Understanding and addressing gender-based violence

ActionAid works to end gender based violence and protect women's rights. Our policy and research enables us to make recommendations for change to ensure gender equality and women's empowerment.

Why we work on gender-based violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a systemic form of oppression that affects individuals across the gender spectrum, with particularly severe impacts on women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people.

Our focus on GBV acknowledges that violence is not only intimate partner, domestic, physical, and psychological violence, but also a manifestation of deeply rooted power structures that perpetuate harm through social, economic, political, and cultural systems. This includes violence in digital spaces as per the gig economy, and austerity as violence when reducing public services.

GBV disproportionately impacts women and girls who face multiple, intersecting forms of oppression which is why we work within an intersectional feminist framework to recognise people’s multiple and overlapping identities that either make them more likely to be affected by violence, or amplify its long-term impact.

This includes, but is not limited to:

Trans women, particularly trans women of colour who face some of the highest rates of violence globally.
Indigenous women and girls experience heightened vulnerability due to colonial legacies and ongoing systemic discrimination.
LGBTQ+ individuals encounter targeted violence stemming from heteronormative and patriarchal power structures.
Women with disabilities navigate multiple barriers to support and face increased risk of abuse.

Women from the Global South confront violence shaped by colonial histories and ongoing economic exploitation.

Moreover, migrant and refugee women must navigate complex systems that often increase their exposure to violence, whilst women in poverty face additional barriers to escaping violent situations due to economic dependence.

Understanding GBV through an intersectional lens allows us to address not only individual instances of violence but also the broader and intersecting systems that normalise and perpetuate harm across communities and generations.

Our position on gender-based violence

We approach GBV through an intersectional feminist and decolonial framework that recognises:

Structural nature of violence

Violence is embedded in and perpetuated through interconnected systems of power.

These encompass patriarchal structures that normalise gender hierarchies, colonial systems that continue to impact Indigenous communities, and economic structures that create and maintain dependency.

Legal and policy frameworks frequently fail to protect marginalised individuals, whilst cultural institutions reinforce gender-based oppression, healthcare and other public service systems routinely discriminate against women, girls, trans and gender-diverse people, creating additional barriers to safety and wellbeing.

GBV is a cross-cutting issue, and we cannot work separately on women’s economic justice, climate change and women and girls’ rights.

Intersectional feminist analysis

We recognise that experiences of violence are shaped by multiple, overlapping systems of oppression.

Gender-based violence cannot be separated from racial justice and class exploitation, both which intensify vulnerability to violence.

Ableism creates additional barriers for individuals with disabilities, whilst immigration status affects access to protection and support.

Religious discrimination compounds risks for minority faith communities, and homophobia and transphobia create specific forms of vulnerability that must be understood and addressed.

Community-led solutions

Our approach centres the leadership and expertise of those most impacted by violence.

We support grassroots feminist, women and girls’ organisations and amplify indigenous women's resistance strategies.

Through funding initiatives led by and for marginalised communities, we help build solidarity across different justice movements.

Our work promotes collective healing and community care, recognising that sustainable change must emerge from affected communities themselves.

Systemic change

We work toward transformation at multiple levels, challenging economic systems that create dependency and transforming legal frameworks to protect all gender identities.

Our efforts support alternative models of community safety and promote inclusive healthcare access.

By building collective power for political change, we address both immediate needs and long-term structural transformation.

Decolonial practice

Our work actively challenges colonial power structures by centring indigenous knowledge and healing practices.

We support Global South feminist movements and address economic exploitation and resource extraction.

By challenging western-centric approaches to gender and building transnational solidarity networks, we contribute to a more equitable and just world.

We work to create a world where all women, girls, and people regardless of gender identity or expression, can live free from violence and oppression.

This requires sustained commitment to addressing both immediate manifestations of violence and their root causes, whilst building alternative systems based on principles of justice, collective care, and liberation.

Read our latest reports

Falling through the cracks
Tackling the justice deficit for women survivors in Ghana.

The Justice deficit for women in Jordan
A case study of violence and harassment in the workplace.

Promises to keep
A five point plan for achieving the SDG target on VAWG.

Double Jeopardy
Violence against women and economic inequality.

See all ActionAid's policy reports

What are our findings on violence and women's rights?

An analysis of VAWG prevalence in 70 developing countries, commissioned by ActionAid, found that the more gender equal a country is, as defined by the Gender Inequality Index (GII), the lower the prevalence of violence against women.

An ActionAid survey of 47 women’s rights activists worldwide found that almost two thirds (62%) reported feeling less safe over the past two years. Of the respondents who said they felt about the same or safer, over half (56%) still reported cases or harassment or fear of harassment.

In poor countries, women in precarious forms of work are more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those in secure work.

Our recommendations to tackle violence against women and girls

The international community and governments should upscale their support and resourcing for women’s collective action.
Governments should ensure that the elimination of VAWG in private and public spaces is top-level and immediate government business, fulfilling rafts of international commitments made over several decade.
Corporate actors must also be accountable for their part in ending VAWG – inside and outside of the workplace.

Progress on VAWG

Funding for grassroots organisation tackling VAWG

In 2016, the UK government announced a £6 million fund for small and grassroots organisations fighting violence against women and girls. This was partly a response to campaigning and lobbying by civil society, including under the banner of ActionAid’s Fearless campaign.

Grassroots women's organisations working to end VAWG

Having suffered years of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, Tiwonge, a 40-year-old farmer, found the courage to say enough is enough.

After receiving information and training in human rights from ActionAid, she realised she was a victim of violence and decided to fight for her own rights and also help other women suffering in silence.

“I was asked to chair a meeting of a women’s group," she explains. "I was all dressed up in my best clothes ready to leave when my husband came home and beat me up. So I got to the meeting very late. I looked a total mess, my face was bleeding."

“If my own rights weren’t protected, how could I stand there and chair a meeting about protecting other women?" she realised.

Tiwonge is currently the Executive Director of Chikulamayembe Women’s Forum, one of ActionAid's partners in Malawi, and has worked on over 300 domestic violence cases, helping women recover, speak out, and seek justice.

Our policy work emphasises the vital role that women’s rights organisations like Tiwonge's play in ending violence against women, and calls on governments to increase financial support for their life-saving work.