The World Bank Group and Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) has awarded funding to the International Center for Research on Women, for an innovative project to stem gender-based cyber violence (GBCV). ICRW identified cyber violence against women as a growing and untreated phenomenon.
The Ugandan team called cyber violence against women, a pressing public health and human rights issue that compromises the safety and well-being of women, girls, men, and boys was one of the winners, according to an April18, 2017 statement from the World Bank.
The winning team hopes to develop a standard set of measures that can be used to study cyber violence against females across settings and populations.
The Ugandan team is one of 10 teams from around the world awarded competitive funds totalling US$1.14 million for innovations to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV).
An expert panel reviewed more than 200 proposals submitted to the Bank Group and SVRI following an open call in July 2016 for innovations to prevent GBV in low- and middle-income countries. Winning teams, which received up to US$150,000 (about Shs541.7m) each, were chosen based on overall merit, research or project design and methods, significance, team expertise, and ethical considerations
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Beyond the devastating personal costs, gender-based violence inflicts a steep economic toll: estimates of resulting lost productivity run as high as 3.7 percent in some economies.
The Development Marketplace Awards aim to help individuals, communities, and nations stamp out GBV. The idea for the awards, which first launched one year ago, honours GBV victims and survivors around the world, and is in memory of Hannah Graham, daughter of a long time World Bank employee.
The winners of this year’s awards range from efforts to reduce inter-partner violence among refugees in Ethiopia to community approaches to prevent gender-based violence in the Amazon of Peru.
“Gender-based violence thrives on secrecy and indifference with devastating consequences,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.
“We cannot stand by while so many women suffer harm that’s completely preventable. Through this competition we hope to shine a spotlight on gender-based violence and inspire innovative solutions. It is my honour to congratulate and thank the 2017 Development Marketplace winners for taking action to end GBV.”
“The efforts funded by this award will produce evidence which will enable policy makers to design effective policies and programs to prevent and respond to gender-based violence thus contributing to a world in which women and children are free of violence and able to reach their full potential,” said Alessandra Guedes, SVRI co-chair and Regional Advisor for Family Violence at the Pan-American health Organization/WHO. “
