Strengthening Violence Prevention

A focus on primary prevention means tackling VAWG before it arises through eliminating the conditions that engender violence. This means changing the underlying social conditions that produce, condone, justify, excuse, and even promote violence. This involves a gender transformative approach that tackles the harmful norms, practices, ideologies, systems, and structures that drive and perpetuate VAWG and gender inequity.

The gendered drivers of VAWG include negative gender stereotyping and rigid gender roles, male control over decision-making, limits on women’s independence in the public and private spheres, condoning VAWG, and cultures of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control (see OurWatch).