The cost of Gender Based Violence

Tackling violence against women and girls should be a priority issue for all politicians because it is rampant, a barrier to gender equality, and causes life-long trauma if not fatal. While these seem like very clear reasons to act urgently on this issue, the same questions continues to be raised - how much will it cost? The question that should be asked, if looking at it from the perspective of efficient spend of public money, is how much is the cost of not tackling violence against women and girls? 

Currently, violence against women and girls costs the NI economy roughly £750 million. The responsive nature to issues such as this contributes significantly to the cost and allows it to worsen over time by not tackling the structural reasons. Connecting the budget to specific, preventative policies is the best way of spending public money as they are funding long-term solutions as opposed to short-term sticking-plasters on structural issues. Additionally, efficient spending of public money improves policy outcomes - the more targeted the resourcing is, the more likely that money will actually make a difference in shifting the impact of violence against women and girls. 

The punitive Budget implemented by the Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris, did not provide any resourcing for the recently developed Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, which included in-depth co-design with experts working on the issue. This is a prime example of ignoring the structural changes that need to be addressed in order to lessen the cost of the issue. As we are currently steeped in a financial and budgetary crisis, we must demand that smart decisions are made that will ultimately lessen costs to the economy, as opposed to increasing future costs. 

In one of the most dangerous places for women in Europe, violence against women and girls must be a policy priority, and that priority must be properly resourced to improve the lives of women and girls in Northern Ireland, as well as to improve the outcomes of our spend.

Author - Alex Brennan, Coordinator NI Women’s Budget Group