| Abstract: | Development research and practice reflect three main approaches to violence against women (VAW). The efficiency approach emphasizes the deleterious impact of VAW on medical costs, women's labor force participation, and the need for police involvement. A second approach focuses on VAW as an obstacle to their full participation in development programs. A third perspective conceptualizes VAW as a contradiction to human development, whether in terms of human rights, bodily integrity, or the need to enlarge personal choices and control. Education, networking, and employment are of central relevance to the resolution of domestic violence. Awareness of the possibility that women are experiencing violence should be central to all development interventions, regardless of their focus or target group. There is a danger, however, of viewing VAW as merely a correlate of underdevelopment or poverty. The dominant risk factor is not poverty; it is being female. Policy approaches must recognize the endemic nature of VAW, support research into prevalence, and address the unequal gender power relations that create such violence. |
