Objective: The field of violence against women and girls (VAWG) prevention research has rapidly advanced, with ample evidence now demonstrating that VAWG is preventable. The aim of this systematic review of reviews is to update the evidence that underpins the RESPECT women framework with the newest available evidence from 2013 onward.
Methods: Academic and non-academic databases were searched using terms related to VAWG prevention (January 2013-April 2022).
Introduction: Violence against women (VAW) during the COVID-19 pandemic was described as the 'shadow pandemic' with an increase in reports of VAW. As countries now focus on becoming more resilient to future pandemics, it is critical to understand what we learnt about evidence on VAW burden, prevention, and response during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO commissioned this scoping review to gain an understanding of the research evidence on VAW during COVID-19 and to inform future pandemic preparedness efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEngaging men and boys in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and doing so in a way that challenges harmful masculinities, is both neglected and vital for improving the SRHR of both women and men. To address this gap, WHO commissioned a global research priority setting exercise on masculinities and SRHR. The exercise adapted the quantitative child health and nutrition research initiative priority setting method by combining it with qualitative methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViolence against women (VAW) affects almost 1 in 3 women and can lead to short and long-term adverse health outcomes. The health sector is an important entry point to respond to VAW. Globally, countries have committed to eliminating VAW through the SDGs and WHO Member States have endorsed a Global Plan of Action on Violence, which asks countries to provide comprehensive health services to VAW survivors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper presents methodological reflections from the development of the World Health Organization (WHO) Violence against Women (VAW) Policies Database (hereinafter referred to as 'the Database') to inform future efforts to create similar public health policy databases for government accountability. Using the WHO Global Plan of Action on Violence accountability measures as a starting point, the Database was developed over a 2-year period in consultation with a reference group. A subset of indicators was piloted before finalization of a full list and the structure of the Database.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare providers (HCPs) can support women affected by violence, providing a safe way for women to disclose experiences of violence and mitigating violence against women (VAW) through the identification of cases in routine clinical practice. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with HCPs in three tertiary facilities in Maharashtra, India, who had participated in training using the World Health Organization curriculum, adapted for the Indian context. n = 21 HCPs participated in in-depth interviews and n = 10 nurses participated in two focus group discussions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) is guided by its global programme of work and the goal that a billion more people have universal health coverage (UHC). To achieve UHC, access for those most vulnerable must be guaranteed and prioritized. WHO is committed to developing evidence-based guidance to work towards UHC for trans and gender diverse (TGD) people.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Violence against women [VAW] is an urgent public health issue and health care providers [HCPs] are in a unique position to respond to such violence within a multi-sectoral health system response. In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) published clinical and policy guidelines (henceforth - the Guidelines) for responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women. In this practical implementation report, we describe the adaptation of the Guidelines to train HCPs to respond to violence against women in tertiary health facilities in Maharashtra, India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Violence against women is a serious public health concern, and is highly prevalent globally, including in India. Health-care providers [HCPs] can play an important role in addressing and reducing negative consequences of violence against women. We implemented a pre-post intervention study of HCP training in three tertiary care facilities in Maharashtra, India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInclusion of pregnant women in COVID-19 clinical trials would allow evaluation of effective therapies that might improve maternal health, pregnancy, and birth outcomes, and avoid the delay of developing treatment recommendations for pregnant women. We explored the inclusion of pregnant women in treatment trials of COVID-19 by reviewing ten international clinical trial registries at two timepoints in 2020. We identified 155 COVID-19 treatment studies of non-biological drugs for the April 7-10, 2020 timepoint, of which 124 (80%) specifically excluded pregnant women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Global health organisations advocate gender-transformative programming (which challenges gender inequalities) with men and boys to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. We systematically review evidence for this approach.
Methods: We previously reported an evidence-and-gap map (http://srhr.
A growing body of evidence reveals that the mistreatment of pregnant women during facility-based childbirth is occurring across the globe. As human rights bodies have increasingly recognized, numerous human rights are implicated in the context of mistreatment of women in childbirth, including the rights to be free from torture and other ill-treatment, privacy, health, non-discrimination, and equality. This paper builds on a previous paper published in this journal by Rajat Khosla, Christina Zampas, and others, and the new body of evidence describing the types of mistreatment that occur during childbirth, to unpack the drivers of the mistreatment of women during childbirth and how they are understood and addressed within human rights.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Globally, including in low- and middle-income [LMIC] countries, there is increased attention to and investment in interventions to prevent and respond to violence against women; however, most of these approaches are delivered outside of formal or informal health systems. The World Health Organization published clinical and policy guidelines in 2013. Further evidence is needed concerning implementation of the Guidelines, including how health care providers perceive training interventions, if the training approach meets their needs and is of relevance to them and how to ensure sustainability of changes in practice due to training.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtections for women and girls must be built into response plans
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong the ground-breaking achievements of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was its call to place adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) on global health and development agendas. This article reviews progress made in low- and middle-income countries in the 25 years since the ICPD in six areas central to ASRH-adolescent pregnancy, HIV, child marriage, violence against women and girls, female genital mutilation, and menstrual hygiene and health. It also examines the ICPD's contribution to the progress made.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Healthcare workers play an important role in responding to the needs of the millions of children and adolescents who experience sexual abuse around the globe. A supportive child and adolescent-centered initial response is crucial for the physical and emotional wellbeing of survivors.
Objective: In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published clinical guidelines for responding to child and adolescent sexual abuse.
Sex Reprod Health Matters
December 2019
Background: In this manuscript, we summarize the findings of a systematic review that informed the development of the World Health Organization's recommendations related to psychosocial interventions for child and adolescent sexual abuse.
Method: Systematic searches across 14 databases were conducted to retrieve any published randomized controlled trials of psychosocial interventions addressing mental health outcomes among children and adolescents exposed to sexual abuse who have experienced symptoms. We assessed study risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and certainty of the evidence using GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) criteria.
Objectives: Working with men/boys, in addition to women/girls, through gender-transformative programming that challenges gender inequalities is recognised as important for improving sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. The aim of this paper was to generate an interactive evidence and gap map (EGM) of the total review evidence on interventions engaging men/boys across the full range of WHO SRHR outcomes and report a systematic review of the quantity, quality and effect of gender-transformative interventions with men/boys to improve SRHR for all.
Methods: For this EGM and systematic review, academic and non-academic databases (CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index-expanded, Cochrane Library, Campbell Collaboration, Embase, Global Health Library and Scopus) were searched using terms related to SRHR, males/masculinities, systematic reviews and trials (January 2007-July 2018) with no language restrictions for review articles of SRHR interventions engaging men/boys.