Decolonising knowledge in practice: lessons from the Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s Faith & Gender-Based Violence Community of Practice

This article examines the first year of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s (SVRI) global Faith & Gender-Based Violence Community of Practice (“the CoP”), launched in 2024 to strengthen understanding of and engagement with the role of faith actors in addressing violence against women and children (VAW/C). Drawing on the theoretical framework of Communities of Practice, the article explores how the CoP’s community and practice emerged through horizontal leadership, participatory knowledge production, and a commitment to centring voices from the Global South and survivors who are often excluded from mainstream development spaces. The analysis highlights how reflective, practice-based inquiry, Freirean pedagogy, and epistemic justice shaped collaborative approaches across its three working groups. By privileging local knowledge, fostering trust, and embracing pluriversality, the CoP has begun to challenge extractive research practices and North-centric hierarchies. The findings offer insights into building equitable, inclusive CoPs that advance feminist and decolonial methodologies in global development.