Strengthening Skills for Research on VAW
18th to 29th August 2008, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Aim of the Course

To strengthen the capacity of service providers, activists and researchers to participate in research and to use it effectively, by developing an understanding of all the factors associated with research planning and implementation.

Specific Objectives

• Develop a critical understanding of issues of gender and gender-based violence
• Demonstrate an understanding of violence against women as a public health issue
• Demonstrate an understanding how to develop a research strategy
• Demonstrate an understanding of the different methods used in violence against women with an emphasis of the use of epidemiology in such studies
• Demonstrate an understanding of how the research can be used in advocacy
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complexities and awareness of the challenges of doing research on gender violence

Course Content

The course was drawn from "Researching Violence Against Women: A practical guide for researchers and activists" written by Mary Ellsberg and Lori Heise. It involved presentations of theoretical concepts and practical skill-building sessions. The training was convened by the following individuals:

• Dr. Jessie Mbwambo, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• Dr. Mary Ellsberg, PATH, USA
• Dr. Naeema Abrahams,Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council of South Africa
• Ms. Shanaaz Mathews, Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council of South Africa
• Dr. Yemane Berhane, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Abba, Ethiopia
• Mr. Yassin Ally Sunuku,Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization, Mwanza, Tanzania

Training Methodology

The training combined a variety of participatory training methods to build participants' skills in researching violence against women. Participants were divided into groups according to their areas of thematic interest i.e. GBV prevention, Domestic Violence, Psychosocial care for GBV survivors, marital rape, HIV/AIDS and VAW.

A variety of techniques were used including:

• Lectures
• Group work to further internalize learning from the lectures
• Week-long group assignments to acquire hands on skills for the development of research protocols
• Panel presentations
• Question and answer sessions
• Practical sessions for the development of hands on skills i.e. epi-info, open code, manual qualitative analysis.

The training was attended by 23 participants from Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. View full list of participants here.

View a pictorial of the training here.