Reducing Gender-Based Violence through Social Interventions: A cross-Country across the African Continent

Gender-based Violence (GBV) is one of the critical vices that has plagued society for centuries. In most conflicts, a vast majority of the casualties are women and children who are non-combatants and yet bear signs of GBV. In Africa, as well as in other emerging economies, GBV has remained a major social problem. However, it is not true that GBV remains primarily a problem in emerging economies; time and time again, we have witnessed evidence of GBV committed even in developed economies. Given the lofty goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to provide a more equitable future for all, the need for protection for women and children facing GBV in the context of SDG1, SDG3, SDG8, and SDG11 in rural Spain, a developed nation, is urgent. Africa is on the verge of emerging as an economic powerhouse; however, its potential will remain constrained if women's participation in this economic growth is restricted due to widespread cases of GBV, as reported in various academic and popular media. The cost of GBV in Sub-Saharan Africa is high; however, through careful social design and changes in daily habits, instances of GBV can be reduced. For example, the importance of toilet availability in certain parts of South Africa cannot be overstated. While the government may be concerned about the costs of building these toilets in the communities, the study highlights that the overall social savings from a reduction in cases of GBVs outweigh the costs of building these toilets. For the current study, we utilize data from Afrobarometer.org to examine the relationship between perceptions of instances of GBV and various social investments made by respective governments. The Afrobarometer is a rich source of data with a large respondent base across 39 countries in the continent. Our preliminary results suggest that while the investments do not demonstrate significant relationships at the aggregate level, country-specific interventions have yielded results. These results have implications for policymakers in Africa, across the board, in their efforts to systematically reduce GBV.