Many development practitioners and their national partners now agree that comprehensive approaches are needed to reduce and prevent armed violence. They have begun to adapt a wide assortment of programmes to meet this objective. Ongoing programming in the field is signposting a number of critical ways forward. This section considers a range of lessons learned and programming experiences that have shaped the AVR approach. It then introduces the armed violence lens, which can help development actors to better identify drivers, risk factors and the effects of armed violence, and identify strategic entry points for intervention.