EA - What you can do to help stop violence against women and girls by Akhil

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: What you can do to help stop violence against women and girls, published by Akhil on January 12, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.IntroductionI previously wrote an entry for the Open Philanthropy Cause Exploration Prize on why preventing violence against women and girls is a global priority. For an introduction to the area, I have written a brief summary below. In this post, I will extend that work, diving deeper into the literature and the landscape of organisations in the field, as well as creating a cost-effectiveness model for some of the most promising preventative interventions. Based on this, I will offer some concrete recommendations that different stakeholders should take - from individuals looking to donate, to funders, to charity evaluators and incubators.The key recommendations I make, in order of importance, are:Support community-based interventions that seek to shift harmful gender norms and reduce violence- they have a high quality of evidence, and cost $180/DALY (disability adjusted life years) or $150 for a woman to live a year free from violence. Two particularly promising organisations are CEDOVIP and Raising Voices.Fund and conduct a well-designed randomised control trial of radio or television dramas to shift harmful gender norms and reduce violence- they have a startling cost-effectiveness of $13/DALY or $11 for a woman to live a year free from violence, but currently lacks a well-established evidence base.Fund organisations undertaking economic programs supporting women (e.g. microfinancing, cash transfers, village savings and loans association) to add on social empowerment programs focused on reducing violence; they have a cost-effectiveness of $180/DALY, or $145 for a woman to live a year free from violence.Found new charities focused on community-based interventions that seek to shift harmful gender norms and reduce violence, particularly in neglected geographies and populationsConsider supporting self-defence training programs - although analysis suggests that self-defence training may not be as cost-effective as other interventions for VAWG, it is nevertheless a relatively cost-effective (at $260/DALY or $215 for a woman to live a year free from violence) and potentially scalable intervention. No Means No Worldwide and Ujamaa appear to be two organisations scaling this intervention well.Fund academic research to understand what types of culture change programs targeting boys and men are most effective at reducing violence against women and girlsYou can find a 2 page summary of my initial post and this post hereWhy VAWG is an important cause areaNearly one third of women and girls aged 15 years of age or older have experienced either physical or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) or non-partner sexual violence globally, with 13% (10–16%) experiencing it in 2018 alone (Sardinha et al 2022). It is one of the leading burdens of disease globally, responsible for 8.5 million DALYs and 68 500 deaths annually.In several countries, violence against women is in the top 3-5 leading causes of death for young women aged between 15 and 29 (Mendoza et al 2018).VAWG has wide-ranging effects on women’s physical, sexual and mental health- in fact, it is responsible for 11% of the DALY burden of depressive disorders and 14% of the DALY burden of HIV in women (IHME 2019)Globally, the rates of VAWG are both alarmingly high and have increased over the last 30 years, despite gains in other areas of women’s health, such as maternal care (Think Global Health).In 2016, the global economic cost of violence against women was estimated by the UN to be US$1.5 trillion, equivalent to approximately 2% of the global GDP (UN Women 2016).Although there are many groups working to stop VAWG, it is fairly neglected relative to the scale of harm that it...