There is growing recognition of the need to “decolonise” efforts to address Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). However, the concept is often misunderstood, and there remains limited clarity on what decolonisation entails in practice. While some frame decolonisation as a primarily political process linked to independence from colonial powers, we align with critical scholars who adopt a broader perspective—understanding decolonisation as the ongoing work of dismantling the enduring legacies of colonialism.

This project seeks to situate debates on colonialism and decolonisation within the field of VAWG, making their implications more concrete for research, programming, and funding. We aim to trace the colonial influences shaping current approaches to VAWG, explore how decolonisation is understood by different actors in the field, and identify strategies to support the decolonisation of VAWG efforts across funding, programming, and research.

This project was established in 2023 and is nested within the Gender Violence and Health Centre at LSHTM.