What do we want to know?
The question of this systematic review is:
“What is the impact of approaches for addressing insecurity or violence arising from urbanisation?”
Who wants to know and why?
Urbanisation process transforms a societal environment and generates various forms of conflicts among the urban tenants that sometimes take the form of violence. Violence in urban areas in LMICs is becoming a growing concern now a day. There is lack of comprehensive assessment on the effectiveness violence reduction approaches in LMICs, particularly for urban areas. Approaches undertaken to address this issue varied widely in their approaches, context and outcomes. This systematic review was commissioned by the South Asia Research Hub (SARH) of DFID for generating a robust assessment of the available evidence for decision-makers; such as policymakers, donor partners and other practitioners of this region or other similar settings.
What did we find?
A two stage review was undertaken. Stage 1 mapped the range of literature and stage 2 sought to explore the effective violence reduction approaches along with identifying the interrelation of urbanisation process and violence. This systematic review found significant gaps in evidence linking the urbanisation process with violence and insecurity. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), domestic violence, gender based violence and sexual violence are most common forms of violence in urban LMIC. Heterogeneity among the approaches was found. Interventions contain combination of components. However, different forms of training, awareness raising and support services were common among components. In some occasion incentive and legal service became successful. Heterogeneity of approaches and violence types hindered synthesis in specific direction. No study with single component showed significant impact. This systematic review suggests that when approaches were undertaken in a comprehensive way addressing the specific contextual aspects of violence had the more likelihood to induce positive changes. A comprehensive model should include components related to women’s education, knowledge development and income-generating activities, active participation of men, school based programme, infrastructural development and service oriented component. Moreover, ensuring stakeholder participation especially community participation in every stage of the intervention is crucial for sustainability.
How did we get these results?
Rigorous search was performed using a variety of search terms including key words, relevant text word, index terms and entry terms. In the first stage, this review mapped 319 studies after primary screening. In a total 19 intervention trials from LMICs were assessed and synthesized in the second stage.