Who we are

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited, or ANROWS, was established as an initiative of Australia’s first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022 (National Plan) by the Commonwealth Government and all state and territory governments of Australia.  

Our primary function is to build the evidence base that supports ending violence against women and children in Australia. ANROWS is embedded in the National Plan architecture and will continue to deliver and develop this function across the next decade under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032.

Every aspect of our work is motivated by the right of women and children to live free from violence and in safe communities. We recognise, respect and respond to diversity among women and children, and we are committed to reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

ANROWS is registered as a harm prevention charity and deductible gift recipient, governed by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC).

 

How we work

In alignment with the new National Plan, we have developed a strategic plan to guide the organisation through the next five years toward our vision of building the evidence base that supports ending violence against women and children in Australia. The specific role we play, our mission, is being the authoritative voice to create and communicate high-quality evidence through targeted research, evaluation and relationships.

How we will do this is captured under four strategic priorities:

• CREATE: Conduct and facilitate high-quality, targeted research
• CONNECT: Collaborate and partner with integrity and openness
• INFORM: Make high-quality evidence accessible to inform and improve policy, legislation and practice
• INFLUENCE: Use the evidence to lead the national conversation to influence/drive change.

Read the full ANROWS Strategic Plan 2022–2027.

 

How we measure our effectiveness

The ANROWS conceptual model was developed under a previous strategic plan and relates to ANROWS’s previous three strategic goals. It has been reviewed by Clear Horizon in 2022 and will be revised and updated in due course.

Over 2021–2022, ANROWS has been very effective in achieving its strategic goal of ensuring that policymakers and practice designers who are working to address violence against women are increasingly influenced by evidence … ANROWS has been particularly effective in achieving strong recognition as a leading and authoritative voice around the research on the prevention of violence against women; and in building a credible evidence base that is influencing policymakers and practice designers who are working to prevent violence against women.
Impact Report 2022, Clear Horizon

The model below shows how the organisation’s four intersecting functions worked to efficiently achieve our goal: high-quality research evidence applied to policy and practice to prevent and respond to violence against women and its impact on children.

 

 

We communicate our impact to stakeholders in a number of ways, including the annual reports housed on this page.