Kore Global’s 16 days blog series

Part 2 - How social impact innovators can better address violence against women and girls: practical insights on measurement

In November 2021, Kore Global undertook a review for Grand Challenges Canada, to help them improve impact measurement for their portfolio of innovations that aim to tackle VAWG. We created a broad theory of change to identify change pathways related to prevention and response of VAWG, developed based on a review of existing ToCs from a range of other organisations. We developed guidance on how to measure VAWG related changes along each pathway, with a focus on quantitative measurement approaches. And we provided guidance on how to plan, conduct and oversee safe and ethical collection of data on VAWG. 

This blog is part 2 of a 3-part blog series on how social impact innovators can better address VAWG. In each blog, we will share practical insights for impact investors and social impact enterprises that have emerged from a review of evidence on how to address VAWG and measure progress safely and effectively. Part 2, on measuring change, highlights 2 risks and measurement tools for each of the 4 change pathways described in our first blog.

Innovators who seek to measure change related to prevention of VAWG should focus on measuring changes in women’s and girls’ agency, men’s and boys’ attitudes and behaviours, community attitudes and norms, and the use and quality of services. It is unlikely that they can ethically collect data on prevalence of violence. 

There are two risks associated with measuring prevalence. 

Risk 1: Collecting prevalence data on VAWG – and in fact any data collection with survivors - requires expert skills. Specialist training and specific protocols are required. In the absence of these, use of any measurement tools, including those outlined below can risk retraumatizing participants and can cause further harm. As an alternative, it is often more appropriate to consider measuring other forms of short and medium-term outcome level changes, as described above. 

Risk 2: Using prevalence data can be problematic. Datasets that are generated by measures of the experience and perpetration of violence both suffer from severe underreporting. This can make interpretation of the data very difficult, particularly if measures are being used to track change over time. For example, data which shows an increase in women experiencing violent behaviours may reflect an actual increase violence. However, the same data may actually be indicating that women are feeling better able to acknowledge and speak about the violence they have experienced. Nonetheless, secondary data from long term studies (such as the DHS) can be useful for long term trend analysis. 

There are a number of good quantitative data collection tools that can be used to measure short and medium-term changes along the four different impact pathways. Here are a few we would like to highlight.

Women’s agency: Northwestern University, QualAnalytics and Harvard University have developed a short five-question validated survey module for women’s agency. The survey instrument was developed for use with married mothers in Northern India and although context-specific, could have broader application elsewhere, particularly with some tailoring. 

Men’s attitudes and behaviours: A measurement tool which is designed to capture gender equitable attitudes more broadly (including gendered roles and responsibilities) is the Gender Equitable Men (GEM) Scale. The GEM Scale was developed by the Population Council/Horizons and Instituto Promundo through qualitative research with men in Brazil . Testing then led to the identification of a scale which could be used to identify the extent to which men agreed or disagreed with these beliefs. 

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Instituto Promundo drew on the GEM scale to develop a measurement tool, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES). This is an extensive household survey which captures a broad range of information on men’s attitudes and practices in relation to gender equality, as well as women’s perspectives on these. Like the GEM tool, the IMAGES survey has been adapted and used in a range of contexts.

Community attitudes and norms: Some measurement tools focus specifically on attitudes towards sexual violence and the extent to which victims and survivors are blamed for the violence they experience. The most well established and tested of these is the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA). This tool includes a list of statements which aim to understand people’s attitudes towards rape, with a focus on understanding foundational beliefs.

Care Sri Lanka has developed, piloted and used a survey to capture change in relation to the ReNEW Project (Redefining Norms to Empower Women). This measurement tool was designed to measure shifts in gender-equal norms relating to masculinity and IPV among communities in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations. Importantly, the tool can be used not only to capture a ‘snapshot’ of norms at a particular moment in time, but to track the strength of influence these norms have over time.

Use and quality of services: The DHS Domestic Violence Module and the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence both include survey questions which seek to generate data on help-seeking behaviours among survivors. Beyond reporting and access to services, measurement tools can also be used to capture how effective and safe services are in terms of how they handle and follow up with reports. Here, measures can focus on survivors’ own perspectives in terms of their satisfaction with the quality and safety of VAW services. However, these types of measures can be affected by some of the same challenges as those which capture prevalence data and require the use of researchers with specialist skills in the same way.

An alternative is to collect data from service providers, seeking their views on the support they are providing, both in terms of reach and effectiveness. The Ontario Violence Against Women Service Provider Survey is designed to capture the perceived impact of a range of different services and the challenges they face in meeting the needs of a diverse range of survivors. The survey tool has been used to identify gaps in services and the effectiveness of coordination between services in terms of meeting survivors’ needs.

Watch out for our next blog, which we will release tomorrow, that focuses on how to measure changes in VAWG in a safe and ethical way.