CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 82Intimate Partner and Family ViolenceGender, Security, and ConflictGender, Health, and Social Inequality

Effectiveness of Interventions, Programs and Strategies for Gender-based Violence Prevention in Refugee Populations: An Integrative Review

Open access
Tappis, Hannah, Freeman, Jeffrey, Glass, Nancy, Doocy, Shannon·2016·PLoS Currents
DOI 10.1371/currents.dis.3a465b66f9327676d61eb8120eaa5499PMC PMC4865365
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Gender based violence (GBV) remains one of the most serious threats to the health and safety of women and girls worldwide. The problem is even more pronounced in refugee populations where women and girls are at increased risk of violence. In 2015, UNHCR reported the highest number of forcibly displaced people in recorded history. Despite growing need, there have been few rigorous evaluations of interventions aimed at primary GBV prevention and no systematic reviews of GBV prevention efforts specifically focused on refugee populations; reviews to date have primarily examined prevention of conflict related sexual violence, with very limited focus on other forms of GBV such as intimate partner violence Methods: This study reviewed the scientific literature addressing strategies for primary prevention of GBV and their effectiveness among refugee populations over the past ten years (2006 to 2015). Narrative content analysis methods were used to extract findings related to prevention activities/programs recommended by the global humanitarian community, such as sociocultural norms change, rebuilding family and community support structures, improving accountability systems, designing effective services and facilities, working with formal and traditional legal systems, monitoring and documenting GBV, and/or engaging men and boys in GBV prevention and response. RESULTS: Study findings indicate that a range of GBV prevention activities recommended by the global humanitarian community are currently being applied in a variety of settings. However, there remains a limited body of evidence on the effectiveness of GBV prevention programs, interventions, and strategies, especially among refugee populations. CONCLUSION: Commonly agreed upon standards or guidelines for evaluation of GBV prevention programming, and publication of evaluations conducted using these guidelines, could assist humanitarian stakeholders to build and disseminate an evidence base of effective GBV prevention interventions, programs and strategies. Evaluation of GBV prevention efforts, especially among refugee populations, must be given higher priority to justify continuation or revision of recommended GBV activities/programs being implemented in diverse humanitarian settings.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/currents.dis.3a465b66f9327676d61eb8120eaa5499

Cites

4 of 4 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Camps experience a high incidence of sexual and gender-based violence, linked to military presence and to women traveling long distances for toilets or firewood.

    “There is also a high rate of sexual and gender-based violence due to military presence and women traveling long distances to access toilets or firewood (Stark & Ager, 2011;Tappis et al., 2016;Sommer et al., 2014;Freedman, 2016;Parekh, 2020).”

    From Sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese refugees in Uganda: a mixed-methods study (2025) · cites this paper as Tappis et al., 2016

    The Background says refugee women and girls face increased GBV risk, and the Results link firewood collection outside camps to exposure to sexual violence. The paper does not establish a high incidence specifically in camps or link it to military presence or travel to toilets; it mentions violence by combatants but not military presence as a camp risk factor. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 32

  1. [3]Sullivan, D. J. (1994). Women's Human Rights and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. American Journal of International Law, 152-167.
  2. [6]Austin, J., Guy, S., Lee-Jones, L., McGinn, T., & Schlecht, J. (2008). Reproductive health: a right for refugees and internally displaced persons. Reproductive Health Matters, 16(31), 10-21. 18513603
  3. [7]Shanks, L., & Schull, M. J. (2000). Rape in war: the humanitarian response. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 163(9), 1152-1156. PMC80250 11079062
  4. [12]Parker, S. (2015). Hidden crisis: violence against Syrian female refugees. The Lancet, 385(9985), 2341-2342. 26088630
  5. [15]Kim, A. A., Malele, F., Kaiser, R., Mama, N., Kinkela, T., Mantshumba, J. C.,... & Reed, K. H. (2009). HIV infection among internally displaced women and women residing in river populations along the Congo River, Democratic Republic of Congo. AIDS and Behavior, 13(5), 914-920. 19319674
  6. [16]Spiegel, P. B., Bennedsen, A. R., Claass, J., Bruns, L., Patterson, N., Yiweza, D., & Schilperoord, M. (2007). Prevalence of HIV infection in conflict-affected and displaced people in seven sub-Saharan African countries: a systematic review. The Lancet, 369(9580), 2187-2195. 17604801
  7. [17]Lehmann, A. (2002). Safe abortion: a right for refugees?. Reproductive Health Matters, 10(19), 151-155. 12369319
  8. [18]John-Langba, J. (2007). The relationship of sexual and gender-based violence to sexual-risk behaviour among refugee women in Sub-Saharan Africa. World health & population, 9(2), 26-37. 18270504
  9. [19]Sideris, T. (2003). War, gender and culture: Mozambican women refugees. Social science & medicine, 56(4), 713-724. 12560006
  10. [24]Hossain, M., Zimmerman, C., & Watts, C. (2014). Preventing violence against women and girls in conflict. The Lancet, 383(9934), 2021-2022. 24923526
  11. [26]Spangaro, J., Adogu, C., Zwi, A. B., Ranmuthugala, G., & Davies, G. P. (2015). Mechanisms underpinning interventions to reduce sexual violence in armed conflict: A realist-informed systematic review. Conflict and health, 9(1), 1-14. PMC4499895 26170898
  12. [28]Marsh, M., Purdin, S., & Navani, S. (2006). Addressing sexual violence in humanitarian emergencies. Global Public Health, 1(2), 133-146. 19153902
  13. [29]Chynoweth, S. K. (2008). The need for priority reproductive health services for displaced Iraqi women and girls. Reproductive Health Matters, 16(31), 93-102. 18513611
  14. [30]Henttonen, M., Watts, C., Roberts, B., Kaducu, F., & Borchert, M. (2008). Health services for survivors of gender-based violence in northern Uganda: a qualitative study. Reproductive Health Matters, 16(31), 122-131. 18513614
  15. [31]Pronyk, P. M., Hargreaves, J. R., Kim, J. C., Morison, L. A., Phetla, G., Watts, C.,... & Porter, J. D. (2006). Effect of a structural intervention for the prevention of intimate-partner violence and HIV in rural South Africa: a cluster randomised trial. The lancet, 368(9551), 1973-1983. 17141704
  16. [33]Horn, R. (2010). Responses to intimate partner violence in Kakuma refugee camp: refugee interactions with agency systems. Social science & medicine, 70(1), 160-168. 19846247
  17. [34]Hargreaves, J., Hatcher, A., Strange, V., Phetla, G., Busza, J., Kim, J.,... & Bonell, C. (2009). Process evaluation of the Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE) in rural South Africa. Health Education Research, cyp054. 19797337
  18. [35]Jan, S., Ferrari, G., Watts, C. H., Hargreaves, J. R., Kim, J. C., Phetla, G.,... & Pronyk, P. M. (2011). Economic evaluation of a combined microfinance and gender training intervention for the prevention of intimate partner violence in rural South Africa. Health policy and planning, 26(5), 366-372. 20974751
  19. [36]Ho, A., & Pavlish, C. (2011). Indivisibility of accountability and empowerment in tackling gender-based violence: Lessons from a refugee camp in Rwanda. Journal of Refugee Studies, 24(1), 88-109.
  20. [37]Sikweyiya, Y., & Jewkes, R. (2011). Perceptions about safety and risks in gender-based violence research: implications for the ethics review process. Culture, health & sexuality, 13(9), 1091-1102. 21824018
  21. [38]Abramsky, T., Devries, K., Kiss, L., Francisco, L., Nakuti, J., Musuya, T.,... & Watts, C. (2012). A community mobilisation intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV/AIDS risk in Kampala, Uganda (the SASA! Study): study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial. Trials, 13(1), 96. PMC3503643 22747846
  22. [39]Scott, J., Polak, S., Kisielewski, M., McGraw‐Gross, M., Johnson, K., Hendrickson, M., & Lawry, L. (2013a). A mixed‐methods assessment of sexual and gender‐based violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to inform national and international strategy implementation. The International journal of health planning and management, 28(3), e188-e216. 23108942
  23. [40]Slegh, H., Barker, G., Kimonyo, A., Ndolimana, P., & Bannerman, M. (2013). ‘I can do women's work’: reflections on engaging men as allies in women's economic empowerment in Rwanda. Gender & Development, 21(1), 15-30.
  24. [41]Lwambo, D. (2013). ‘Before the war, I was a man’: men and masculinities in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Gender & Development, 21(1), 47-66.
  25. [42]Hoang, T. A., Quach, T. T., & Tran, T. T. (2013). ‘Because I am a man, I should be gentle to my wife and my children’: positive masculinity to stop gender-based violence in a coastal district in Vietnam. Gender & Development, 21(1), 81-96.
  26. [43]Mitchell, R. (2013). Domestic violence prevention through the Constructing Violence-free Masculinities programme: an experience from Peru. Gender & Development, 21(1), 97-109.
  27. [44]Scott, J., Averbach, S., Modest, A. M., Hacker, M. R., Cornish, S., Spencer, D.,... & Parmar, P. (2013b). An assessment of gender inequitable norms and gender-based violence in South Sudan: a community-based participatory research approach. Confl Health, 7(4). PMC3599371 23497469
  28. [45]Asgary, R., Emery, E., & Wong, M. (2013). Systematic review of prevention and management strategies for the consequences of gender-based violence in refugee settings. International health, 5(2), 85-91. 24030107
  29. [46]Spangaro, J., Adogu, C., Ranmuthugala, G., Davies, G. P., Steinacker, L., & Zwi, A. (2013). What evidence exists for initiatives to reduce risk and incidence of sexual violence in armed conflict and other humanitarian crises? A systematic review. PMC3655168 23690945
  30. [47]Abdelnour, S., & Saeed, A. M. (2014). Technologizing Humanitarian Space: Darfur Advocacy and the Rape‐Stove Panacea. International Political Sociology, 8(2), 145-163.
  31. [49]Gurman, T. A., Trappler, R. M., Acosta, A., McCray, P. A., Cooper, C. M., & Goodsmith, L. (2014). ‘By seeing with our own eyes, it can remain in our mind’: qualitative evaluation findings suggest the ability of participatory video to reduce gender-based violence in conflict-affected settings. Health education research, cyu018. 24973224
  32. [50]Spangaro, J., Adogu, C., Zwi, A. B., Ranmuthugala, G., & Davies, G. P. (2015). Mechanisms underpinning interventions to reduce sexual violence in armed conflict: A realist-informed systematic review. Conflict and health, 9(1), 1-14. PMC4499895 26170898

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tappis, H., Freeman, J., Glass, N., & Doocy, S.
Affiliations
Johns Hopkins University (US)
ORCID
Venue
PLoS Currents
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2016
Volume
8
ISSN
2157-3999 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/currents.dis.3a465b66f9327676d61eb8120eaa5499
PMC
PMC4865365
OpenAlex
W2337343609
Cited by
82
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 1
FWCI
8.80
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • PLoS Currents (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Security, and Conflict
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Gender, Health, and Social Inequality
Keywords
gender-based violence, refugees, primary prevention, humanitarian settings, women and girls, intimate partner violence, accountability mechanisms, legal system, evaluation guidelines, forced displacement

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review