LGBTQI+ young people face disproportionate levels of sexual violence and exploitation globally. Yet in many countries, they remain invisible - in health systems, policies, research and prevention programming. 

In many parts of the world where same-sex relationships are criminalised, collecting evidence comes with significant risks for these young people who are already facing high levels of stigma and discrimination. In this episode we explore the consequences of this invisibility, how we can gather data that can be used in meaningful ways to improve the lives of LGBTQI+ youth, and how we can build protection systems that give them a voice, whilst safeguarding their rights, dignity and safety.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).

This episode’s guests are:

• Nicolas Makharashvili - Director at Safe Futures Hub

• Stephanie Spaid Miedema - Sociologist and public health scientist

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ Why LGBTQI+ children and youth are often excluded from global research

➡︎ About the ethical and practical challenges of collecting safe, inclusive data.➡︎ How stigma and social norms increase vulnerability to sexual violence.➡︎ Recommendations for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners

🌍Sign up for the SVRI Forum 2026 here! 

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• Report - Silence Is Not Protection: The Hidden Crisis of Sexual Violence Against LGBTQI+ Children and Youth

• Report - The future of survey research with the world's sexual or gender minority youth

In this episode, we take you inside the SVRI Forum - the world’s leading global conference dedicated to research, practice, and action on violence against women, violence against children, and other forms of violence driven by gender inequality.

Hear what makes the SVRI Forum unlike any other event in the field - from its electric energy and interdisciplinary collaboration to its commitment to turning evidence into action. With reflections from those who have attended past Forums, we unpack why the SVRI Forum is a catalyst for learning, connection, and lasting change and why the field cannot do without it. 

Your host is: Elizabeth Dartnall, Executive Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). 

This episode’s guests are:

• Natalie Robi Tingo - East Africa Lead at The Five Foundation, Founder of Msichana Empowerment Kuria, and winner of the SVRI Forum 2022 Best Young Practitioner Award

• Professor Rozina Karmaliani - Endowed Chair at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University

• Manisha Mehta - Former Program Director, Women’s Rights Program, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
  

  🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ What makes the SVRI Forum a truly unique global convening in the field of violence prevention.

➡︎ Why bringing research, practice, funding, and lived experience together accelerates impact.

➡︎ What past participants say about the connections, insights, and inspiration they took home.

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Elizabeth Dartnall. 

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• Learn more about the forum and secure your spot.

• Watch highlights from our 2024 Forum.  

Translating research into real-world programs, policies, and advocacy is essential for ending violence against women and children. Yet, despite clear evidence, gender based violence (GBV) prevention is often treated as a “social issue” rather than a core governance responsibility.

In this episode, we explore what it means to turn evidence into action for GBV prevention, how global actors are approaching the challenge, and why translating research into tangible interventions is critical for lasting impact.

Your host is: Elizabeth Dartnall, Executive Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). 

This episode’s guests are:

• Avni Amin, Head of the Rights, Equality and Wellbeing throughout the Life Course Unit, WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research

• Diana Arango, Lead on Gender-based Violence in the Latin America and Caribbean region, World Bank

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ Why GBV rates remain stubbornly high worldwide, despite an expanding evidence base.

➡︎ What the WHO’s latest VAW Estimates reveal about the current global landscape.

➡︎ Why asking “Who is this research for?” is critical for turning evidence into action.

➡︎ How global institutions can effectively scale and sustain prevention efforts.

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Elizabeth Dartnall. 

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• The WHO’s Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023

• RESPECT women: preventing violence against women, 2nd ed.

• Join 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

• Ending Gender-Based Violence: A 10-year Retrospective

• Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement (2012-2022)

• Violence against women and girls - what the data tell us 

• Ending gender-based violence is a priority for the World Bank, by Hana Brixi and Louise Cord 

• Tackling Gender-Based Violence is a Development Imperative

Male supremacism is the belief that men are more important, more valuable, or should have more power than women; reinforcing gender inequality, and creating the conditions in which violence against women, non-binary people and LGBTIQ people is more likely to occur and to be tolerated or excused. While it shows up in everyday norms, cultural messages and institutions, its most concentrated forms drive organised movements and pathways into violent extremism as well as online misogyny and hate.

In this episode, we explore what male supremacism is, how it shows up in the lives of men and boys long before they encounter extremist spaces, and why confronting it is essential for preventing violence against women and children.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initative (SVRI).

This episode’s guests are:

• Soraya Chemaly, award-winning Bahamian-American author, activist and feminist

• Alex DiBranco, Executive Director and Co-founder, The Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS)

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ What male supremacy is.

➡︎ How misogyny acts as a gateway to broader forms of extremism.

➡︎ How other forms of gendered abuse and violence function as tools of systemic power across institutions.

➡︎ The role race, class, sexuality and colonial legacies play in male-supremacist dynamics.

➡︎ What practitioners and policymakers can do to respond and prevent harm.

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago. 

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• IRMS 2019-2025 Impact Report

• IRMS In The Media page

• Five ways to address male supremacist ideology and violence (Ms Magazine) based on a 2021 report by the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism/New America

• Roots, Structures, and Intersections of Supremacism: Bio-essentialism and Anti-Trans Attacks

• Interview on creation of IRMS

• How does the literary canon reinforce the logic of the incel?

• IRMS cofounder Dr. Emily Carian's 2024 book, Good Guys, Bad Guys: The Perils of Men's Gender Activism, which interviews men's rights activists and feminist men to understand their motivations and deficiencies in the search for gender justice. There's also a podcast interview with Carian that can introduce people to the themes discussed in the book.

• GNET article by IRMS Fellow Allysa Czerwinsky "Learning from the Leavers? The Promise (and Perils) of r/IncelExit.

• Soraya Chemaly Books: https://www.sorayachemaly.com/books 

Please share new resources with us at [email protected].

Policy reform has enormous potential to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) - yet this area is surprisingly under-researched. Through systems such as education, legal frameworks, and social protection policies, governments and their policies are uniquely placed to shape the environments in which violence either thrives - or is prevented.

So, what policies can reduce intimate partner violence at scale? In this episode, we explore how areas such as education systems, legal frameworks, and social protection policies have the power to shape safer, more equitable societies. 

Your host is: Elizabeth Dartnall, Executive Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). 

This episode’s guests are:

• Dr Rachael Pierotti, Senior Social Scientist at the World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab.  

• Dr Tara Cookson, Canada Research Chair in Gender, Development & Global Public Policy at the University of British Columbia, and Co-founder of Ladysmith. 

  
  

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ How education, family law, and property rights affect intimate partner violence

➡︎ The four ways social protection can prevent intimate partner violence 

➡︎ Why this research area remains underexplored

➡︎ Examples of innovations linking violence prevention and social protection

➡︎ How evidence can guide policy and practice

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Elizabeth Dartnall. 

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• Cookson, T. P., Fuentes, L., & Bitterly, J. (2025). Addressing gender-based violence through social protection: a scoping review. Development in Practice, 35(3), 305-320.

• Cookson, T. P., & Barrantes, A. (2024). Gender, social protection systems and street‐level bureaucrats. International Social Security Review, 77(4), 7-22

• Cookson, T. P., & Fuentes, L. (2025). Gender Data, Intersectionality, and a Feminist Politics of “Negotiated Refusal”. Violence Against Women, 10778012241309362

• UN Women. (2025). World survey on the role of women in development 2024: Harnessing social protection for gender equality, resilience and transformation. 

• Lori Heise Rachael Pierotti (2024) Policy Levers to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault. Literature Review and Research Agenda. 

• SVRI Forum 2024 Plenary Session: Scale Up

Please share new resources with us at [email protected].

Understanding intimate partner violence (IPV) requires more than a snapshot in time. Long-term studies that follow people and communities over years can reveal patterns, risks, and protective factors as well as outcomes that shorter-term research often overlooks. They help us see how violence develops, changes, or declines across different stages of life.

In this episode, we explore why this kind of research matters for prevention, what challenges researchers face in carrying it out, and how the findings can shape policies and programmes that make a real difference.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initative (SVRI).

This episode’s guests are:

• Kate Doyle, Senior Fellow at Equimundo, and part of the team behind Rwanda's Bandebereho programme

• Dr Khadija Mitu, Research Lead on the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) research programme, and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ Why long-term evidence matters in IPV prevention

➡︎ The challenges and responsibilities of conducting longitudinal research

➡︎ How policymakers and practitioners can use this evidence to improve prevention efforts

➡︎ Top tips for securing funding for longitudinal studies

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• https://www.equimundo.org/bandebereho/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

• https://www.equimundo.org/resources/long-term-impacts-of-the-bandebereho-program-on-violence-against-women-and-children-maternal-health-seeking-and-couple-relations-in-rwanda/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• https://gage.odi.org/ 

• https://www.equimundo.org/programs/program-p/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352464224000798?dgcid=author 

• https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(24)00248-9/pdf 

• https://gage.odi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GAGE-Global-violence_Policy-Brief_Oct-10-2022.pdf 

• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41287-021-00440-x 

• https://gage.odi.org/safe-is-in-the-grave-young-people-s-risk-of-sexual-and-gender-based-violence-in-the-rohingya-refugee-camps-in-bangladesh/ 

  
  

  Please share new resources with us at [email protected].

Universities and colleges are meant to be spaces of learning, growth, and opportunity. Yet for many, they can also be environments where sexual and gender based violence occurs and is left unaddressed. Power imbalances, entrenched hierarchies, and lack of oversight mean survivors are often silenced while perpetrators go unchallenged.

In this episode, Dr Anna Bull, Senior Lecturer of Education and Social Justice at the University of York and Director of The 1752 Group, helps us explore the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence in higher education settings and ask what more needs to be done to ensure these institutions are safe and equitable.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).

This episode’s guest is: 

1. Dr Anna Bull, Senior Lecturer of Education and Social Justice at the University of York, and Director of The 1752 Group

   
   

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ How sexual violence shows up in higher education today

➡︎ The impact of power and institutional culture

➡︎ The important role student activism plays in creating change 

➡︎ What needs to change to build safer campuses

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

See our full list of resources for this episode here. 

Around the world, organisations and activists working to end violence against women and violence against children are facing unprecedented threats, from political instability to shrinking civic space and economic strain. Most recently the devastating cuts to global development funding - particularly the closure of major donors like USAID - has sent shockwaves through the sector. For those who work in the field this is not just a funding crisis -  it’s a matter of survival, for prevention and response services, communities and, at times, for lives. 

So what can be done and where do we find hope in such challenging times? We are joined by South African human rights and social justice activist, Mark Heywood, and Dr Chay Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Her Story, to discuss what it means to grow and strengthen our work in a time of crisis. How can we grow stronger, together? And how do we create a more collaborative, connected, and resilient ecosystem across different disciplines, movements, and sectors?

Your host is: Elizabeth Dartnall, Executive Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).

This episode’s guests are: 

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ How recent crises have exposed the fragility of our field

➡︎ Why we need to move beyond silos and foster intersectional collaboration

➡︎ What it takes to sustain activism and research in times of political and economic turmoil

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Elizabeth Dartnall. 

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources: 

• https://brill.com/view/journals/prot/5/1/article-p85_005.xml 

• https://www.herstoryconsulting.com.au/projects

• https://www.weave-collective.org/

• https://journals.co.za/doi/full/10.2989/CCR.2021.0013

• https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/article-abstract/11/2/305/5536675

  
  

 Please share new resources with us at [email protected].

This week we turn our attention to gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ communities. GBV within LGBTQ+ communities is a serious yet under-researched issue. In many global and humanitarian settings, the experiences of queer and trans people are frequently ignored or erased and much of the existing research tends to focus on heteronormative, high income country perspectives. Where targeted research does exist on the LGBTQ+ community, the data is often not disaggregated which means we’re missing critical information.

In this episode we are joined by Dr Jessica Ison, Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University and Deputy Director at the Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group, and Dr Charbel Maydaa, Founder and Director of MOSAIC, to discuss why addressing these gaps in research is essential to ensuring that we build responses that  are equitable, accurate, and truly protective for all communities.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initative (SVRI)

This episode’s guests are: 

1. Dr Jessica Ison, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe Rural Health School & Deputy Director, Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group

2. Charbel Maydaa, Founder & Director, MOSAIC

   
   

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ How gaps in GBV research can lead to LGBTQ+ communities being misrepresented as ‘risky’ or ‘deviant’

➡︎ How politics, war and social exclusion are affecting lesbian and trans women in places like Turkey and Lebanon

➡︎ How traditional family values and deep-rooted sexism are preventing LGBTQ+ communities from accessing the services they need

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources: 

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380241311928

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380241311930 

• https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/queer-and-animal-provocations-9781666944754/ 

• https://www.svriforum2022.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Henri-Myrttinen-MOSAIC.pdf 

 Please share new resources with us at [email protected].

Faith and religion are central to the lives of billions of people around the world. In many communities, faith leaders are among the most trusted voices, holding significant influence in shaping beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. This makes them powerful allies in the prevention of and response to gender based violence (GBV), yet working at the intersection of faith and GBV can be complex. 

In this episode of the Sexual Violence Research podcast we learn more about the SVRI’s Faith & GBV Community of Practice - a new network bringing together   researchers, practitioners, activists, and faith leaders. Host Elizabeth Dartnall is joined by Lisa le Roux, who is leading this work for the SVRI and shares how the initiative is creating space for reflection, connection, and change within faith communities across Africa.

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ Why faith leaders are important partners in ending GBV.

➡︎ How religious beliefs can both challenge and support gender justice.

➡︎ What the Faith & GBV Community of Practice is and how it works.

➡︎ Why trust-building between development and faith actors is crucial for real impact.

Your host is: Elizabeth Dartnall, Executive Director, Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).

📱Connect with Lisa le Roux.

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI [email protected] and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources: 

https://untf.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20UNTF/Publications/2021/Prevention%20briefs/Synthesis-Learning-from-practice-Engaging-faith-based-traditional-actors-in-preventing-VAWG.pdf

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/26330024241246810?icid=int.sj-full-text.citing-articles.27

 Please share new resources with us at [email protected].