Dr. Erin Stern is an SDDirect Associate with 16 years of research, evaluation, and programme development experience, with specialisation in preventing gender-based violence (GBV). She has provided research and implementation support to more than 25 civil society organizations and multilaterals across 25 countries in a diversity of regions including the Caribbean (Barbados, Grenada), Eastern Europe (Moldova, Ukraine), East Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda), the Middle East (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria), West Africa (Ghana), Southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe), South America (Bolivia, Peru), South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Vietnam). She has a PhD in Public Health from the University of Cape Town and holds honorary positions with the University of Cape Town and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is currently a Senior Associate with the Prevention Collaborative.
Erin has conducted multiple evaluations of violence prevention programmes. She coordinated the impact evaluation of Indashyikirwa in Rwanda as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Programme and has supported several subsequent adaptations of this evidence-based model. Other notable evaluations she has conducted include an evaluability assessment of three UN Women programs to end violence against women in Afghanistan, a review of Oak’s grant making program to engage men and boys to prevent violence against children, a feminist and collaborative evaluation around social norms change and violence against women programming with UN Women’s Multi-Country Office in the Caribbean, and a qualitative evaluation of a parenting programme to prevent violence against children in Bolivia.
Erin has a wealth of experience providing capacity strengthening, technical and implementation support. With the Prevention Collaborative, she offered technical support around programme design, monitoring and evaluation to UN Women Timor-Leste, and supported UN Women Indonesia to develop a country office violence prevention strategy. She was a technical advisor with UNDP for four years where she provided adaptation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation support to GBV participatory prevention programmes in Moldova, Peru and Indonesia.
Erin has worked with SDDirect on a number of engagements. She has been supporting UNFPA Syria to design, research and evaluate a GBV prevention pilot, which is an adaptation of the Indashyikirwa programme. She is currently supporting an evidence review of the bi-directional relationship between poor mental health and GBV as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls II programme. She supported SAFE Zimbabwe to adapt a women’s economic empowerment methodology to incorporate principles to prevent violence against women.