Prof Rachel Jewkes transformed gender based violence (GBV) from a hidden crisis into a global public health priority

Tracy Lee Stark

There is a particular kind of courage required to spend more than three decades working at the intersection of violence, gender and public health. It requires the ability to confront uncomfortable truths, follow evidence into areas that challenge powerful interests, and continue the work despite the scale of the problem. Prof Rachel Jewkes, Executive Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Public Health, has dedicated her career to doing exactly that.

Her career began with a group of young women whose stories changed the direction of her work. While conducting research on sexual and reproductive health in Cape Town in the early 1990s, she encountered young women whose pregnancies were linked to rape and abuse. It was then that she recognised violence was not a private matter, but a critical missing piece in understanding sexual and reproductive health, and a major public health crisis that had largely remained invisible.

Working in public health in South Africa (SA) during the 1990s, Jewkes encountered the unreported scale of violence against women and quickly realised that no meaningful policy response could exist without a strong evidence base. She set out to build one. More than three decades later, her 345 peer-reviewed journal articles, cited nearly 60,000 times, with an h-index of 107, represent one of the most influential bodies of research on gender-based violence in global public health.

From the SAMRC’s Gender and Health Research Unit, which she led for more than two decades, Jewkes and her team documented the prevalence, causes and consequences of GBV and femicide in SA. Their research examined GBV’s role in the HIV epidemic, evaluated responses across the health, police and justice sectors, and developed prevention interventions now used across Africa, Asia and beyond.

Her Stepping Stones programme, a gender-transformative HIV and GBV prevention intervention designed for rural Eastern Cape communities, was the subject of a landmark cluster randomised controlled trial. It was the first study to show that GBV perpetration by men could be reduced through a participatory, community-based intervention. Its findings influenced prevention programmes internationally.

Her What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls? Global Programme, which she led from 2013 to 2020, brought together research across 13 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The programme completed 17 studies and developed seven new GBV prevention interventions. It showed that 40% of evaluated interventions could reduce GBV, identified nine effective intervention approaches, and outlined 10 key features needed for successful design and implementation. This evidence has shaped global investment in violence prevention.

The influence of her research extends into policy and funding decisions worldwide. The European Union’s (EU’s) Spotlight Initiative on GBV prevention and the United Kingdom (UK) Government’s What Works 2 programme both built on evidence developed through this global research effort. The Global Fund’s investment in HIV and gender inequality interventions has also been informed by research demonstrating the relationship between GBV and HIV risk among women. Her work has been cited in more than 1,580 policy documents worldwide.

Jewkes has been NRF A-rated three times, most recently receiving an A1 rating in 2016 and again in 2022, recognising her standing among South Africa’s leading scientists. She is a founder member of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), now a global network of more than 13,000 researchers and practitioners, and served as its Secretary for 13 years while it was hosted at the SAMRC. She was lead technical advisor to the United Nations (UN) Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific from 2008 to 2013 and has served as a technical advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on multiple occasions.

The impact of her research can be seen across communities, policy and health systems. Her statistics provided the foundation for the 1 in 9 Campaign, launched in 2006 to support rape survivor Fezeka Khuzwayo. Her team developed the national curriculum for post-rape care, the only one approved under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act of 2007. Her research into the rape of children by school teachers contributed to the establishment of the South African Council of Educators (SACE). Her work has informed national GBV policy documents, including the National Strategic Plan on GBV and Femicide, and has been regularly presented to Parliamentary Committees.

Her current flagship project, Fediša Modikologo, meaning “breaking the cycle” in Sesotho, is a Wellcome Trust-funded prospective cohort study running until 2031. The study tracks the impact of severe intimate partner violence (IPV) on women’s health and on the lives of their children.

The research includes three cohorts: 9,691 women recruited from four sites across Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape who have recently experienced severe IPV; a sub-cohort followed every six months over several years; and the children of those women. In the past 18 months alone, the study has provided counselling and support to more than 9,500 women.

Jewkes is also a co-investigator on the fifth national femicide study, the latest stage in a surveillance programme she established in 1999, which was the first of its kind globally.

Beyond her research achievements, Jewkes has invested deeply in developing the next generation of scientists. Associates who joined her team as junior researchers in the 1990s have gone on to become professors and unit directors, carrying forward the field she helped build.

The NSTF-South32 Lifetime Award recognises a career defined by more than three decades of research, advocacy and impact in advancing understanding of violence against women and building a safer, more just society.

Read the special Mail & Guardian supplement about all the NSTF-South32 Award winners.