The Australian National Research Agenda to End Violence Against Women and Children

MEDIA RELEASE | Monday 13 November 2023

 

The national research organisation dedicated to women’s safety, ANROWS, is today set to release the Australian National Research Agenda (ANRA) to End Violence Against Women and Children 2023-2028.

The national research organisation dedicated to women’s safety, ANROWS, is today set to release the Australian National Research Agenda (ANRA) to End Violence Against Women and Children 2023-2028.

It is a national framework, produced by ANROWS, that can be used by the community of committed people and organisations who are working to develop the evidence base: researchers, funders, policymakers, services, survivor advocates and social impact organisations.

Co-designed with a diverse group of victim-survivors, practitioners and researchers, the ANRA forms part of ANROWS’s mandate to expand the research and evidence base on what works to prevent violence, intervene in its trajectory, respond in crisis and support healing and recovery as set out in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

This ANRA makes the case for focusing new research on the most critical and emerging areas of domestic, family and sexual violence.

Dr Jane Lloyd, Acting CEO of ANROWS, said that having victim-survivors co-design the ANRA was absolutely necessary.

“We reviewed the existing evidence and identified the gaps in the research. We then took that to people who are living and breathing these issues every day. People who have lived through violence. Academics who are leaders in this field. And practitioners who are working in these systems and see where the lack of evidence, or the lack of other options, are causing the most harm.”

“Having victim-survivors be at the centre of that was key. For people experiencing violence, the shortcomings and successes of our systems can radically alter the trajectory of their lives. They must be central to research processes, we can’t lead change without them,” she said.

“The nine priorities reflect that urgency and are focused around building a better evidence base of what genuinely works to support the victims and survivors who are often ignored or rendered invisible in mainstream research and system responses.”

The nine priorities have been identified under three key topics:

Systems and society

• Structural inequities
• Gender relations, norms, and attitudes
• Trauma and DFSV-informed, victim-centred systems

Populations in focus

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Children and young people
• People who use violence

Types and patterns of violence

• Sexual violence
• Coercive control
• Economic abuse

Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, Justine Elliot, urged everyone working in domestic, family and sexual violence research to be informed by the ANRA.

“In order to achieve our shared goal of ending gender-based violence, it is vital we expand the research and evidence base on identifying, responding to, and healing from violence. I thank ANROWS for leading this important work, and urge the research community to use the ANRA as we all work together to fill these critical evidence gaps.”

For further information, contact the Office of the CEO at ANROWS on 0410 449 544 or [email protected]

 

Media Inquiries: Amy Smith 0459 846 926 | [email protected]

 

 

About ANROWS

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS) is a not-for-profit independent national research organisation. ANROWS was established as an initiative of Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022 and is continuing under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. ANROWS was established by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments of Australia to produce, disseminate, and assist in applying evidence for policy and practice addressing violence against women and their children. ANROWS is the only such research organisation in Australia.