The URDR has conducted extensive research on engagement with leadership structures at grassroots, community level with the aim of reaching development goals, especially addressing gender-based violence. Engaging religious leaders, traditional leaders, and also informal leadership structures is often a critical component of transforming community norms and practices.
Relevant recent research includes:
• Accompanying research on the Zambian flagship project Religious and Traditional Actors Preventing Violence against Women and Girls, for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) programme Partnerships for Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls in Southern Africa.
• The role of religious leaders in efforts to end child marriage, for Girls Not Brides
• The African Leadership Study, with Tyndale House Foundation, as a two-phased quantitative and qualitative study in Kenya, Central African Republic and Angola.