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Levels of violence against girls and women remains high across the world, despite global attention and focus need to shift to preventing violence rather than just dealing with the consequences, suggests a new study. 

The study examined various programs around the world aimed at reducing and eliminating instances of gender-based violence against women and girls and evaluated their effectiveness.

"Our research shows that multi-pronged programs that involve entire communities are the most effective in preventing violence against women and girls, but we still have a lot more work to do,"co-author Mary Ellsberg, director of the George Washington University's Global Women's Institute (GWI), said in the press release. "We need to invest more time and money into the cause to really change attitudes and actions around the world."

According to the study, 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical or sexual partner violence, and 7 percent of women will experience sexual assault by a non-partner at some point in their lives.

"Our research clearly demonstrates that we need to dedicate more resources and time to prevention programs that are community based, involving women, girls, men and boys of all ages and diverse backgrounds," said Diana J. Arango, a research scientist at GWI and co-author of the paper, in the press release. "Without a two-pronged approach that gives equal attention to prevention and response we will not reduce these pandemic levels of violence."

The study was published in the journal The Lancet.