Thank you, Madam President.
Addressing the continued prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls in all their diversity has never been more important - both in the immediate Covid-19 response and as we move towards longer term recovery.
The UK's ground-breaking 'What Works to Prevent Violence' programme funded new research to better understand the links between violence against women and girls and disability. The data showed that women with disabilities are at two to four times higher risk of experiencing intimate partner violence.
Despite the scale of the problem, we have robust evidence to show that we can prevent this violence. The 'What Works' programme showed us that interventions tackling values and behaviours - in homes, schools, and communities - can achieve significant reductions in VAWG of around 50% in just a few years, even in the most challenging settings.
We encourage others to make use of this evidence in their efforts to end violence against women and girls.
Building on this success, this year the UK will launch the next phase of the programme. We will invest in the adaptation of proven interventions and pioneer new approaches to meet the specific needs of those at greatest risk of violence - who are all too often women and girls with disabilities.
We would like to ask the panellists how to better ensure gender-based violence prevention and response interventions are evidence-based in their response to the unique challenges faced by women living with disabilities?
Thank you.
