World Bank Makes 10 Grants for Preventing Gender Based Violence

With gender-based violence still a major barrier to women’s equality and empowerment, funders are starting to put more money toward prevention internationally.

The World Bank recently announced 10 new grants to prevent gender-based violence worldwide.

The World Bank Group recently announced, in partnership with the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), ten awards of up to $150,000 each to organizations who will prevent and respond to gender-based violence worldwide. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, in announcing the grants, said another $3.5 million will also be invested in the cause of ending physical and sexual violence against women. 

An estimated 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, a staggering statistic that speaks to the pervasiveness of the problem. “Gender-based violence thrives on secrecy and indifference with devastating consequences,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said upon announcing the grants. “We cannot stand by while so many women suffer harm that’s completely preventable.”

In 2015, the World Bank Group created an agenda for gender equality, in concert with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which were centered around gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. The World Bank Group sees gender equality as closely tied to its own goals of ending extreme poverty.

The grants will go to organizations in a wide range of countries including Peru, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. These grants were chosen from over 200 proposals to an open call made in July of 2016.

SVRI started making global grants to address gender-based violence in 2014, when it awarded $1 million to 9 projects in 7 countries. These grants are helping to identify effective programs and policies that will reduce gender-based violence and provide models for others to learn from.

SVRI uses a number of strategies to address gender-based violence including hosting an international Forum every two years, which helps to  to advance and disseminate research on sexual and intimate partner violence globally.

The World Bank Group and its partners, through the Development Marketplace platform, has awarded more than US$65 million in funding to more than 1,200 social enterprises. 

Here are the 2017 Winners:

  • Sexual Harassment Among Jordanian College Students: Pilot Testing a Promising Primary Prevention Intervention (Jordan, Middle East/ NorthAfrica) Team: Information and Research Center – King Hussein Foundation and Emory University
  • Gender Equity Model – Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment and Fighting Gender-Based Violence (Egypt, Middle East/North Africa) Team: The American University of Cairo
  • Gender-based Violence Prevention in the Amazon of Peru Project (Peru, Latin America) Team: University College London; and, DB Peru
  • Building the Evidence Base for ‘Safe Families’ – a Comprehensive Community-led model for Violence Prevention in Solomon Islands. (Solomon Islands, East Asia)  Team: The Equality Institute; Oxfam Solomon Islands; Oxfam Australia
  • Combatting Sexual Violence in Kyrgyzstan through Innovative Education and Information Technology (Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia) Team: American University of Central Asia (AUCA)
  • Building Research Capacity and Data Use for Gender-Based Violence prevention and Response in Adolescents/Young Adults (Nigeria, Africa) Team: Together for Girls
  • Mapping for Policy (Pakistan, South Asia) Team: The Urban Institute and, Information Technology University Data Science Lab in Pakistan
  • Building the Evidence to Understand and Prevent Campus Sexual Assault in Swaziland (Swaziland, Africa) Team: University of Swaziland and The Regents of the University of California, San Diego
  • Development of Standard Measures to Support Gender-Based Cyber Violence (GBCV) Prevention (Uganda, Africa) Team: International Center for Research for Women
  • Piloting a Customizable, User-Designed Information and Communication Technology-based Approach to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence among Refugees (Dollo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia, Africa) Team: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and, Addis Ababa University School of Public Health

Author: Kiersten Marek

Kiersten Marek, LICSW, is the founder of Philanthropy Women. She practices clinical social work and writes about how women donors and their allies are advancing social change.

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