Jordan research team awarded funding to study gender-based violence

AMMAN — The World Bank Group and Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) on Tuesday announced that a research team comprised of students from the University of Jordan, the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health had won funding to study gender-based violence in Jordan.

The “2019 Development Marketplace: Innovations to Address Gender-Based Violence“ award aims to allow researchers to understand how social interactions among youth influence attitudes related to gender and sexual and gender-based violence, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The research will take place among 1,000 young people aged 18-24 living in east Amman, and researchers will use these insights to promote evidence-based recommendations for further research and interventions.

“It [gender-based violence] is often caused by attitudes that support gaps between men and women. I am very pleased to congratulate the researchers on this award, which will explore how social interactions among youth can shape these attitudes and help the country further down the path towards eliminating gender-based violence,” said Saroj Kumar Jha, regional director for World Bank Group Mashreq.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the statement.

Studies show that in addition to causing direct harm to women and men, gender-based violence can cost economies up to 3.7 per cent of their GDP due to lost productivity.

“Although we know the costs and intergenerational effects of gender-based violence are significant, the evidence on how to prevent it remains relatively limited,” said Caren Grown, senior director of gender at the World Bank Group. “This award helps researchers to build the knowledge needed for effective approaches to reduce violence.”

The Development Marketplace is an annual, global competition to fund research to find innovative solutions that can help individuals, communities and nations prevent and respond to gender-based violence, the statement said.

Over three years, $4.5 million has been awarded by the Bank Group and SVRI to more than 40 research projects in 28 low and middle-income economies, and the award is held in memory of Hannah Graham, the daughter of a long-time World Bank Group employee, the statement concluded.