This review of current issues and approaches in policy, programming and implementation responses to SRGBV has been commissioned by the HIV and Health Education section in the Education Sector at UNESCO to contribute to the development of comprehensive evidence‐informed policy guidelines for the prevention and elimination of SRGBV in and through education. Despite the call for action and the increasing awareness among governments, civil society and the international community of the scale of SRGBV, efforts to address it have been patchy and largely ineffective. The evidence base for the global scale and nature of the problem is limited and there is little collective intelligence to date on best practice in either prevention or response, e.g. on what makes intervention successful, how to measure success and how to scale up promising initiatives. Yet, we know that SRGBV continues to be a serious barrier to educational participation, especially of girls, and casts doubt on the school as an appropriate forum for educating young people about gender equality, non‐violent behaviour and sexual and reproductive health. Schools have the potential to bring about change but this cannot be effective if they are simultaneously sites of gender inequality and violence. This review seeks to advance our knowledge and learning in this field, both in terms of what we know about the phenomenon and its impact on individuals, and on how best to address it, including through education. We start the review with a brief explanation of the conceptual framework and of the problematic nature of definitions of GBV, followed by a brief note on our methodology. The substance of the review follows, first summarising the research evidence on SRGBV by region, and then outlining approaches to policy, programming and implementation, with key messages for the education sector and for UNESCO’s role in the post‐MDG era.