Consortium for Violence Prevention Research, Implementation, and Training for Excellence

Sex-based violence (SBV) entails any harmful act perpetrated against a person’s will because of their sex or presentation. Acts of SBV inflict physical, sexual, mental, or economic harm, threats of harm, coercion, or other deprivations of liberty in public or private. Violence against children (VAC) includes all forms of violence against people under age 18 years, whether by parents or other caregivers, peers, romantic partners, or strangers. When directed against girls or boys because of their sex or presentation, acts of VAC are forms of SBV. Common forms of SBV against women, girls, and persons of non-majority identities include intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicide, sexual violence, harmful practices like child, early, or forced marriage (CEFM), honor crimes, and human trafficking. SBV and VAC are important to consider jointly because they share risk factors, often co-occur in households, are linked over the life course, can have common and compounding consequences over the life course, can have inter-generational effects, and can co-occur in adolescence, when vulnerability to violence is heightened. Despite the global burden of SBV and VAC, data and research capacities to study these forms of violence and to generate evidence-based policies and programs remain limited. Our primary objective is to address critical shortages in research capacity in Vietnam, where political will is high to expand capacity for research and programs on SBV and VAC and to become a model for other LMICs. We will train mentors, post-doctoral researchers, and practitioners involved in studying and addressing SBV and VAC.