Innovation, Collaboration and Change: What Works II at the SVRI Forum

Next month, our team heads to Bangkok, Thailand for the SVRI Forum 2026 – the Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s flagship event on research, evidence, and solutions for preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

The SVRI Forum is a conference unlike any other, bringing together over 1,000 global stakeholders, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and activists, with the purpose of co-creating solutions for a world free from violence. 

What Works II will have key engagements across the week of the Forum, spanning pre-conference workshops, panel presentations, networking events, poster sessions, and a dedicated exhibition presence… but that’s not all.

Prior to the Forum’s commencement, our What Works Asia Regional partners and technical team are invited to join us for the EEI Asia Regional Workshop, which will run across Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of October, at the Mercure Bangkok Siam. Day two of the workshop will be followed by a special Asia Regional networking event, panel and marketplace taking place across the afternoon.

SRVI Forum Day One: Monday 5th October

As the first day of the SVRI Forum gets underway, we have members of our team taking part in four of the Pre-Conference Workshops – two of which have already booked out.

In the morning, the booked out interactive workshop, Meeting the Moment: Ethical and Effective Adaptation for VAWG prevention scale in challenging times, will bring together five global organisations to explore the art and science of adapting VAWG programmes, sharing core principles of successful adaptation, practical frameworks, and common challenges, alongside strategies to address them. 

In Advancing measurement in violence against women and girls (VAWG) research – another popular session, which has also booked out – participants will be introduced to key considerations in measuring VAWG, with an emphasis on quantitative survey methodologies. Facilitators will share examples of the approaches utilized by the What Works to Prevent Violence Programme – including lessons learned adapting and contextualizing international violence measurement tools to local contexts.

The participatory workshop, From practice-based learning to action: Feminist praxis in the face of backlash – which currently still has spots available – will explore how feminist organisations are turning to practice-based learning and knowledge (PBL/K) as a powerful tool for resistance, reorganisation, and survival in a context of global backlash, shrinking civic space, and deep funding cuts. Through collective reflection, storytelling, and group dialogue, participants will examine how feminist knowledge practices are sustaining movements and shaping new partnerships in crisis. 

And, led by UN Women and developed in collaboration between Breakthrough, the Asia Network to End GBV, and What Works, Rooted and rising: Feminist GBV prevention strategies from the ground up, will explore how to design, adapt, and sustain effective gender-based violence prevention in low- and middle-income settings. Centring grassroots leadership and feminist, community-led approaches, this workshop offers tools, lessons, and insights for adapting and scaling prevention efforts, and aims to foster cross-regional collaboration and strengthen practitioner networks globally.

On Monday evening, alongside the SouthEast Asia Prevention Platform and The Accelerator for GBV Prevention, our team will be showcasing joint advocacy and influencing strategies and calling on donors to act as long-term partners in ending violence against women and girls, at the EEI Meeting the Moment: Participant-driven Event – we hope you can join us there.

SRVI Forum Day One: Monday 6th October

On the second day of SVRI, Alice Kerr-Wilson will chair five sub-sessions in the panel session, Understanding Pathways to Scale in VAWG Prevention: Lessons from across the UK-funded “What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale” Initiative.

For the session Scaling Evidence-based Approaches to Prevent Violence across the Life Course, Shanaaz Mathews will speak on What Works to Prevent Violence against Adolescent Girls Globally through School-based Interventions.

And in From Policy to Practice: Laws, Strategies and Movements to Address Violence Against Women, Aqsa Khan and Fazli Hadi will speak on From Legislation to Grounded Implementation of Anti-Sexual Harassment Laws: Post-legislative Scrutiny through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration in Pakistan.

During the Poster Session, Nompilo Dlamini will cover Baseline Climate Survey Findings on Sexual Harassment at the University of Eswatini, Ayodeji Adebayo will discuss Regional disparities and correlates of intimate partner violence against adolescent girls and young women in Nigeria: A secondary data analysis, while Loksee Leung will present on Shifting intrenched power inequality in violence against women research: Striving for accountability in violence against women research and evaluation.

We’re looking forward to the Flagship IC-RC Event on Tuesday evening, where the What Works team will be showcasing lessons and conceptual thought-leadership on scaling prevention, and elevating partner voices to share practical insights and inspire action.

SVRI Forum Day Three: Wednesday 7th October

On day three, you can catch us at the panel event, Preventing Gender-based Violence in Education: Interventions from Schools to Campus, where Nancy Perrin will speak about Shifting Norms, Beliefs, and Sexual Health Confidence to Prevent Violence: Evidence from a School-based Comprehensive Sexuality Education Intervention in Rural Madagascar.

During the second Poster Session, Heena Sinha will discuss We should not be left alone to support women: Perceptions of community health workers about their role in addressing domestic violence in Aurangabad, India. Rozina Karmaliani will also speak, about Mainstreaming a play-based life skills education programme to reduce violence against girls: Baseline findings of the cluster randomized controlled trial in Pakistan. Chelsea Ullman will talk about What works to prevent violence against adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Maureen Murphy will speak on Prevalence of Violence against Women and girls in conflict settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Saul Chirume will present on Accountability in practice: Lessons from a peer-driven sexual harassment prevention intervention in Eswatini higher education. And Ali Mohammed Hussein will speak about Evaluating Communities Care: Intergenerational Social Norms Change for Violence Prevention in Somalia.

Day Four: Thursday 8th October

On the closing day of the Forum, in Violence against LGBTQI+ communities: Recognition, rights, and the limits of the law, Mpho Elizabeth Mpofu will present on Moving beyond decriminalisation, an understanding of LGBTQIA experiences in Botswana post 2019.

For Parallel Session 8: Five-minute Presentations, Manisha Gupte will speak on Gendered political economy analysis (GPEA) to strengthen health systems at scale to prevent and respond to violence against women in India, and Shelley Saha Sinha will discuss From training to practice: Early implementation lessons from integrating domestic violence response into primary health facilities in a low-resource setting.

Finally, on Thursday evening, we are honoured to be co-hosting one of the Forum’s final sessions, Meeting the Moment: A Joint Advocacy Event, alongside The Accelerator for GBV Prevention and The SouthEast Asia GBV Prevention Platform. This interactive event will showcase our joint process, share lessons from strategic alignment, and call for wider support through engaging advocacy. Together with our partners, we will draw insights from other sectors, communications experts, and examples of donor leadership – seeking to inspire action, amplify shared demands, and model strategic collaboration for lasting change. We hope you’ll join us there.

Our team believes that by “meeting the moment” together, the GBV field can rethink advocacy strategies, strengthen collective influence, and secure better investment in prevention. 

Across the week of the Forum, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you will find our team womaning the joint IC-RC Exhibition Stand in the Exhibition Hub – where ideas are exchanged, collaborations are born, and connections flourish. 

More information:

o   Find out more about the SVRI Forum