Two New Publications on Combatting Gender-Based Violence
Posted by Share-Net NL on October 6, 2014 at 8:56 am
Besides being associated with the incidence of HIV infections, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, and other health problems, gender-based violence (GBV) is also a human rights violation. Ongoing efforts by government and nongovernmental organizations to address GBV holistically by focusing on prevention of GBV as well as on response to and support for GBV survivors are critical and need to go hand-in-hand.
The RESPOND Project is proud to announce the publication of two documents that will provide policymakers, program designers/implementers, and health care providers with information and tools useful to both GBV prevention and response. The Effects of a Gender-Based Violence Awareness Campaign in Luanda, Angola: A Quasi-Experimental Study (RESPOND Project Study Series: Contributions to Global Knowledge—Report No. 17) presents results of an evaluation of a GBV prevention campaign (“Together We Can End Domestic Violence”) that challenged norms supporting the perpetration of GBV, promoted healthy relationships and equitable norms, and encouraged bystanders to respond to GBV. Following the campaign, women’s attitudes in regard to whether GBV is justified improved substantially. In some cases, however, men’s support for gender inequity and GBV increased after the campaign or showed little change, suggesting that the campaign may have produced resistance to change among some men. If resistance did increase, it may have been limited to reported attitudes because, at endline, both men and women said that certain behaviors and attitudes had improved (e.g., shared decision making increased, controlling behavior decreased, and attitudes toward Angola’s domestic violence law improved).
Additionally, Integration of Family Planning and Intimate Partner Violence Services: A Prototype for Adaption. Trainer’s Guide is five-day training curriculum designed to increase the capacity of family planning and reproductive health care providers to recognize and respond to the impact of intimate partner violence in the lives of their family planning clients. Pilot-tested in Conakry, Guinea, the manual examines root causes and dynamics of intimate partner violence; the process for integrating services; provider attitudes and skills development; and action planning. While the manual includes a protocol for integrating intimate partner violence and family planning services that is specific to the clinic process in Conakry, it can be adapted for use in other reproductive health and family planning clinics.
We invite you to learn more about RESPOND and its contribution to global knowledge on family planning and reproductive health. Please visit www.respond-project.org.
