Designing equitable and effective strategies to combat violence hate and discrimination

This research assignment is being carried out on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) during the period 2022–2026. The project aims to strengthen the knowledge base for society’s efforts against violence, abuse, hate, and discrimination, and to contribute to a better understanding of how interventions and services can be further developed in light of increased diversity and complex needs.

The project is a collaboration between Fafo, Nordlandsforskning and the Welfare Research Institute NOVA at OsloMet, comprising a total of ten sub-projects. Twenty-two researchers with expertise in violence, discrimination, welfare services and prevention are participating. The project manager is Synnøve Økland Jahnsen (Fafo).

About the project portfolio

The assignment consists of ten sub-projects which together cover a wide range of topics, target groups, and service areas. The portfolio includes both:

• Evaluations of specific interventions and services, such as crisis centres, helplines, and treatment models in child welfare
• Studies of how different groups encounter the services
• Knowledge development about violence, negative social control, hate speech, and discrimination
• Analyses of competence development and service organisation

Altogether, the portfolio spans from childhood to old age, and from individual measures to questions about organisation, competence, and coordination within services. The projects draw attention to how gender, age, functional ability, migration experience, indigenous identity, and religious context can influence both the risk of violence and access to protection and help.

The portfolio provides a broad empirical and analytical foundation to examine how preventive work and services operate in practice, as well as the challenges that arise when the ambition is to offer equitable and effective measures to a diverse population.

What are we trying to find out?

The sub-projects illuminate the main question from various perspectives, but especially focus on:

• How interventions and services function in practice, and what barriers may affect access to help
• How efforts can be tailored to different needs without compromising overall coherence
• How knowledge, competence and organisation influence quality, accessibility and accuracy
• How prevention and protection are designed and understood in the face of a broad and complex set of challenges

In this way, the project examines how prevention, protection and equality work are shaped at the intersection between political ambitions, professional models, and actual encounters with services.

Interaction and dialogue

The project is organised with the ambition of professional interaction across the sub-projects. Where appropriate, researchers have collaborated on data collection and discussed cross-cutting issues during the project period.

Annual professional seminars have also been organised. These seminars have provided arenas to discuss research and project design, preliminary findings, developments, and key dilemmas in the work against violence, hate and discrimination.

Synthesis work

The final sub-project is a synthesis effort, gathering insights from the other sub-projects. Here, among other things, it is examined how different forms of prevention and service development can be understood in context, and what questions and considerations become important when the ambition is both equity and effectiveness in meeting a diverse population base.

Final conference 29 May

On Friday 29 May, we invite you to a Fafo breakfast in the concluding phase of the research assignment, where we will present findings from several sub-projects and highlight cross-cutting issues central to the synthesis work in sub-project 10: Between coherence and fragmentation.

The seminar gathers perspectives from interventions and services across the field, and concludes with comments and discussion from key researchers and actors in the field.