This report is authored by the SVRI.

Report name

Tracking Funding for Research on Violence Against Women in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Who wrote this report?

The SVRI is the world’s largest network on research on violence against women and violence against children in low- and middle-income countries, providing a space where global role players in the field connect with one another, share and promote their research, work to influence policies and improve the lives of those who have experienced gender-based violence. We do this through building evidence, strengthening research capacity, promoting partnerships and influencing change. 

Existing literature on funding for research on VAW shows there are significant challenges and gaps in our current knowledge of the money being invested into such research. The body of literature on VAW has undoubtedly increased exponentially over the last three decades but information at a global level on the funding streams, amounts, focus and recipients of funding for research on VAW in LMICs is extremely limited. There is very little information readily available to map what kind of research on VAW is funded, how decisions are made about funding priorities and whether there is an equitable distribution of funding. This report seeks to map and understand the current streams and gaps in funding, highlighting the inequitable distribution of resources to develop and promote an effective strategy that will ultimately provide ethical, sufficient, and sustainable funding for research on VAW that benefits LMICs.

Best quote

Research proposals are tailored to the fund itself, and I think this is a major drawback. Funders have a certain agenda and they want the research to fulfil that agenda when it should be more tailored to the needs of the country or the needs of the people you want to help.

– Key Informant Interview

Key takeaways:

  • An estimated 76,962,249 USD was disbursed to research on VAW in 2019 or just 0.05% of total ODA. The VAW space is under-funded, with research being especially underfunded with marginal allocations to VAW research by international and domestic philanthropy. Funding for VAW research comes mainly from HICs and from a small number of donors. Very little funding flows from national governments and even where governments were putting money into research on VAW, these contributions were found to be mostly insignificant and ad hoc in the sense of not being linked to an overall plan for research on VAW.
  • Funders surveyed suggested that the key recipients of their funding towards research on VAW span a wide range of organisation types, with the most common being: national women's rights organisations, national NGOs, national research institutions, academic institutions in LMICs, and international NGOs. Most key informants surveyed indicated that they mostly fund or receive funding for research on approaches to preventing VAW.
  • Key challenges identified were the difficulties involved with conducting research in conflict, post conflict or severely economically unstable settings, the tendency for funders to dictate research priorities and the necessity of conducting ongoing research in the face of pressing immediate issues that arguably require service delivery and on-the-ground interventions- all of which emphasise the need for advocacy resources such as this report.

What’s in this report?

The report includes an overview of the funding flows for research in the field of VAW in LMICs, from key donors in the field, utilising a multi-pronged methodological approach, including both quantitative and qualitative research methods, to map and analyse the key funding sources.

It also identifies the key areas for which research donors and national governments in LMICs are providing funding and proposes possible strategies to improve access to funding for research on VAW in LMICs through partnerships and cooperation between donors, governments, researchers, and practitioners.

Four in-depth country case studies are also included wherein analysis of investments by donors and national governments into research on VAW were tracked, with a focus on who receives funding and what type of projects are prioritised. In addition to the document analysis, the report contains insights from in-depth interviews that were conducted with key organisations and individuals working within the VAW landscape in the case study countries, including: key staff from international, regional and national civil society organisations; government funded research entities; donors; and academic institutions.

Why should you read this report?

Research devoted to understanding, preventing and responding to VAW is critical to ensuring that interventions reflect a nuanced, contextual, evidence-based approach. The funding dedicated to such research is critical, indicating issue-prioritisation and also crucially capacitating actors in the field to produce tangible interventions and programmes that sustainably and measurably protect, empower and assist women and reduce VAW in our societies. It is therefore important to map and analyse the status of funding for research on VAW.

The funding ecosystem needs an overhaul with much more funding invested in learning what works and what doesn't, guided by research priorities using participatory methods, conducted in LMICS by LMIC researchers. The field must make a better case for investment into research and include funding for the dissemination of research and initiatives pertaining to its up-take. The report can contribute to effective advocacy on funding gaps in the field; inequitable access to funding for researchers in LMICs; donor accountability; grantee-donor relationships; the policy prioritisation of VAW; and the use and need for research as an effective mechanism to address VAW. Ultimately, the aim is for the study to contribute to the development of sound, independent and actionable research agendas led by researchers, activists, programme implementers and policymakers in LMICs.

Who is this report for?

The report is aimed at a wide cross section of stakeholders–researchers, activists, programme implementers as well as funders and policymakers in LMICs.

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