Wits School of Public Health awarded Innovation Grant from DFID-funded global research and innovation programme

Sonke Gender Justice welcomes the news that we and our partner, the Wits School of Public Health, have just been awarded one of the Innovation Grants from the DFID*-funded “What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls” global research and innovation programme.

The programme will support 18 projects, in 16 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and hopes to reach over 5.3 million people.

These 18 projects will work with women, men, communities and governments, to build an environment where women are valued and treated as equals, and where all people reject the use of violence, in order to prevent violence against women and girls from occurring.

Through the project “Refinement and testing of a multi-level intervention for preventing men’s use of violence in urban South Africa,” Sonke’s gender-transformative “One Man Can (OMC)” campaign, which engages men and boys to challenge traditional models of manhood, will be tested and enhanced using a cluster randomised controlled trial design in Diepsloot, Johannesburg.

“The project will deepen the field by building Southern African capacity to conduct rigorous formative and evaluation research,” says one of Sonke’s directors, Angelica Pino, “and will deliver a multi-level anti-violence against women and girls (VAWG) model.”

A total of ten innovation grantees (and eight research grantees) were selected from an initial pool of over 800 pre-applications.

*The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty. They’re “ending the need for aid by creating jobs, unlocking the potential of girls and women and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit.”

Contact

Read more