ideas42 is a behavioral science research and design firm headquartered in New York City that uses insights from psychology and behavioral economics to invent fresh solutions to social problems worldwide. ideas42 is currently seeking proposals related to intimate partner violence (IPV). Through their request for proposals (RFP), the firm aims to identify, select and fund innovative IPV interventions for further design work, implementation and testing. The RFP (PDF) and a related budget template (Excel) are available online.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the most common form of physical and sexual violence in women’s lives. IPV encompasses any physical, sexual, economic and/or psychological harm by a current or former partner. Freedom from such violence is a basic human right, yet estimates suggest millions of women worldwide are affected. A World Health Organization study found that between 13% and 61% of women reported having been victims of physical abuse by a domestic partner before the age of 49. These numbers serve to remind us that for many women, home is not safe.
The Need for Innovation:
A number of experts have dedicated their careers to reducing these numbers and improving women’s lives. To date, interventions tackling violence have been informed by disciplines including human rights, criminal justice and public health, to name a few. Their approaches have generated a number of effective interventions. Notwithstanding the progress made so far, IPV remains a chronic global problem. Further progress, particularly in the area of primary prevention, will require more than simply reapplying successful interventions. This may in part reflect the fact that the many interventions in the area of IPV build on and are informed by insights from the same set of disciplines.
Bringing a multi-disciplinary lens that incorporates insights from disciplines currently under-utilized in the IPV space could therefore facilitate the process of designing original, effective solutions. For example, applying actionable tools from the study of psychological “hot and cold states” could improve the effectiveness of violence reduction programs. Supplementing IPV prevention programming with findings from economic mobility research would enable programmers to address multiple barriers to IPV prevention. Understanding the social constructs at play in communities with high rates of IPV could enhance community-level interventions. Bringing insights from fields not commonly seen in the IPV space may enable unexpected approaches which, paired with vigorous evaluation, could help reduce and prevent IPV worldwide.
The Call for Action:
In an effort to reinvigorate the search for innovative interventions to IPV, ideas42 seeks to fund implementation and testing for multidisciplinary IPV interventions.
ideas42 invites two types of proposals:
- Proposals for implementation and pilot testing of pre-developed interventions that have been designed with insights from behavioral economics, psychology, social sciences, philosophy, economics, or other underrepresented disciplines.
- Proposals for the opportunity to collaborate with multi-disciplinary experts to design and test new interventions within existing programs.
Through this RFP process, we seek to fund proof of concept pilot testing on innovative interventions, whose results can be used in an iterative manner to improve interventions addressing intimate partner violence. Through this process we hope to fund interventions that may eventually be rigorously tested with full-scale randomized evaluations.
Who Can Apply:
- Non-governmental domestic and international IPV organizations currently implementing IPV primary and secondary prevention programs.
- Experts from underrepresented fields who are working with implementing organizations with whom they can test their interventions.
- Organizations may jointly apply as part of a consortium provided that one organization is designated as the lead applicant, and if selected, could effectively coordinate the execution of the project.
- Multiple proposals may be submitted by a single organization/consortium.
- All proposed interventions must be informed by a multi-disciplinary lens or schools of thought not commonly applied to IPV. These might include but are not limited to behavioral economics, psychology (cognitive psychology, social psychology, judgment and decision-making), social sciences (sociology, anthropology and applied social science), philosophy (moral reasoning and ethics), and economics (development economics and economics mobility).
- All selected proposals must be open to receiving input from other experts in their domains.
- There are no geographic restrictions.
Applications are due October 16th, 2015 and we will announce selected interventions in December 2015.
For more information see the attached request for proposals and budget template and/or the ideas42 website at
http://www.ideas42.org/blog/project/intimate-partner-violence/
This material is cross-posted from the Peace and Collaborative Development Network, http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org.
Please contact Vivien Caetano, vcaetano@ideas42.org, if you have any questions.