Data and algorithms to measure and prevent Gender Based Violence in the UK: an inward-placement of Data Pop Alliance at the University of Surrey
Start date
January 2023End date
March 2023Overview
Gender-based Violence (GBV), any violent act, attempt, or threat that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately, is one of the most pervasive forms of human rights violations affecting an estimated 30% of women worldwide. Public policy decisions taken on the basis of these data are biased and may not be properly resourced to meet demand for program design and impact evaluation of prevention and treatment services.
This ESRC IAA funded project aims to foster collaborations and knowledge exchange between the external partner and experts at the University of Surrey, to develop a novel data-driven framework to identify and analyse the causes of GBV.
The goal is to produce a toolkit for policy makers and advocates to mitigate GBV in the UK and worldwide and highlight the importance of understanding the multiple factors that enable (or hinder) reporting and thus prevention and response to GBV, by generating a novel comprehensive, and holistic data-driven framework to identify and analyse its underlying causes.
Team
Dr Carla Bonina
Associate Professor (Reader) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Biography
Carla Bonina is Associate Professor (Reader) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Surrey Business School. Her research interests lie in the intersection of technology innovation, entrepreneurship and policy with a focus on sustainable development. Her current projects revolve around digital platforms, digital social innovation and AI for international. She provides strategic advice on digital transformation, open data and sustainability of the digital economy to governments, international organisations and donors, such as Avinas Americas, the OECD, the IDRC and the World Bank among others. She is considered a Latin American expert.
Her research has been funded by prestigious bodies, including the European Union's Horizon 2020, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
She's been awarded Mid-Career Researcher of the Year at Surrey Business School in 2021, and received the Impact Award prize in 2020 for outstanding contributions to impact in her research on digital government transformation in Latin America.
Carla is founding member of the Surrey Center of Digital Economy and Principal Researcher at the Latin American Initiative of Open data (ILDA). She is Fellow of the Surrey Institute for People Centred AI, member of the Center for Social Innovation Management and the Surrey Law and Technology Hub. She is also member of Sandbox, a global network of young entrepreneurs, and shares a passion for social entrepreneurship.
Carla holds a PhD in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the UK, an MSc in Public Administration and Public Policy from CIDE in Mexico City, and a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires.
Our Partners
Zinnya del Villar - Data Science Research Director at Data-Pop Alliance. She is engaged in the research on data-driven initiatives in gender-based violence and in the analysis of gender-sensitive data through the use of new technologies and methodologies.
Outputs
Short-term outcomes include:
- Workshop to connect relevant actors and learn about the state of art of gender-based violence data in the UK and engage with interested actors on our mission to create a data-driven framework against GBV (28 March 2023)
- Materials: draft of a holistic data-driven framework for comments and feedback during the in-ward placement
Longer term outcomes and future plans
- Dissemination/Mobilisation Activities: after the placement we plan the development and dissemination of the holistic data-driven framework for GBV underreporting (published in English), open thematic discussions through Eureka.
- Preparation of bids to escalate the project: The aim is to use the ESRC IAA project funding to form a bidding team that can later apply to £500K+ grants jointly.
Impact
The overall goal is to ensure the approach and insights from this project can be leveraged in the UK.
Globally, there is a reliance on models and techniques generated in North America and Western Europe and these models are often transplanted to the Global South, in many cases by researchers that do not understand the local context. This work will demonstrate how models and modelling capacity can be developed with a Global South perspective that will enrich the local UK context.
The reach and significance of the entire project going forward has the potential to be unique, tapping into developed and developing countries, and strengthening policy and practice. By leveraging a novel framework to collect and analyse GBV data, future use of data and algorithms will prevent the biases of administrative records combining elements of qualitative research and machine learning (ML).
The team expects the resulting framework to offer opportunities for scaling GBV research, as well as the formulation of inclusive development policies and for the decolonization of data tools and methods for low- and middle-income countries.