This document makes the case for increased attention by international development agencies to violence prevention, and aims
to stimulate dialogue on the role of international development agencies in the prevention of violence globally.

Approaches to prevent violence concentrate on identifying ways to keep people from committing acts of violence. Interventions may eliminate or reduce the underlying risk factors and reinforce protective factors. Prevention strategies are conceived and implemented with reference to the interaction of risk factors among people at different stages of the life cycle and in relation to causes at the levels of the individual, family, community, and society.

Based on a review by WHO, including content analysis of 22 development agency web sites, this document provides a preliminary stocktaking of the priority accorded to violence prevention – as defined here – within international development
programming. It focuses on interpersonal and self-directed violence, since many more people lose their lives, are injured, and suffer other negative health consequences through interpersonal and self-directed violence than through collective violence. (From the Executive summary). Record #6107