This theme explores the multiple, often intersecting, forms of VAW and VAC including prevalence of different types of VAW and VAC, risk, and protective factors for VAW and VAC experience, and men who use violence, and the causes and consequences of VAW and VAC, including health and psychosocial consequences.

We welcome abstracts that delve into diverse aspects of this issue, including:

• • The impacts (including disability-related impacts) of under-researched forms of VAW, including emotional and economic VAW, revenge porn, harmful traditional practices including ‘honour’-based violence, sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEA/H), and human trafficking.
  • How new feminist movements (e.g. Me too, Ni una menos) and anti-feminist male organising (Men’s Rights Activists, incels, etc.) influence individual, social and policy perspectives related to the experience and perpetration of violence.
  • VAW and VAC and the exploration of risk factors for violence including humanitarian, development and peace settings, such COVID-19, climate change, food insecurity, economic insecurity, mental health, alcohol, substance abuse and imprisonment – and their interlinkages.
  • Deeper review of the intersections between food insecurity and gender equality, including impacts of food insecurity on education, sexual and reproductive health, risks of exposure to different forms of VAW and VAC, and women’s livelihoods and economic independence.
  • The cultural, psychological, and economic impacts of colonisation on Indigenous people, and how these influence their behaviours and experiences in respect to VAW and VAC.
  • The prevalence of different forms of online and technology facilitated gender-based violence and the risk and protective factors for experience and perpetration of these types of violence.
  • Prevalence and impact of sexual violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, against boys and girls in all their diversity and how gender, masculinity and social norms drive this issue and create barriers for responses/interventions.
  • Comprehensive approaches that not only examine prevalence, risk, and protective factors, but also consider the methodology and sample selection of studies for accurate causal inference and generalisability for meaningful and actionable policy impacts.

This theme focuses on the development, adaptation, scaling up and costing of evidence-based interventions for multiple forms of violence, and various types of evaluations of interventions, including process, formative and impact evaluations, practice-based learning and evidence informed programmes.

We invite abstracts that consider:

• • What types of interventions can effectively prevent multiple forms of violence, including in the family and school environments, and how they achieve this.
  • What types of interventions are most effective for preventing IPV (including ‘honour’-based violence) against women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination (including age, poverty, disability, ethnicity, race, sexuality, displacement etc.).
  • Designing and adapting VAW and VAC interventions in the context of overlapping, complex and protracted crises, including armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies.
  • What are some lessons learnt when it comes to scaling and costing of VAW prevention and response programmes, including funding for gender-based violence prevention, mitigation and response in humanitarian emergencies?
  • What are some lessons learnt on developing and implementing a comprehensive survivor-centered response to gender-based violence that meets survivors’ needs through an intersectional approach?
  • Different frameworks, theories, and approaches for co-creation of interventions and for multisectoral collaborations and partnerships.
  • How are organisations and collectives working on VAW decolonising research and co-creating multiple forms of knowledge to effectively address VAW and VAC.
  • What interventions or elements of interventions are most effective at preventing violence against adolescent girls in all their diversity, and why.
  • What role have RESPECT and / or INSPIRE played in your research, knowledge and / or programme development efforts on prevention.
  • How large-scale sector programmes can be adapted to optimise their impact on VAW and VAC prevention and response, particularly in education, health, economic development, infrastructure, and social protection programmes.
  • How sectors (health, education, economic, infrastructure, social protection) and humanitarian clusters can strengthen how they respond to and/or deliver prevention programmes of VAW and VAC.
  • Challenges and successes in scaling-up evidence based programmes, adapting large scale programmes to improve VAW outcomes, working with governments, and promoting research usage and cost effectiveness.
  • Alternative modalities (besides in-person programming), including remote or online methods and approaches for effective VAW and VAC prevention and response at scale.
  • What interventions work to prevent sexual harassment in institutional settings (in-person or online), including in the workplace and educational settings, and why.
  • What level of intensity is needed for social norms change interventions to have sustained impact at the community level, including effectively challenging norms that focus on victim behaviour rather than on the perpetration/choice to use violence.
  • The role of social movements and feminist activism, especially women-led and women’s rights organisations in preventing and responding to VAW and VAC at grassroots level and at scale. In this context, what are the challenges for women’s organizations, and how can they be overcome? How can the support to, inclusion and representation of women’s organizations be increased at local, regional and national level, including by donors in humanitarian, development and peace contexts?
  • Different forms of resistance and backlash faced at the community, including women human rights defenders (WHRDs), at local, regional and national level when designing VAW and VAC prevention and response programmes, and mitigation measures.
  • The various kinds of faith-based or community-led VAW and VAC prevention and response interventions can be adapted to different faiths, communities, and regions effectively.
  • The types of interventions that are effective in preventing and responding to IPV and other forms of violence against LGBTQI+ populations, people with disabilities, and other under-researched, high risk/vulnerable groups.

This theme invites abstracts that enhance the quality and robustness of research on VAW and VAC, discuss ethical research practices, looks at capacity building in low-and middle-income countries, and other resource poor settings, and showcasing of advancements and innovations in methodology and measurement on VAW and VAC, hierarchies of knowledge, practice-based learning, ethical issues and monitoring and evaluation of interventions.

We’re interested in abstracts on:

• • Methods which can be used to measure the intersection and pathways between different types of violence, including poly-victimisation.
  • Research methodologies appropriate for measuring social norm change in sexual violence and/or IPV prevention interventions.
  • Methodologies to measure the long-term impacts of sexual violence and/or IPV prevention interventions, including reduction in VAW and VAC and other intended and unintended outcomes.
  • How to conduct effective, ethical, and inclusive research on VAW and VAC using online/virtual/remote methods (including social media) and how these should be adapted to reach marginalised populations.
  • Innovative technologies and interventions be used to detect and prevent online sexual harassment and online IPV.
  • How to ensure our research is relevant for, connects to, effectively informs and impacts policy as well as design and implementation of programmes and how we define and measure that impact.
  • How to capture what is working even before formal, external and/or rigorous evaluation methodologies are applied, i.e., capturing insights through routine monitoring data or practice-based learning.
  • What kinds of hierarchies of knowledge exist in VAW and VAC research and how are these hierarchies resisted through collective efforts.
  • Effective tools to measure harmful traditional practices against women and girls including FGM/C, child and forced marriage, crimes committed in the name of honour, dowry-related violence, and son preference.
  • Outcome measures for IPV prevention interventions inclusive of women and girls with disabilities, and whether they should be universal or disability specific.
  • Approaches to research to identify correlation between use of VAW and VAC and seemingly non-violent behaviours that might constitute “red flags” of predictability or of existing hidden use of violence.

As part of our violence prevention and response work, it is also important to understand the factors that contribute to perpetration of violence. This theme calls for a more nuanced understanding of perpetration, including the role of social norms, gender inequality, and power dynamics in contributing to the types of violent behaviour against women and violence against children.

We invite abstracts on:

• • The risk and protective factors, including impunity, for perpetration of VAW and VAC and the psychology of men who use violence.
  • Documentation of patterns of perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and evaluations of programming to address CRSV globally.
  • Methods and approaches in intervention development, research, and the ethical considerations for engaging men who use violence.
  • The role of rehabilitation, restorative justice, and accountability in addressing perpetration of VAW, VAC and other forms of violence driven by gender inequality and understanding the factors or processes that lead to the cessation of violent behaviour.
  • The influence of cultural, societal, and systemic factors/norms on perpetration.

This theme focuses on childhood sexual violence including building our understanding of its epidemiology and impacts, as well as how to effectively respond to and prevent this violence. We welcome evidence built from a wide range of ethically guided methods and innovations on this topic.

We are interested in abstracts that:

• • Explore different methodological approaches to enhance understanding of CSV and CSV interventions. This may include ethical, meaningful, and participatory involvement of children and young people in research – including young survivors of CSV – validated tools for measurement, mixed methods, feminist and intersectional approaches, or innovative intervention evaluation approaches.
  • Identify the risks, drivers, and protective factors associated with different types of CSV such as trafficking and sexual exploitation, and sexual violence, including in humanitarian, development and peace settings and in different environments (such as schools, online, perpetrated by adults or peers), disaggregating findings by age group and gender, and sensitive to intersections with various vulnerabilities.
  • Explore specific measures that should be implemented in light of systems including family and community structures breaking down during emergencies, to protect children from the risk of violence and abuse at home, at school, and in the community.
  • Design or evaluate response and prevention interventions that address CSV. This may include research and interventions for systems strengthening; designed specifically for a particular age group (e.g., adolescents); parenting interventions; perpetrator-prevention interventions; interventions that address social and gendered-power norms that contribute to CSV; links between sexual and reproductive health and rights interventions linked to CSV prevention; and CSV interventions with a social protection component.
  • Focus on technology, which may include the use of technology to prevent and respond to CSV, better understanding technology-facilitated CSV, and links between online and offline CSV.
  • Examine the intersections between CSV and VAW to better understand where these two types of violence intersect and the pathways between them, as well as to guide effective and ethical actions to address both CSA and VAW at the intersections.

This theme seeks abstracts that delve into nurturing resilience among researchers, activists, and practitioners. We are especially interested in studies that showcase how to incorporate kindness, and trauma-informed self- and collective care practices into the very fabric of organisational cultures and policies.

We are interested in abstracts that:

• • Promote mental health and well-being among researchers, activists, and practitioners, including local responders and in particular women’s and girls’ organisations working in conflict, post-conflict and other fragile settings.
  • Understanding the role of resilience and care among those working on VAW/VAC prevention in relation to impact on prevention work.
  • Promote staff well-being in emergencies, including self-care and safety for staff, building awareness, and creating spaces for staff reflection and discussion related to safety and quality of life concerns.
  • Build resilience and coping strategies for those working on VAW and VAC issues.
  • Create supportive environments and networks for individuals in the VAW and VAC field.
  • Integrate self-care and collective care practices into organisational cultures and policies.
  • Explore various models of ‘peer support’ that exist among diverse groups such as activists, survivors, practitioners and researchers, with a particular focus on those who are in the early stages of their careers or pursuing PhDs.