Our Core Values
Our Core Values are informed by our Mission and the Project dldl/ድልድል Model for research and intervention design. As an Institute, we are committed to:
Impact with substance driven by community priorities
Decolonial reflexivity centred on positionality
Cultural and religious sensitivity
Diversity of worldviews and healthy disagreement
Community-grounded research and intervention design
Survivor-centred and trauma-informed research and practice
Interdisciplinarity and multi-stakeholder integration
Collaboration and co-creation based on mutual respect
Robust ethics and integrity in research and programme delivery
Impact with Substance Driven by Community Priorities
Our main premise is that meaningful and impactful interventions emerge when they are designed from the ground up informed by empirical evidence and real-life experiences. When research in domestic violence remains embedded in euro-centric or universalist theories of what causes or maintains domestic violence and is distanced from the diverse lived realities of affected individuals and communities, its value for real individuals and communities becomes questionable. We therefore commit to identifying impact that matters to our collaborators and communities and to promoting community priorities.
Decolonial Reflexivity Centred on Positionality
We recognise that historical and on-going epistemic and structural inequalities have interfered with inclusive knowledge production and contextualised responses to domestic violence and are committed to embodying and promoting a decolonised ethos and approach in all our research and intervention activities and programmes. We actively aim to subvert colonial legacies in research and community engagement and we critically reflect on the strengths and limitations of our positionality and power asymmetries between us and members of the communities we engage with.
Cultural and Religious Sensitivity
We respect diverse cultural and religious worldviews, including secular, feminist and religious worldviews, without ascribing to cultural absolutisms or relativisms. We recognise that people’s religio-cultural beliefs can hold existential value for them and we aim to engage with these with due sensitivity, without hesitating to challenge theologically uninformed positions that harm members of these communities.
Diversity of Worldviews and Healthy Disagreement
We understand that gender identities, gender-based violence, religion or migration can be sensitive concepts and topics and that people can feel strongly about their opinions. We encourage ‘an epistemology of disagreement’ and aim to facilitate healthy encounters and debates provided that these are motivated by a shared respect for human dignity and life and the right of all individuals to freely choose their own opinions and actions.
Community-grounded Research and Intervention Design
We believe that interventions on domestic violence and other forms of violence have often failed to generate sustainable outcomes or community acceptance due to lacking sufficient contextualisation and ethnographic insight to capture nuanced lived experiences. We employ an approach whereby all our interventions are based on and emerge from prior community-based research typically led by or co-created with community stakeholders and members.
Survivor-centred and Trauma-informed Research and Practice
We always prioritise do-no-harm principles and only work in communities and conditions where we have acceptance and relevance. When we work with communities, which may include victims and survivors of domestic violence and other forms of violence, we take all appropriate and necessary action to ensure the informed consent, privacy, and dignity of the participants and to minimise the likelihood of re-traumatisation, stigmatisation or retaliation by perpetrators.
Interdisciplinarity and Multi-stakeholder Integration
We recognise that domestic violence and interconnected forms of violence are complex problems that can only be analysed with sufficient nuance through an interdisciplinary framework. We are committed to promoting interdisciplinary analyses and responses to the problem through a better integration of the arts, humanities and the social sciences and by bringing together stakeholders across academia, practice and policy who may not typically engage with each other, including women’s organisations, feminist platforms and faith-based stakeholders.
Collaboration and Co-creation based on Mutual Respect
We start from the recognition that complex global problems cannot be addressed without transboundary knowledge-sharing and collaboration and are keen to create partnerships based on mutual respect and trust with organisations that are deeply embedded in the community and share our decolonial commitments. We engage with communities and collaborators as equal partners, and we promote shared ownership in research and practice.
Robust Ethics and Integrity in Research and Programme Delivery
We are committed to upholding the highest standards of ethics and integrity in all aspects of our research and programme delivery. This includes ensuring rigorous ethical review, transparency, accountability and respect for all participants and communities we work with. We adhere to international and national frameworks for research integrity and aim to promote responsible, inclusive and reflexive practice across all our activities.
We encourage ‘an epistemology of disagreement’ and aim to facilitate healthy encounters and debates provided that these are motivated by a shared respect for human dignity and life and the right of all individuals to freely choose their own opinions and actions.
IDVRM is comprised of diverse individuals who are encouraged to share their experiences and opinions openly with recognition that other team members may have different experiences and positions. IDVRM does not claim to represent any one community and we understand that belonging to a specific group does not entitle any one of us to speak for all.
Review our policies by clicking on the links below. Several policies are currently under review and will be added or updated as they are internally approved.
IDVRM Data Protection and Management Policy
IDVRM Employment Policy
