Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Theory of Change

Violence against women and girls is defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” (from the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW), 1993)

There are multiple forms of violence against women and girls (or VAWG), whether physical, sexual, psychological or economic. This can include violence in the public sphere, such as sexual harassment, or within the private sphere such as intimate partner violence, which can often lead to femicide. Some forms of violence are technology based, such as internet stalking, or driven by economic factors, such as international trafficking of women and girls. Others are rooted in harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and child, early, and forced marriage.

This resource outlines Oxfam Canada’s theory of change for its ending violence against women and girls (or EVAWG) programming. A theory of change shows how we expect outcomes to occur over the short, medium and longer-term as a result of our work. In this document, we outline how we understand VAWG, why we focus on ending VAWG, the ultimate aim of our EVAWG programming, our theory of change for our work in this area and highlights and best practices stemming from our EVAWG programs.