Provocation before Evaluation: A Pre-evaluative Analysis of Delivering Equally Safe Funded Services in Scotland in Relation to Equally Safe Strategy Priorities

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a persistent human rights violation that the Scottish Government is seeking to address through the Equally Safe strategy which provides the national approach to eradicating VAWG. Delivering Equally Safe is the Scottish Government's funding programme to support third sector organisations and public bodies contribute to the objectives, priorities and outcomes of the Equally Safe Strategy. Using a publicly available overview of the 121 organisations and services funded through Delivering Equally Safe, this paper examines how the services funded align with the four strategic priorities of Equally Safe 2023: prevention, victim-survivor support, perpetrator accountability, and system-wide coordination. The brief descriptions of funded projects were categorised into six thematic areas: crisis support, legal advocacy and financial support, education and prevention, capacity building and system change, targeted support for specific groups, and perpetrator engagement. Findings show that crisis support dominates provision, while perpetrator engagement is significantly underrepresented, limiting the capacity to disrupt cycles of violence. Services addressing marginalised groups demonstrate partial recognition of intersectionality but are fragmented and largely urban-based. Although capacity-building and prevention initiatives are present, they remain secondary to immediate support services, reflecting a reactive rather than preventive emphasis. Overall, Delivering Equally Safe provides critical victim-survivor support but delivers unevenly across strategic priorities.