Image
Women’s Safety and Security
Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative
We develop policy and research to prevent and address gender-based violence wherever it occurs, both on- and offline, and promote security by increasing women’s participation in peace and security processes.
Child Marriage
Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage
Authors: Rachel Vogelstein and Jennifer Klein
Child marriage is not only a human rights violation—it is also an economic issue. Estimates show approximately 12 million girls are still married before the age of 18 each year. This report from the Women's Initiative at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics, which features new research produced by the Center for Global Development, shows that the costs of inaction on child marriage are staggering, with estimated losses of up to $175 billion per year, or almost $2.5 trillion by 2040. Furthermore, recent challenges—including significant cuts in foreign assistance, the waning global commitment to women’s human rights, and growing conflict and crises—threaten to slow or even reverse progress.
April 15, 2026
New analysis from the Center for Global Development featured in Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage, a new report from the Institute of Global Politics Women’s Initiative at Columbia University, reveals that the costs from deaths, health declines, and lost earnings alone amount to up to $175 billion per year in 27 countries, making up 70 percent of the global burden of child marriage.
March 4, 2026
To commemorate International Women’s Day, the Institute of Global Politics (IGP)’s Women’s Initiative convened leading policymakers and advocates from around the world to release a new report, Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
November 17, 2025
In this second installation of the conflict-related sexual violence virtual roundtable series, a panel of global experts discussed legal representation, reparations, recognition for children born of wartime rape, and community rebuilding as essential pathways to justice for survivors
September 16, 2025
Institute of Global Politics (IGP) Women’s Initiative and Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution host first virtual roundtable
February 16, 2024
Experts, scholars, policymakers, and activists discussed the use of rape, torture, and other forms of gender-based violence as weapons of war, and the policies and international frameworks that can help prevent it.
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence
Image
It’s Everyone’s Problem: Mainstreaming Responses to Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence
Authors: Nina Jankowicz, Isabella Gomez-O’Keefe, Lauren Hoffman, and Andrea Vidal Becker
Technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is not an intractable problem. But it must no longer be the responsibility solely of women’s advocacy groups. Others – technology companies, governments, civil society organizations, law enforcement, businesses, schools – must step up and work in unison to combat TFGBV in order to to reflect its mainstreamed effects on society. This new IGP report, drawing on a case study around the online harassment of Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, assesses the state of research on TFGBV as well as recent global policy progress made on this issue, and offers a number of practical solutions to make women and girls safer online.
January 28, 2026
IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative and IGP's Women’s Initiative convened an expert panel to discuss how governments, multilateral institutions, and technology companies can take action to address online violence, abuse, and harassment.