This Briefing Note seeks to identify and highlight systems, pressures, incentives and beliefs that appear to drive harmful practices in the gathering and use of information about systematic and conflict-related sexual violence (SCRSV). Based on desk-based research and the initial insights of practitioners from the media, humanitarian, justice and funding sectors, the Note looks beyond individual mistakes to the wider pressures and assumptions that shape how this work is carried out. The Note identifies three broad sets of drivers: structural drivers, operational drivers and normative drivers.

Identifying such drivers may help decision-makers, practitioners, survivors and campaigners to analyse and address them.  Such drivers must be properly addressed for true survivor-centred and effective information-gathering and use to become a consistent outcome for survivors and practitioners alike.

This Note is published as a discussion document.  Practitioners from different parts of the world and across sectors are invited to use it to reflect on the kinds of drivers highlighted here, to reflect on other drivers that may exist in and across sectors of relevance to them, and to consider how those drivers can be addressed.