Jobs, liberalised divorce laws and access to advanced education all reduce the risk of violence to women. But as the World Health Organization has demonstrated, much more is possible to stop violence against women.

A million women will be victims of assault by their intimate partner and close to million forcibly raped in the USA this year. Unknown numbers of children will be abused and sexually abused. For every woman in a transition house, one woman will be turned away. For every woman reporting a rape to the police, five will not report.

WHO has reviewed what has successfully reduced violence against women. The evidence shows the importance of educating boys (4th R) and from tackling the roots of violence generally in order to stop violence against women.

We need to ensure that

• reducing child abuse through parenting programs like public health nurses and teen and early childhood education programs
• every teenager has followed a compulsory school curriculum on how to avoid sexual violence against girls (4th R)
• every police department has established a policy to ensure that women feel comfortable reporting violence, incluPostsding have a female officer available wherever possible, and implementation of IACP standards
• women abused by men are helped: no woman is turned away from a transition house and men are removed from homes if violent and sustained funding for rape crisis centers
• every order of government has a planning framework (diagnosis, plan, implementation, evaluation) for developing policies and programs for the prevention of, and assistance to victims, of intimate partner and sexual violence.

Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: taking action and generating evidence is available here.