How CARE works with survivors and communities to respond to gender based violence

During this past fiscal year, 244 CARE projects and initiatives worked to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) with 12% of projects fully focusing on addressing GBV and a further 45% mainstreaming GBV prevention and response approaches into their activities.

What impacts are we seeing?

By the end of FY18, across 5 projects in 5 countries, CARE and partners supported the reduction of experiences of physical, sexual or psychological violence from a former or current partner in the last 12 months among 129,122 women.

Experiences of GBV perpetrated by intimate partners are declining:

  • CARE-supported projects in Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Myanmar, Bangladesh contributed to reducing the proportion of women experiencing violence from an intimate partner by on average 19.1 percentage points (from 26.4% to 7.3%), supporting 129,747 fewer women to experience IPV. For example:
    • In Bangladesh, SHOUHARDO II contributed to reducing the proportion of women experiencing violence from an intimate partner by 20.5% points (from 27.7 to 7.2%), supporting 125,462 fewer women to experience IPV.
    • In Rwanda, the Umugore Arumvwa (“A Woman is Listened To”) project contributed toreducing the proportion of women experiencing violence from an intimate partner by 40.8% points (from 47% to 6.2%), supporting 1,492 fewer women to experience IPV.
  • 5 projects in Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Jordan and Nepal also helped increase support services for 1,403 women and girl survivors of GBV  

How did we get there?

Strengthening relationships and solidarity groups

  • Engaging men and boys as equal partners/family: In Bangladesh, SHOUHARDO II’s engagement of men and boys in women’s empowerment sessions played an important role in reducing violence against women. 
  • Establishing and supporting Women- and Girl-Friendly Space/Safe Spaces for Women and Girls in Emergencies: In emergency responses, as standalone projects that focus on GBV prevention and response or linked to our emergency shelter and site-planning work, CARE supports the establishment and operation of Safe Spaces for Women and Girls. These spaces provide a place for women and girls to come together to speak confidentially about their experiences, needs and concerns, as well as to receive practical assistance and advice, including referral to specialist GBV response services. 

Leadership and collective action

  • Helping women build skills: People’s knowledge of GBV, rights and relevant laws were strengthened. Projects also included a particular focus on building women’s leadership skills.
    • In Rwanda, Umugore Arumvwa linked community health workers with VSLAs so they could earn additional income and have incentives to carry-out activities related to GBV response.

 Inclusive and accountable institutions

  • Partnering with local coalitions and service providers:
    • In Bangladesh, SHOUHARDO II’s coordination meetings between various stakeholders supported groups in addressing domestic violence issues at community level.
    • In Cameroon, the Continuum of prevention, Care and Treatment (CoPCT) of HIV/AIDS with most at risk populations project sensitized the staff at police stations to reduce violence against key populations; this approach created a supportive environment for key populations to discuss experiences of violence as members of key populations whom were often penalized for behaviors that are often criminalized.
    • In Rwanda, Umugore Arumvwa coordinated a civil-society platform with 59 NGOs who continue to advocate for including issues of GBV into district planning processes and also conducted 105 Community Scorecard processes to help communities work with service providers to identify problems and make action plans to solve them.
  • Co-creating: Community mobilization and engagement with Government in all countries was an essential part of ownership of the approaches and models supported.
    • In Myanmar, CARE’s worked with the government and service providers on a Multi-Sectoral model for GBV prevention and response for Urban Women, to improve quality services and increase attention to addressing GBV.
    • In Rwanda, after training more than 340 people at the community level on the impacts of GBV and the importance of services, Umugore Arumvwa helped communities set up clubs that could support survivors.

Want to learn more?

Check out CARE’s Gender Primer for more guidance on promising practices to prevent GBV.
 
See evaluation reports on: SHOHARDO II; Umugore Arumvwa; Improve Access to Safe Employment for Migrant Women in Urban Myanmar. Further information on CARE’s work to tackle Gender Based Violence is available on CARE’s Insights In Practice: Ending Gender-based Violence GBV and CARE USA, CARE UK, and CARE Australia’s websites.

Has your project used similar to different that have yielded measurable impact?

Share your story with us by emailing Sarah Eckhoff at [email protected] or Jay Goulden at [email protected].