Oxfam’s Creating Spaces To Take Action on Violence Against Women and Girls project (2016-2021) aims to reduce violence against women and girls, including the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Following the socio-ecological model on violence prevention, the Creating Spaces project applied a multi-pronged, multi-stakeholder approach, at the individual, household, community and societal/ institutional levels, to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls and child, early and forced marriage. The project is implemented by local partner organizations, with support from Oxfam country offices and Oxfam Canada.

In the project districts, women and girls experiencing violence were often unaware of their most fundamental human right to live free of violence, as enshrined in international and national laws. Access to survivor-centered response services (e.g. psycho-social, legal, shelter, livelihoods, health) especially in underserved areas was very limited, inadequately resourced to meet immediate needs, and stigmatized by communities.

Based on project successes and challenges, this document shares lessons learned from Creating Spaces strategies to improve the access, use and quality of response services for survivors, and to build community support against gender-based violence.