Two decades ago, when I started working on the issue of gender-based violence, there was a lot of focus on advocacy, building collectives and networks and getting the right legislations in place was at the heart of our work. I remember initially all of us struggling to understand and acknowledge what is violence against women and its myriad manifestations in the lives of girls and women and connecting to our lived experiences.  Also looking for evidence and data to prove that domestic violence was a critical issue which needed to be addressed, was so important. The costs of violence against women to the development of a country and society was also being studied with seriousness.

Amartya Sen’s seminal work on the phenomena of the Missing women of South Asia supported a six-year South Asia campaign, called WECAN, to end all violence against women. During this period, the campaign not only moved away from response and redress to prevention and awareness raising at scale, it also, in the process worked with key donors and built knowledge on what will work to end violence against women and girls. It did this by testing different ideas at the community and institutional level.

Decades later it is reassuring to observe that gender-based violence is a huge priority for all major philanthropists, UN agencies and many governments.  We no longer need to prove its existence statistically and find evidence or ways to measure it. However, gaps remain in our learning and evidence on what works and what can be scaled up. This needs both investment and inquiry towards community-based solutions which will lead to the creation of societies with zero tolerance for any form of violence against women and girls. 

The shifts have also been on more targeted interventions and the focus in the last decade on adolescent girls who are more vulnerable to child, early and forced marriage and sexual violence both inside and outside their homes. Engaging with men and boys and moving out of gender binaries has become a key part of the discourse on ending gender-based violence. One major learning has been that it is critical to work on gender-based violence across different sectors and institutions while at the same time building on the progress made in families and communities. Stand-alone programs seem to be no longer relevant, and the future is leading us addressing gender-based violence in disparate sectors, institutions and look at the issue on  a continuum. The Covid pandemic created significant challenges for women and girls and exacerbated the violence and discrimination they were facing.

It is time to address some of these pertinent issues like learning loss, digital divide, and loss of employment opportunities in addition to the closure or directing of resources from women, girls, and other vulnerable people to covid response. Working closely with the government and its line departments is the need of the hour and there are conversations with government officials on addressing gender-based violence in their work which is a huge and welcome shift. Needless to add that this will require a considered and long-term collaboration before actual change starts to happen but this is an investment worth making!

We need a conscious shift from the approach of using a band-aid where surgery is required. Fundamental questions need to be raised regarding power, privilege and patriarchy. The philanthropic community needs to finance and persevere with efforts towards a change in social relations, while acknowledging that this is a slow and complex process.  However, it is an investment worth making along with responding to the immediate practical needs of women without which they are vulnerable to violence. This includes toilets, access to potable water, income opportunities and safe schools. To end violence against women and girls, there are no quick fixes, we in the philanthropic community need to work together across sectors at different levels following a life cycle approach and be prepared for a bumpy road!