Challenging violence against women and girls
ActionAid works with women and girls to challenge the root causes of violence, from harmful norms to unequal power.
We support survivors with safe spaces, legal aid, counselling, and women-led services that restore dignity and choice.
And we partner with communities to transform systems: advocating for laws, policies, and long-term change that prevents violence before it starts.
Read more about ActionAid's approach and initiatives below.
What is the difference between violence against women and gender-based violence?
VAWG or Violence Against Women and Girls, describes what happens and focuses on protecting women and girls. GBV or Gender-Based Violence on the other hand goes further. It names why violence happens and targets the systems that allow it. .
Violence is more than just about individuals. Violence can be found in laws, economic systems, gender norms, and power structures. VAWG asks “how do we protect women and girls?” GBV asks “how do we dismantle the systems causing harm?” By looking at root causes, GBV recognises that patriarchy, inequality, and rigid gender norms harm everyone. VAWG addresses symptoms while GBV prevents harm.
VAWG frameworks can leave many survivors invisible: men and boys, LGBTQ+ people, or those facing intersecting oppressions. GBV ensures no one is left out, focusing on power, prevention, and systemic change, not just individual responses. Ending violence means changing the system, not just treating the wounds.
How does ActionAid challenge violence?
Gender-based violence is a global pandemic rooted in systemic inequality and discrimination.
ActionAid approaches GBV through an intersectional feminist and decolonial lens, recognising that violence is embedded in interconnected systems of power including patriarchy, colonialism and economic systems that create dependency.
Rather than treating GBV as an isolated issue, ActionAid addresses the systems that underpin it through transformative, community-led approaches that challenge the structures enabling violence.
What makes ActionAid's approach different?
Structural focus: ActionAid works towards change in multiple ways, challenging economic systems that create dependency, reshaping legal frameworks, supporting alternative ways towards community safety, and building collective power for political change.
Intersectional: All work addresses how GBV intersects with racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and other oppressive systems, recognising that violence cannot be understood or addressed in isolation from other systems of power.
Led by women's movements: Women and girls are positioned as experts and leaders, not passive recipients. ActionAid centres the leadership and expertise of those most impacted by violence, supporting grassroots feminist and women's organisations to shape and continue their own work.
Long-term commitment: Rather than quick fixes, ActionAid focuses on systemic transformation of economic, political, and legal systems as well as challenging racism, colonialism, and other oppressive systems that enable violence.
Page updated 21 November 2025