| Commissioned by | Respect Victoria |
|---|---|
| Conducted by | Dr Lara Fergus |
| Date | June 2024 |
Overview
To achieve the sustainable change needed to prevent violence against women, international evidence is clear that discrete projects are not enough.
Respect Victoria commissioned a review of Australian and international literature to understand how a ‘saturation model’ adds to our understanding of what works to prevent violence against women.
A saturation model goes beyond isolated projects. It involves coordinated and concentrated prevention activities across all the settings where people lead their lives – where they live, work, learn and play – to achieve impact.
Key findings
- Well-crafted prevention interventions result in statistically significant reductions in gendered violence. Schools- and sport-based programs, positive parenting interventions and community mobilisation are among those showing such impact.
- Interventions that combine more than one strategy or setting (e.g. a workplace, school or sporting club) have a mutually reinforcing effect that magnifies impact.
- One meta-analysis of evaluated interventions showed multi-component interventions were on average 60% more effective than single-component ones.
- Individual approaches are not enough to achieve and sustain impact across the population – what’s needed are models that combine interventions to create a mutually reinforcing effect.
What is the evidence for place-based saturation models to prevent violence?
Evidence of impact for specific groups
Most of the evidence on effective prevention looks at interventions that engaged specific groups, such as university students or new parents. These well-crafted interventions can reduce gendered violence for the groups they engaged, within the program’s timeframes.
One review looked at 96 randomised controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies (those where randomised trials aren’t appropriate) that aimed to reduce men’s use of violence and/or women’s experience of violence. It found:
- 41 studies had a statistically-significant positive impact at the end of implementation
- 18 were considered ‘promising,’ (meaning significant for a sub-group, or showing a positive but non-significant trend)
- 37 showed no impact on the reduction of men’s use of violence and/or women’s experience of violence, but may have reduced other forms of violence against women, such as emotional or economic violence.
Positive and promising programs in high income countries
Interventions with positive and promising impact in high income countries included those run in schools and colleges, those aimed at couples and parents (including ante-natal and post-natal programs), those working with general populations, and interventions that addressed the drivers of violence.
Evidence of impact at the population level
Most of the evidence comes from evaluations of interventions that focus on a specific group, such as university students or new parents, so measuring population-level impact is usually beyond their scope. However, there is some evidence that two categories of intervention can have population-level impact:
- certain policy and legislative interventions that support multiple initiatives
- multi-component, place-based community mobilisation interventions that engage the whole community in prevention activities. The effective models are combined interventions that address multiple drivers of violence, use a phased approach, and work across individuals, relationships, organisations and the community.
Three programs with population-level impact
Three multi-component, place-based community mobilisation interventions demonstrated population-level reductions in women’s experience of intimate partner violence:
- Rural Response System (RRS) in Ghana – this program showed a statistically significant reduction in women’s experiences of sexual intimate partner violence (IPV)
- Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) in Uganda – this program showed a reduction in women’s reports of physical and sexual IPV in three years
- SASA! in Uganda – this program reduced ongoing sexual and physical IPV and prevented the onset of both types of violence. Evaluations of SASA! and the ways it has adapted over time make it one of the best evidence-based community mobilisation initiatives in the prevention of gendered violence.
All three programs took a community-wide approach to prevention and involved several thousand people across one or more administrative areas of a local municipality.
What was interesting about these interventions is that, unlike the interventions with specific groups above, they had measurable impact on people who had never engaged directly with the intervention or its materials. Impact was achieved through ‘organised diffusion’: the result of new messages about respect, equality and non-violence being mutually reinforced across community groups, schools, workplaces, etc, and circulating through the population as a whole.
What conditions and factors make placed-based prevention models successful?
The evidence review found that there are three main enabling conditions that influence intervention success:
- good prevention infrastructure – including a trained workforce, coordination mechanisms, a supportive legal and policy environment, adequate resourcing and active civil society advocating for gender equality
- adherence to quality design principles – including a robust theory of change, an explicit gender analysis and addressing multiple drivers of violence
- effective partnerships with response services and a high level of support to victim survivors – evidence shows that prevention work can increase disclosures of existing violence and a lack of referral pathways to response services undermines the effectiveness of the prevention work.
There are also three main enabling factors that influence the extent and sustainability of impact:
- an adequate number of skilled practitioners who are supported to do their job well
- an appropriate length of time for the program
- (for direct participation interventions): group-based methods with empowerment as the core goal, and an adequate number, duration, and frequency of sessions to allow time for reflection and experiential learning.
These three factors indicate the intensity of a program, and the evidence indicates that – assuming other quality design principles are met – higher intensity generally equates with greater impact.
Read the report
Respect Victoria acknowledges the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria as the First Peoples and Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waterways on which we rely. We proudly acknowledge Aboriginal communities across Victoria and their ongoing strength in practising the world’s oldest living culture. We acknowledge the significant and ongoing impacts of colonisation and commit to working alongside Aboriginal communities to affect change. We recognise the ongoing leadership role of Aboriginal communities in addressing and preventing family violence and violence against women and will continue to work in collaboration with First Peoples to eliminate these forms of violence from all communities.
Respect Victoria acknowledges the significant impact of family violence and violence against women on individuals, families and communities, and the strength and resilience of the children, young people and adults who have, and are still, experiencing this violence. We pay our respects to those who did not survive and to their loved ones.
Aboriginal peoples continue to be impacted by the cumulative effects of individual, institutional and societal violence, colonisation and racism over generations. This has contributed to the severity and disproportionate impact of family violence on Aboriginal women, families and communities to this day, and created the conditions that significantly increase the risks and barriers to accessing support.
Respect Victoria acknowledges that self-determination is the foundation for better outcomes for Aboriginal communities. True self-determination means that Aboriginal peoples and communities at the centre of approaches to address community experiences of family violence and violence against women. This includes recognising and respecting the inherent strength and diversity of Aboriginal peoples, families and communities across Victoria, and the leadership role of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in violence prevention.
Respect Victoria’s work to prevent family violence against Aboriginal peoples and violence against Aboriginal women will be informed by the principles of self-determination set out in Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families. We are firmly committed to working in collaboration with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to create a more equitable, respectful and safe community.
This report was written by Lara Fergus, with help, guidance and contributions from a number of people. Thanks to Monique Keel of Red Consulting for her valuable assistance with background research, and from Respect Victoria, to: Laura Wood, Stephanie Lusby, Serina McDuff, Kate O’Brien, Kellie Horton, Anita Trezona and Emily Maguire for shaping, guidance and support; Innocent Mwatsiya, Desiree Bensley, Lisha Murphy and again Laura Wood for background research; and Melinda McPherson and Sam Adams-Akyurek for advice on monitoring, evaluation and the conceptualisation of impact in this study.
A number of key informants provided insights and direction for the research: Jo Pride (Family Safety Victoria); Patty Kinnersley and Cara Gleeson (Our Watch); Wei Leng Kwok and Helen Campbell (former Generating Equality and Respect project); Tina Musuya (What Works to Prevent Violence against Women program); Sara Siebert and Yvette Alal (Raising Voices/ SASA!); Swetha Totapally, Shruthi Jayaram, and Akanksha Agarwal (Dalberg Consultants); Diane Gardsbane (former CARE-GBV, USAID); Alexandra Robinson (UNFPA) and Lori Heise (Prevention Collaborative).
A summary of early findings and implications of this research was shared with key leaders from organisations specialising in the primary prevention of violence against women and they provided valuable advice, direction, and suggestions for further research which have been incorporated here.
Suggested citation
Fergus L. Evidence Review: Reducing and preventing violence against women: factors affecting impact, with a focus on multi-component, place-based approaches. Respect Victoria; 2024.