Hosted by: Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
Venue: Daisy/Freesia/Orchid

Description: Private Breakfast Event for Wellspring Grantees.

Please note that this is a closed event.

Hosted by: ECPAT International, Women’s Refugee Commission, Equimundo, Family for Every Child, Save the Children International, Physicians for Human Rights, All Survivors Project
Venue: Hall 7

Description: The event will be hosted by the newly established Global Alliance on the Protection of Boys from Sexual Violence (GAPB) through its international and local members, presenting the GAPB Global Manifesto on the Protection of Boys from Sexual Violence. Through the interactive session, participants will delve into how constructions of masculinity affect boys’ behaviours, particularly sexuality, and how to engage with issues related to harmful sexual behaviours, with a specific focus on the work of civil society organisations in the South African setting and the online world. Participants will also be able to explore outcome-oriented resources for the protection of boys from sexual violence across different settings, including contexts of migration and displacement, and the specific vulnerabilities affecting children with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and characteristics (SOGIESC).

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: World Young Women’s Christian Association (World YWCA)
Venue: 8.1

Description: Join us at the SVRI 2024 Conference for an enlightening presentation by the World YWCA on its Young Women’s Feminist Consultation Methodology (FCM). Discover how this innovative grassroots approach, implemented through the World YWCA-led Young Women for Awareness, Agency, Advocacy, and Accountability (YW4A) Initiative, reshapes SGBV research norms globally. Through engaging young women as primary researchers, the FCM ensures their voices are heard and valued, empowering them to drive meaningful change in their communities. Learn how this approach addresses gaps in legal protection frameworks, societal norms, and civil society advocacy while promoting social norms change and young women’s leadership. Join us to explore evidence and practice-based learning and be inspired to contribute to more effective prevention and response strategies against violence. Join us in redefining SGBV research norms and boundaries!

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: The Womanity Foundation
Venue: Nerina/Protea

Description: Womanity and the Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California, San Diego, invite you to an engaging workshop designed for activists, practitioners, donors, and researchers passionate about feminist scale and power-balanced partnerships.

Research Insights: We will share learnings from a groundbreaking study that examined power dynamics among funders, programme designers, and implementers.

Explore case studies from around the world, including:

• Program H (Lebanon)
• Take Back the Tech Campaign (Mexico)
• Safetipin (South Africa)
• Legal Promoters Training and Community Care Model (Cape Verde)
• Transforming Masculinities (Nigeria)

Expert Discussions:

• Discover how the study’s findings align with experiences from practitioners, researchers, and donors working in the Global South.
• Learn best practices for fostering effective South-South collaborations.

Interactive Activities:

• Dynamic exercises designed to spark conversation and reflection.
• Co-creation of resources for building values-based partnerships that accelerate decolonising efforts in the VAWG field.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates:  Register to attend here.

Hosted by: Fraym
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: Join an interactive workshop with the Fraym team demonstrating the Gender Norms Data Engine (GNDE), a platform for high-frequency sub-national data from Kenya and Nigeria. Learn to use the Data Engine for planning, designing, and monitoring programs, as well as curating media campaigns and advocacy messages. Participants will collaborate with Fraym to create tailored workflows.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Prevention Collaborative
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: Harmful alcohol use is recognized as an important risk factor for IPV and VAC, yet efforts to address it as part of comprehensive violence prevention work have been limited. Informed by a new evidence review and expert consultations, this interactive session will focus on generating a range of strategies across the socio-ecological model to include alcohol reduction more effectively in prevention.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here. Breakfast will be provided.

Hosted by: The Freedom Fund
Venue: Hall 8.1

Description: Globally, 7 million children are employed as domestic workers in private households. Separated from their families, they face high levels of verbal, physical and sexual violence while working in dangerous conditions.

In this session, the Freedom Fund (freedomfund.org) will host a panel of leading child rights experts from Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, and Nigeria to discuss the findings and actions from large-scale research. Based on surveys and interviews with over 6,000 child domestic workers and employers across the four countries, these studies offer unprecedented insights into the daily experiences of child domestic workers, the violence they face, their complex relationships with families and employers, and their aspirations for the future.

All SVRI Forum participants are welcome to this open event, where lunch will be provided. Join us to examine this critical issue and advocate for greater actions to protect the rights of child domestic workers.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Coalition for Good Schools, What Works: Impact at Scale, Safe to Learn, UNESCO
Venue: Hall 7

Description: Panel discussion on leveraging education and school-based interventions to prevent and respond to violence against children and gender-based violence in all its forms. It will explore education settings as a platform for scaling effective violence prevention interventions and the multiple positive outcomes of absence of violence on learning.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: CDC South Africa, South African Medical Research Council, KL Dunkle Consulting
Venue: Daisy/Freesia/Orchid

Description:

The South African adaptation of the global GBV QA tool features streamlined assessments for faster use & emphasizes maximum inclusion of populations at high risk for GBV, including people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, youth, and sex workers.

We’ll share our consultation and adaptation processes across researcher, Department of Health, and stakeholder perspectives. We’ll share lessons learned and suggestions for supporting more inclusive GBV response services in other Global South settings.

Grab lunch and network with amazing colleagues, then walk away with fresh inspiration and copies of the South African GBV-QA tool, the new Disability Awareness Checklist, and emerging resources for LGBTQIA+ inclusion in GBV response.

Open to SVRI Forum Delegates. Register to attend here.  

Hosted by: Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Venue: Nerina/Protea

Description: In this meeting, SVRI grantees and donors will meet to understand various projects, impact of research funded by SVRI and exchange ideas to strengthen grant making and impact of grants.

Please note that this is a closed event.

Hosted by: Lutheran World Federation, Episcopal Relief and Development, Tear Fund, ALARM, International Justice Mission, World Vision
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: Are you in search of tangible ways to bolster survivor-centered interventions? Would you like to learn more about doing so from the full spectrum of prevention to response and access to justice? Join this conversation showcasing comprehensive approaches to supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Members of the Faith Actors’ Consortium engaged in Ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (FACE) will share their work at the individual, couple, community, and system levels to provide insights into various aspects of survivor support, from addressing harmful gender norms to improving the quality of services and navigating complex justice systems. The discussion aims to spark future conversations and action within the full spectrum of survivor support initiatives in both programming and research. FACE is comprised of World Vision, Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Episcopal Relief & Development, Tearfund, International Justice Mission (IJM), and African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM).

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Safe Futures Hub: Solutions to End Childhood Sexual Violence, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), Together For Girls, WeProtect Global Alliance
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: Safe Futures Hub, co-led by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, Together for Girls, and the WeProtect Global Alliance, invites you to the launch of our comprehensive evidence review on preventing sexual violence against children. The report, titled “Building Safe Futures: Solutions to End Childhood Sexual Violence,” highlights the most effective strategies and interventions that have demonstrated measurable success. Additionally, you’ll learn more about our ongoing efforts to redefine, build, and mobilize knowledge to end childhood sexual violence (CSV) as we bring together key experts, advocates, and stakeholders. Our event will feature a series of presentations, including insights on the role of Practice-Based Knowledge in preventing CSV, alongside participant-driven discussions and interactive sessions. Attendees will gain valuable insights into proven approaches, network with like-minded professionals, and contribute to a collaborative effort to create safer futures for children worldwide.

Open to all SVRI Forum 2024 delegates. While RSVP is optional, Delegates are encouraged to register here.

Hosted by: UNFPA
Venue: Nerina/Protea

Description: The nexus between protracted humanitarian crises and development settings presents unique challenges for providing GBV response services. The side event aims to 1) Highlight the specific approaches that can be used in humanitarian-development nexus contexts and the respective challenges and opportunities; 2) Foster dialogue among stakeholders to strengthen GBV response services across the nexus, and 3) Showcase promising practices and innovative approaches to GBV response across the nexus.

The side event will include a panel discussion featuring experts from different organizations and a moderated Q&A session with the audience.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women
Venue: Hall 7

Description: The purpose of this side event at SVRI Forum 2024, is to bring to the forum the vital concept of organizational resilience, particularly via CSOs and WROs that are at the forefront of the battle to end violence against women and girls (VAW/G). In an era marked by intersecting global crises, this event aims to reflect on the practical knowledge surrounding the capacity of these organizations to not only endure, but to adapt and thrive. This event, hosted by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, seeks to a) present the findings of a first-of-its-kind global dialogue on organizational resilience in multiple languages on the definition and key characteristics of the concept, and b) bring together donors, policymakers, practitioners and researchers in the EVAW/G community, around the nine key recommendations from the study that serve as a call to action to invest in the organizational resilience of WROs / CSOs.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here

Hosted by: NUMUN Fund, Breakthrough, MenEngage Alliance and SVRI
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description:  An intentional open space to talk about narrative pieces of online space: what’s happening, what different forces are boosting it, what do we do? One of the focus areas of interrogation would be the urgent need to develop more robust analysis of and responses to digital sexual and gender-based violence and men’s involvement in the manosphere, including strategies for building alternative online spaces for young men in particular, which can support them in rejecting the misogynistic messaging that surrounds them online. The objective is to strengthen understanding of the technological contexts in which gender transformative work with men and boys is operating, and the challenges and opportunities created by technological change.

Invite only event.

Hosted by: London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Venue: Hall 8.1

Description: During this workshop, we will share findings and recommendations from a research study conducted by the Gender Violence and Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Our study, conducted between 2023 and 2024, involved a scoping review of the literature, as well as interviews and focus group discussions with over 70 individuals from different regions in the world engaged in research, programming, funding, and advocacy on violence against women and girls. The aim was to explore perceptions and experiences of colonisation and decolonisation within the field.  We will present our initial findings and recommendations and invite your feedback and insights on how these resonate with your own experiences. Your input will be invaluable in refining our understanding and recommendations.
Breakfast will be provided.

We have limited space for participants, so sign up now and we will let you know if your attendance is confirmed. Register to attend here.

Hosted by: UN Women
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: This participant-driven event will provide an opportunity to showcase a number of interventions implemented by UN Women and its partners to transform unequal gender norms to prevent violence against women and reach better HIV outcomes for both women and men. The event will bring together a multi-sectoral panel comprising of policy-makers, community leaders, young women, women living with HIV and programme managers.

Open to SVRI Forum Delegates. Register to attend here.

Hosted by: InterAction, ICRC, Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
Venue: Nerina/Protea

Description: In 2021, InterAction and 12 international organizations launched a new GBV Prevention Evaluation Framework (GBV PEF) with the intent of helping humanitarians better analyze, design, monitor, and evaluate GBV prevention outcomes. The GBV PEF introduces new outcome-oriented M&E methodologies for measuring GBV prevention. Currently, the GBV PEF is being used by at least 27 local and international organizations across 12 contexts including Colombia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar, Somalia, and South Sudan, among others. This discussion will showcase several of the methods within the GBV PEF but then turn to the individuals of organizations, including local organizations, to discuss how they have operationalized the use of the GBV PEF in a variety of contexts. Join us for this interactive lunch session to learn more about the GBV PEF and how you can use it within your organization’s programs. Space is limited.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Freedom Fund and Innovations for Poverty Actions (IPA)
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: Randomised control trials (RCTs) are often hailed as the “gold standard” for examining the causal impact of programs. When properly designed and conducted, RCTs can credibly estimate a program’s impact. However, not every question can be answered using an RCT; it is just one of several tools available to estimate and understand a program’s impact.

Join The Freedom Fund, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and other leading researchers and funders in the anti-human trafficking movement for a debate on this topic. The event will examine RCTs used to reduce violence against children and women in Brazil, Haiti, and Uganda. Through interactive and candid discussions, we will explore the suitability of RCTs for evaluating complex interventions and consider alternative experimental and quasi-experimental methods. Join us for this important conversation to broaden the range of methods for measuring transformative social change and help advance the field of anti-violence research.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: UNICEF
Venue: Daisy/Freesia/Orchid

Description: With support from the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, and in partnership with Tsunagu, UNICEF has led a project over the last two years to capture learning on the entry points that have proven most successful in institutionalizing GBV risk mitigation, both within various agencies as well as interagency mechanisms. Emerging from this project are a series of deep dive and thematic case studies as well as a resource package that aims to help practitioners looking to make GBV risk mitigation a more consistent and self-sustaining feature of their organizations’, sectors’ and/or clusters’ work. This session will provide a forum for exchange where UNICEF can share learning and tools from this project and brainstorm together how to take this work forward.

Please note that this is a closed event.

Hosted by: The Womanity Foundation; Center on Gender Equity and Health; University of California, San Diego
Venue: Pincushion

Description: Often, those working on adaptation stay focused on their key partners and projects and are unaware of or disconnected from processes, thought, resources and practice of others also working to adapt violence against women and children prevention programming. This siloed working means we miss out on learning from and sharing with others which could make our adaptation work stronger and propel the body of knowledge and practice for adaptation forward. Community building and collaboration among organizations and funders committed to adaptation is essential to strengthening adaptation efforts. This small, invite-only event hosted by Womanity Foundation and the Center on Gender Equity and Health will bring a curated, diverse group of colleagues working on adaptation together to build relationships, share information and resources, discuss opportunities and challenges and encourage future connection and collaboration.

Please note that this is a closed event.

Hosted by: Oak Foundation
Venue: Hall 8.1

Description: Community-based interventions to prevent child sexual abuse are dynamic strategies that mobilize the entire community to protect children by leveraging local knowledge, resources, and social networks. Families and communities are often the frontline defenders against sexual violence.  However, there is a gap between formal systems and community practices in child protection. Few child sexual abuse (CSA) interventions delve into the root causes within communities or design locally informed, multi-faceted programs that tackle the issue holistically. Even fewer do so with an evidence-based approach, especially in low- and middle-income settings.  This panel discussion brings together leading experts and practitioners from East Africa to explore groundbreaking community-based interventions and the critical role of local communities in preventing CSA.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Community of Practice on Tech-facilitated GBV
Venue: Hall 7

Description: This is an open space for all SVRI attendees working on Tech-Facilitated GBV to connect, exchange ideas and lessons from their work, engage in meaningful conversation about trends and promising strategies, and learn about the SVRI-supported Tech-Facilitated GBV Community of Practice.

Guest speakers from Chayn and SVRI, among others, will kick-start the conversation with insights from collaborations with the tech sector and research priorities for the field.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: UN Women
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the situation in Afghanistan regarding gender equality has significantly deteriorated. More than 70 decrees, directives and statements have been enacted specifically targeting Afghan women’s and girls’ rights since the Taliban’s take over. Their systematic exclusion of women and girls from education, the workforce and systems of governance is destroying a path of progress painstakingly forged over the period 2001 to 2021. During this time, almost all the WPCs (shelters) and other service sites were closed and access to coordinated, comprehensive and quality services for VAWG survivors have been greatly reduced while the need for these essential services has increased. A rapid assessment conducted by UN Women Afghanistan with its partners providing VAWG services after the fall of Kabul showed that, as in every crisis, VAWG has further increased due to the confinement of women to their homes and the impact of the economic and humanitarian crisis. Conventional ways of delivering GBV services and prevention interventions are not feasible. UN Women therefore expanded its EVAW model, taking and a flexible approach programming, for example by redesigning women and family centres to provide essential services that are specifically related to GBV through alternative methods and entry-points. The purpose of this session is to:

1. Elevate the urgent and complex crisis in Afghanistan (and rising VAW/G) across the EVAW/G community -advocating for action across research, policy, programming and funding – including solidarity for Afghan women and girls.
2. Share early insights and lessons learned from UN Women Afghanistan’s experience adapting programming on ending violence against women and girls in Afghanistan – a complex humanitarian context – since late 2021.
3. Hear from workshop participants and discussants on experiences in similar complex contexts and/or with experience in adapting EVAW/G programming, to inform debates at the SVRI Forum.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates. Please register directly by emailing Gaone Irene Ramatala at gaoneirene.ramatala@unwomen.org and Fazal Rahim Monib at fazal.monib@unwomen.org

Hosted by: Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: This event aims to share the results coming from a series of 3 papers funded by UNFPA and led by Equimudo’s team which focus on SRHR, Pornography, and Backlash against feminism.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates. Register to attend here.

Hosted by: IDRC & SVRI
Venue: Daisy/Freesia/Orchid

Description: Gender-based violence (GBV) in higher education institutions (HEIs) is a key driver of the underrepresentation of women in universities. Yet evidence has only recently been emerging on the role of policies and prevention interventions to support behavioural, normative and institutional change in low- and middle-income countries. This event is part of a wider process of establishing a research agenda on GBV in higher education. It will focus on the role of evidence in driving policies and programmes on GBV in HEIs, highlighting knowledge gaps and exploring modalities to support a large-scale research agenda on this topic. The event will include presentations on recent research on GBV in HEIs and a panel discussion with leading scholars, funders and policymakers invested in this area of work. The event will be co-managed and sponsored by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the SVRI.

For more information contact –  julienne@svri.org

Please note that this is a closed event.

Hosted by: Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative, Our Collective Practice
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: This event will highlight the political narratives of girls, women, and queer folks from across the Global South facing state and gender-based violence through the reflections and insights of writers and activists who emerge from these communities and have been engaged in this work for over twenty years. Through interspersed readings and dialogue, we will explore how stories, and the narratives they create, are critical data that should be used to inform and transform policies and programs. We will anchor the discussion in two recent releases, The Garret (on narrative captivity), and the largest oral history collective of girls’ resistance and activism “Stories of Girls Resistance”.

We will also lift up examples of pulling research into compelling nonfiction as an essential strategy for shifting dominant narratives about girls’ and women’s power, and a critical mobilizing tool to build movements.

Featuring readings and dialogue with: D’Lo, Zukiswa Wanner, Nimmi Gowrinathan, and more. And a live performance by Zoe Modiga.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates. Please register here.

Hosted by: NGO Projet Jeune Leader Madagascar, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
Venue: Nerina/Protea

Description: Learn about Projet Jeune Leader’s (PJL) youth-led comprehensive sexuality education programming in Madagascar’s public middle schools.  Since 2013, more than 200,000 very young adolescents have received PJL’s in-school comprehensive sexuality education program.

At this event, you will have the opportunity to contribute your expertise and to support enhancing PJL’s violence prevention efforts. By viewing and commenting on violence intervention ideas generated by PJL students and presented at this gallery walk you will help inform the next phase of PJL programming.  This is part of our SVRI funded project which is based on our belief that PJL’s comprehensive sexuality education can serve as a scalable, school-based prevention intervention for violence in multiple forms. We need your input!  You will also have the opportunity to interact with PJL staff, and University of Pittsburgh gender-based violence experts, who are co-leading this project.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates. Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnbQc_uWeaJizEoUYgbW0u_HEs6B8d8eTXR_IIQnMP0xhEmw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Hosted by: The World Bank and Asian Development Bank
Venue: Hall 7

Description: Multilateral development banks (MDBs) occupy a unique space in the gender-based violence (GBV) field. They differ from bi-lateral donors and aid organizations in that their main business is providing concessionary loans to governments under the overarching mandate of poverty reduction.  As such, MDBs have strong relationships with ministries of finance and various line ministries, and often work at a scale well beyond most aid driven projects.  The World Bank and Asian Development Bank are co-hosting this side event to explore what multilateral development banks have done and can do more to address GBV and mitigating risks of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEA/SH).   The presenters, Diana Arango (World Bank), Manuel Contreras (World Bank) and James Lang (Asian Development Bank) will review the increasing work of these MDBs on addressing GBV from the last decade and propose ways forward for strengthening the roles of these MDBs in the future.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates. Please register to attend here. 

Hosted by: Oak Foundation.

Description: Private Cocktail Event for Oak Grantees.

Please note that this is a closed event. Invitation only.

Hosted by: University of California, San Diego
Venue: Freesia

Description: Join us for an exclusive briefing on ARCHES, a scalable clinic and community-based approach to address gender-based violence (GBV). We’ll review the evidence from ARCHES trials across multiple settings and multiple global regions demonstrating the effectiveness of the model in reducing intimate partner violence (IPV) and supporting women’s reproductive agency and then discuss potential next steps for expansion and implementation at scale.

Invitation only.

Hosted by: Urgent Action Fund-Africa; International Rescue Committee
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: This session aims to cultivate i-depth dialogue and facilitate a robust conversation on the role funding partners play in fostering transformative philanthropy for GBV prevention and response. The discussions we hope to have, and prospective recommendations will hinge on the experiences of bilateral, private philanthropy, feminist funds and INGOs working on resourcing GBV prevention and response. With the latter we hope to reflect the power and potential of well-resourced womn’s rights organisations.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Brands on a Mission
Venue: Protea

Description: Brands on a Mission is excited to host a dynamic two-part side event, dedicated to exploring innovative approaches to tackling GBV, and leveraging technology to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) narratives across Africa. The first session, ‘Harnessing the Power of Multi-Sector Collaboration to Dismantle GBV in South Africa’ will bring together leading private sector companies and multi-sector conveners to examine innovative partnerships and the untapped potential of the private sector in addressing GBV in South Africa. The second session, ‘African Voices: Shaping a New SRHR Narrative through Technology’ will spotlight influential African voices from civil society, the tech industry and influencer and digital media sector, who are leveraging novel technologies and approaches to drive and elevate conversations around sensitive SRHR topics. Together, these sessions will cultivate a platform for exchanging innovative ideas and shaping new pathways for advocacy and multi-sectoral action to advance SRHR across Africa.

Register to attend here. Stay tuned to Brands on a Mission’s LinkedIn for any updates on event access.

Hosted by: CARE
Venue: Daisy

Description: Join us for “Voices for Safety in GBViE and Tech,” a collaborative forum to contribute to the development of inter-agency GBV in Emergencies Digital Minimum Standards. Led by CARE and the global inter-agency GBViE community, this event is open to all– we welcome grassroots advocates, technology developers, and GBV/humanitarian practitioners to discuss best practices, challenges, and opportunities in creating safe digital GBViE tools for women and girls in hard-to-reach areas.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: German Development Cooperation – PfP GBV Prevention Social Innovation Lab with implementing partners Syspons and Reos Partners
Venue: Orchid

Description: “Roots of Resilience: Harnessing Local Wisdom to Innovate GBV Prevention” delves into the critical role of local knowledge and practices in the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV). It highlights the importance of integrating local wisdom and insights with contemporary prevention strategies to build resilience and promote sustainable, context-relevant solutions.

Country teams from Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe showcase prototypes from a year-long Social Innovation Lab on developing local and regional solutions for GBV Prevention in the Digital Space, Diversity and Inclusion, Masculinities and Mainstreaming (including climate).

The prototypes were developed through a participatory approach that advocated for the inclusion of local voices in designing and implementing prevention strategies. This ensures that interventions are culturally sensitive and effective. Ultimately, the approach puts beneficiaries at the center and offers innovative pathways to preventing GBV, ensuring long-term social change

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: UNFPA and UN Women
Venue: Watsonia

Description: Violence against women remains a globally pervasive human rights violation. One in three women worldwide will experience physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of men at some point in their lives, making women and girls the most vulnerable members of society.  It is imperative to ensure the localization of the NSP so that South Africa can truly be free of GBVF. Harnessing the role of the private sector, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), donors, Academia (Researchers), Government including resources and innovation is one the key mechanisms in accelerating the response against GBVF, by cutting across socio-economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.

Purpose of the event: To convene a substantive discussion focusing on innovative ways to bridge the gap between policy and practice in responding to GBVF and the specific role of the private sector, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), donors, Academia (Researchers), Government in this multi-sectoral social responsibility.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Fòs Feminista, Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice and MenEngage Alliance
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: This event will foster a multi-country dialogue aimed at deepening our collective understanding of what it means to work with men and boys on GBV prevention from a feminist approach. This will entail learning how different organisations have applied a feminist approach to the work with men and boys across different rural and urban contexts in Africa and Latin America, engaging in discussions centred on practitioners’ experiences, bringing out the challenges and lessons learnt from navigating deep patriarchal norms and practices. With opportunities to critically reflect, ideate effective strategies and learn from each other to advance gender transformative programming.

The session will be co-led by several partners who are working to promote healthy/non-violent masculinities through a feminist lens and is coordinated by Fòs Feminista, Equimundo and MenEngage. The session will involve poster presentations of the various initiatives, open mic discussions to facilitate learning and experience sharing from the participants.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Global Parenting Initiative, Global Initiative to Support Parents
Venue: Roof Terrace

Description: If we are to protect all children everywhere from abuse and neglect, interventions need to be taken to scale. This is not a straightforward process, and in scaling there is the potential risk of interventions not being as effective. There are many considerations to scaling a intervention, including programme acceptability, readiness assessments of implementing partners, adaptation of tools and materials, and training, coaching, and accreditation of facilitators, coaches, and trainers.

The Global Parenting Initiative (see https://globalparenting.org/), will host a community of practice event titled Scaling Up of (Parenting) Interventions: A Community of Practice Shared Learning event.

This workshop offers a space for implementers of prevention programmes (whether parenting programmes or others) to come together and share experiences, thoughts, and ideas.

Who should attend: Implementing organisations and anyone interested in learning about the scale-up of programmes and sharing their experiences with fellow implementers.

Theme: Programs and practice that work for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect across sectors.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Collective Action to Reduce Gender-Based Violence (CARE-GBV)

Description: Private event for invited guests only.

Hosted by: University of California, San Diego
Venue: Freesia

Description: This participant-driven session will offer participants an opportunity to engage with ARCHES as a solution for addressing GBV and supporting women’s reproductive rights and agency. After a brief review of the evidence, the session will focus on bringing together a diverse group of global stakeholders to collaboratively build an agenda for implementation research and bringing this approach to scale. Sonia Rastogi, Senior Program Officer for Gender Integration at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will moderate the discussion.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: The Women Engaged Against Violence Everywhere (WEAVE) Collective
Venue: The Cullinan Hotel

Description: Join us for inspiring stories from researchers and activists from Australia, India, South Africa and Nicaragua who will draw on their country case studies to explore how feminist movements have contributed to ending violence against women and girls at a local and national level. Selected speakers from Australia, India, South Africa and Nicaragua will discuss different aspects of their country experiences that has shaped violence against women policy and highlight current challenges. Join us for the launch of the South Africa country report followed by a networking lunch.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Urgent Action Fund-Africa
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: In the wake of heightened crises across the continent, this roundtable discussion will be unpacking healing as a framework for liberation from, and transformation of, structures that perpetuate violence against women. The dialogue cultivated from this roundtable will also speak to the resistance strategies WHR and feminist activists across Africa employ to mobilize and organize against various forms of GBV. Our aim is, thus, to answer the layered question:

• Why and how can we center healing in our movement spaces as we fight to eradicate structures of harm?

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Asian Network of Women’s Shelters, The Garden of Hope Foundation
Venue: Protea

Description: Join us for an insightful exploration of emerging trends in the field of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), ranging from technology-driven abuse to cultural shifts, such as GBV affecting men, the elderly, gender-diverse groups, new management skills of shelters, and other urgent topics across Asia. During this session, we will examine both challenges and effective practices to tackle new forms of GBV in the region. Anticipate engaging discussions with practitioners from the GBV fields, particularly those working within shelters or advocating for resources and policy reform across Asia.

This event is co-organized by the Asian Network of Women’s Shelters (ANWS) and The Garden of Hope Foundation (GOH). ANWS, serves as a regional network under the Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS), founded in 2012 to unite, promote, and strengthen the women’s shelter movement in Asia to end all forms of gender-based violence. GOH functions as the secretariat of ANWS and holds the position of Executive Board Member of GNWS.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Spotlight Initiative to End Violence Against Women and Girls
Venue: Hall 8.2

Description: Open to all delegates, this panellist event will bring to life the Spotlight Initiative Compendium of Innovative and Good Practices and Lessons Learned. Presenting the learning and impact generated by the implementation of Spotlight Initiative, the United Nations High-Impact Initiative to end violence against women and girls, the Compendium equips policymakers and practitioners with knowledge and evidence on programming to end VAWG that is innovative, high-impact, sustainable and localized. This event will bring together rights holders and stakeholders whose work and stories are highlighted within the Compendium to draw out and interrogate lessons in service of the broader EVAWG ecosystem.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: Urgent Action Fund-Africa
Venue: Hall 8.3

Description: This session will surface the different intersecting forms of violence facing WHRDs in the focus countries covered by our Womn’s Human Rights Defenders Registry. Although the registry collects data on the threats, risks and violations faced by African WHRDs in Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Burkina Faso and South Africa, the dialogue will not be exclusionary; instead, it will broadly engage the context of Africa as a whole.  Our aim is to answer the questions:

1. How do various forms of crises manifest as violence in different contexts
2. How are WHRDs resisting violence?
3. How can we center healing and collective care in our response to violence?

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: South Sudan Ministry of Health and UNICEF
Venue: Orchid

Description: The South Sudan Ministry of Health, UNICEF and other partners will discuss recent developments – both programmatic and research-focused – around the intersections of gender-based violence and nutrition. The event will showcase emerging practices in GBV/Nutrition programming from multiple humanitarian contexts, share findings from an operational study on GBV and nutrition in South Sudan, preview upcoming multi-country research, and introduce new technical guidance.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: National Association of Community Health Workers, Health Resources in Action
Venue: Daisy

Description: In the U.S., Community Health Workers are a predominately female, low-income frontline public health workforce. CHWs have lived experience as survivors of multiple forms of violence and professional experience and roles as service providers to prevent, intervene in, and heal the impacts of structural, community-level, and interpersonal violence.

The National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) invites you to this session. Objectives include:

• Understanding the role, capacity, and leadership of CHWs in the United States as service providers to prevent and address multiple forms of violence (gender-based workplace and community violence and harassment, interpersonal and domestic violence, sexual violence)
• Exploring data, policies and case examples that promote the roles of CHWs to prevent and address multiple forms of violence based on evidence-based research.
• Discuss diverse national contexts with other participants that can mediate or moderate the implementation of CHWs’ professional roles to implement these evidence-based policies and practices.

Open to SVRI Forum 2024 Delegates: Please register to attend here.

Hosted by: UN Women
Venue: Watsonia

Description: A closed meeting of Leaders and Commitment Makers of the Action Coalition on Gender-based violence to facilitate networking; strategizing and planning for the next two years

Hosted by: The Accelerator for GBV Prevention, Raising Voices, SVRI and the Prevention Collaborative

Venue: Freesia

The Accelerator for GBV Prevention, Raising Voices, SVRI and the Prevention Collaborative warmly invite you to participate in a dynamic discussion about collectively building and advancing the field of GBV prevention. As the week at the SVRI Forum will show us, the work of GBV prevention is inspiring and impressive, and yet remains fairly siloed. In this session, activists, researchers, funders and practitioners will explore strategies for building a stronger field, connecting more regularly together, and harnessing our energy and power to create more momentum for GBV prevention. Come end your week in Cape Town on a high note with actionable ideas and ways to stay engaged the global movement to prevent GBV. And we’ll have delicious snacks, sodas and wine too!

Register here.