investigator invited to attend the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Ministerial Conference in London, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | On 28-29 November 2022, Dr Romina Istratii attended the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Ministerial conference in London, UK. The conference brought together the international community to promote active responses to sexual violence in conflict, taking a survivor-informed and survivor-centred approach. Dr Istratii was invited to attend as member of the Team of Experts of the PSVI under the UK's Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG), which is a body of skilled individuals who are willing and able to deploy to fragile and conflict affected states to assist the UK Government in addressing instability. Alongside Dr Istratii, more than 40 country representatives attended the 2-day conference in London, and over 50 countries signed a UK-led declaration to end sexual violence in conflict. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Project dldl/???? and partner EOC DICAC delivered first ever inter-faith workshop in Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Thirty clergy of different religious traditions participated in day-long inter-faith workshop on domestic violence delivered by the project and local partner EOC DICAC. The workshop was organised to present to the attendees the training content and the evaluation outcomes of a recently completed pilot programme that had trained 155 EOTC clergy in Ethiopia. The attendees of this multifaith meeting included a Muslim Sufi Sheikh, priests from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, pastors from the Kalehiwot Church and the Mekane Yesus Church and representatives of other religious institutions. Officials representing the local government bodies that supported the project were also present. The project was unanimously positively received and that the participants proposed numerous paths towards its expansion and development to include other religious communities of Ethiopia. The interfaith meeting was attended by Church media representatives, who then held interviews with the PI and partner project coordinator about the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project dldl/???? and project partner EMIRTA/???? Research, Training and Development Institute held the project's first annual conference in Ethiopia on 11-12 November 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Project dldl/???? held its first Annual Conference on 11-12 November 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the option for UK speakers and audiences to join online. The Project dldl/???? Annual Conference was co-organised with project partner EMIRTA/???? Research, Training and Development Institute in Ethiopia. The conference focused on the nexus 'Domestic Violence - Gender - Faith' and had three overall aims. The first aim was to promote a better integration of theological and religious perspectives in gender-sensitive work on domestic violence and abuse. The second aim was to facilitate a bridging of different theoretical frameworks and approaches to achieve a more integrated lens through which to appraise the issue of domestic violence and abuse and to identify appropriate responses by means of working collaboratively. The third aim of was to contribute to a diversification of knowledge production in the area of domestic violence and abuse and to achieve genuine knowledge sharing from the so-called Global South to the so-called Global North. Over 100 physical and online participants attended during the two days of the annual conference. Many online speakers joined from the UK, Egypt, Australia and other countries. Among the physical presentations and keynote speeches, 14 were by or included Ethiopian speakers and 13 presentations were given by international presenters from the UK and other countries who submitted pre-recorded presentations to be broadcast at the conference venue. Additionally, five workshops were delivered by international specialists from the UK, US, Kenya, Pakistan and Italy, four of whom attended physically. The conference programme also included a film screening that showcased effectively how spiritual, cultural and secular responses to mental health can come together to inform both attitudes and responses to mental health issues in a village community in Ghana. The conference featured numerous panels with presenters from different parts of Ethiopia and internationally, and a series of workshops delivered by international specialists from the UK, USA, Kenya and other countries. It culminated in a livestreamed roundtable discussion which brought prominent feminist and religious organisations, government officials and international specialists to explore a better integration pathway for religious, feminist and state resources to respond to domestic violence in Ethiopia and internationally. A post-conference report was published after the conference, which has been downloaded and accessed hundreds of times from the project's website and republished via the JLI Communications platform. The report includes a summary of the conference outcomes, which includes new collaborations across borders, sectors and disciplines, new initiatives to promote more integrated responses to domestic violence in Ethiopia, and efforts to extend some of the effects to diaspora communities in the UK. The conference was attended by numerous media platforms and featured in Amharic media broadcasts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/annual-conference/ |
| Description | Project dldl/???? and the SOAS Centre of Word Christianity co-hosted webinar on 'Declaration of Humanity: Faith leaders against sexual violence in conflict' with His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On 20 February, the SOAS Centre of World Christianity supported by Project dldl/???? held a seminar about the Declaration of Humanity, an initiative that focuses on the importance of the role of faith leaders and faith communities in highlighting violations that occur against women in conflict zones. The Declaration of Humanity was developed by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) with the UK-based #PSVI Faith and Belief Leaders Working Group. It focuses on the importance of the role of faith leaders and faith communities in highlighting violations that occur against women in conflict zones. The seminar featured His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, one of the members of the working group, who spoke about the initiative, its urgency and its international relevance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6PB_goRLiY |
| Description | Project dldl/???? team presented to the JLI Religions, Humanitarianism, and Development Research Reading Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On 13 January 2020, Dr Romina Istratii presented to the JLI Religions, Humanitarianism, and Development Research Reading Group the work of project dldl/???? under the title 'Working with religious communities to address domestic violence in peace and war-time: Insights from project dldl/???? in Ethiopia.' Dr Istratii was joined by Mr Henok Hailu Ayele as a respondent, who supports the project as trainer in workshops that seek to build the preparedness of Ethiopian Orthodox clergy to respond to domestic violence. The presentation discussed how project dldl/???? works to build integrated approaches to domestic violence that bridge religious and psychological parameters together, and discussed how it has made an effort in the last year to adapt this approach to conflict-affected contexts so as to inform the humanitarian response in Tigray. The presentation raised very positive responses by academics and practitioners working in areas of faith, domestic violence and humanitarian responses. Members expressed the belief that the project's approach could inform wider practice in the non-governmental faith sector responding to GBV and suggested the need for scaling our the project's work through collaborations with other organisations working in the same areas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTEOMK9b1yF3AsifSgfZXlg |
| Description | Religious and secular stakeholders approached to explore integration, collaboration and knowledge exchange pathways in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK in 2020-2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As one of its main impact pathways, project dldl/???? works to integrate with existing initiatives and domestic violence infrastructures that exist in the project countries to achieve sustainability, continuity and maximum impact. To achieve this aim, connections and partnerships are purposefully sought and established with research, religious, feminist or other organisations in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK, which extend beyond the named project collaborators and partners. In year 2020-2021, the project reached out to over 20 organisations in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK to establish connections and to explore mutually beneficial collaborations and knowledge sharing. In Ethiopia, Dr Romina Istratii met with six different organisations, and many other individual stakeholders, to build bridges, share evidence and knowledge and identify more integrated responses to domestic violence. Two of these organisations subsequently became formal partners to the project (EOC DICAC and EMIRTA). In Eritrea, Ms Mebrak Ghebreweldi, who is the Coordinator of project activities in Eritrea, met with representatives from at least six organisations to introduce the project, establish connections, obtain approval and support and to recruit advisors to the project. One of these organisations has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Eritrean partner on behalf of project dldl/???? and to achieve the research objectives in Eritrea. Dr Istratii also reached out to numerous organisations in the UK, many of whom have representatives in the project's Advisory Board (including from Restored, FORWARD UK, Standing Together, and others). The project achieved an important membership in the Faith and VAWG Coalition based in the UK but with members internationally. The project also reached to and established connections with international initiatives, such as Musawah, with Dr Istratii participating in a seminal conference on Family Law Change in Africa. Overall, these memberships and efforts to integrate with existing initiatives have contributed to increase awareness about the project and its unique approach nationally and internationally and to identify overlaps and areas for mutual support among different organisations and initiatives working in the VAWG sector to inform and strengthen faith-sensitive approaches to domestic violence in the world. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/engagement-and-awareness-raising/ |
| Description | Training on domestic violence provided to 155 clergy in Ethiopia in 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Project dldl/???? has three strands of activity: research, interventions, and knowledge exchange. One of its main interventions in year 2021 was the delivery of a series of workshops with clergy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to build their preparedness to respond to domestic violence in their communities. The workshops are organised in collaboration with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC), the project's main partner in Ethiopia, working through the Church structure and with the support of local diocese offices. The workshops were designed by Dr Romina Istratii on the basis of previously completed long-term anthropological research with EOTC clergy in northern Ethiopia, and seek to improve the clergy's preparedness to respond to victims and perpetrators sensitively. The workshops include ethnographic findings on domestic violence and faith, theological material to clarify Church teachings on marriage-related issues and domestic violence drawn from the homilies of St John Chrysostom, safeguarding training focusing on the need for confidentiality and non-judgemental approaches to avoid re-traumatisation/retaliation, and legal and referral information about domestic violence. The workshops are delivered in Amharic and include reflection exercises, group activities and scenario and case studies and are facilitated by Dr Romina Istratii and co-delivered with the support of two trainers, deacon and psychology counsellor Mr Henok Hailu and attorney and consultant in law Ms Beza Birhanu. The workshop series pilot was designed so as to achieve a rigorous evaluation and robust assessment of the effectiveness of the programme. This evaluation approach includes collecting pre-workshop interest forms, a post-workshop questionnaire, and 3-month report cards (the latter, if and as feasible). The evaluation is currently on-going and will be completed this month, with the report being anticipated in March 2022. Questionnaires collected from the participants suggest that the workshops have helped the participants to change their perception of their role in addressing societal problems, to realise the importance of being a good example in their personal marriages, and to recognize the need to take the necessary time to help spiritual children to address marital problems and not unwittingly rushing them into quick decisions. Many also stated their renewed commitment to teaching more extensively about marriage and to serving the communities as the apostles did, without fearing the unknown and the challenges brought with modernization. The exercises and group activities that were incorporated in each unit seemed to be particularly well-received as they created a 'safe space' for the participants to share with each other and to work together to identify answers to difficult family and marital situations. This is an important outcome as clergy rarely have an opportunity to consult with each other, often relying on their own limited training and subjective experience to respond to complex issues that may require collective theological deliberation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/engagement-and-awareness-raising/ |
| Description | Trainings on domestic violence research ethics, data management and safeguarding provided to research teams and partners in Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2020-2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In line with its team development commitments, the project has planned the delivery of regular trainings to partners and other colleagues involved directly with the project. In year 2020-2021, the project team delivered three trainings covering project approach, research methodology and ethics, data management and domestic violence safeguarding. The trainings were delivered by Dr Romina Istratii, with some contributions from the SOAS Governance and Ethics Officer and involved colleagues at the partner institutions, including EOC DICAC, DRI/Waniney, EMIRTA (new partnership in progress) and independent experts and researchers supporting the project on occasion. These trainings have been effective in creating coherence within the different country teams - in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK, building the capacity of project partners and staff and enabling them to undertake co-led collaborative research on the ground. One important outcome regards the project's new partner EMIRTA, which is a newly founded research organisation in Ethiopia established and comprised of Ethiopian academics and researchers. EMIRTA aims to conduct rigorous culturally- and religiously-sensitive research, improve research standards in the country, and build the capacity and research skills of Ethiopian researchers. Project dldl/???? has provided the new organisation with the opportunity to conduct collaborative research co-led by both parties, as well as to build the experience of the organisation's early career researchers who would otherwise not have the option of conducting this type of research on the ground. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |
| Description | Webinar series on domestic violence and faith delivered in 2020-2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in 2020, many of the project's first year public engagement and knowledge exchange activities were moved online. As part of sharing project evidence and building bridges across sectors and multiple stakeholder groups, the project organised a series of six webinars in 2020-2021, which focused on different themes around domestic violence, religious communities, faith-sensitive interventions and decolonisation. The detailed list of these webinars is provided below: 1. Addressing domestic violence in religious communities in the era of decolonising knowledge, 26 November 2020 2. War violence and domestic violence: Understanding the relationship and exploring linkages with forced migration and religious beliefs, 25 February 2021 3. Training Orthodox Seminary Students and Clergy to Respond to Domestic Violence: Current Approaches & Lessons from around the World, 13 May 2021 4. Exploring Decolonisation in Ethiopia: A discussion to explore the relevance of decolonising Ethiopian scientific knowledge production and societal development, 21 May 2021 5. Engaging clergy to address domestic violence: International approaches, 17 June 2021 6. Designing and evaluating culture-sensitive and faith-based domestic violence interventions: International experiences, 28 October 2021 The webinars sold 565 tickets in total and have been viewed 359 times on Vimeo, the project's dedicated video page. Each webinar brought together highly prominent, international and national specialists and practitioners, leading to important new insights and directions for future research and practice. Each webinar led to important questions about the specific topics it addressed, some of which were further explored in subsequent webinars. As a result of this activity, the project mailing list grew in membership, bringing more researchers, academics, religious stakeholders and domestic violence practitioners together to share knowledge. Feedback shared by audience members and speakers suggested that the webinars helped to raise their awareness about the topic and faith-sensitive approaches to domestic violence and to understand better how religious stakeholders may be productively engaged in GBV activities. The webinar series has also allowed the project team to gauge interest in the topics and to identify salient questions and concerns in the GBV communities working to address domestic violence. The project plans an international conference in 2022 and it is envisioned that the themes of the conference will be guided by the outputs of this first webinar series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://projectdldl.org/outputs/knowledge-exchange/ |