Strengthening Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Refugee and Internally Displaced Person (IDP) settings

Gender-based violence is a pervasive public health and human rights issue throughout the world. While international declarations and frameworks with recommendations on how to deal with perpetrators of gender-based violence exist, they are, by themselves, not adequate to change people's attitudes and practices, which in many communities are reinforced by gender norms and power relations.

The consequences of gender-based violence are a major obstacle to reducing poverty, achieving gender equality and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. International conferences and conventions including the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have made various recommendations including legislation to address gender-based violence. Prevention and response interventions to gender-based violence should adhere to internationally agreed guiding principles, and programmes should incorporate the minimum recommended response services.
Programme managers and health care service must have the technical capacity to engage communities to examine and challenge cultural values and norms without creating misunderstanding, unnecessary tensions and antagonism.

This two-week course provides practical skills in designing and implementing interagency and multi sectoral programmes and interventions to respond to gender-based violence in the community and especially among populations affected by armed conflict.


Course Focus

• Understanding gender-based violence and contributing factors
• Multisectoral prevention and response strategies to gender-based violence
• Interagency coordination of prevention and response interventions
• Standards for clinical management, care and counseling of survivors of gender-based violence
• Training and facilitation skills to build capacity of health care workers and community change agents

Course Benefits

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Critically examine concepts of gender and power relationships in the context of gender-based violence
• Analyze how gender norms, perceptions of masculinity and femininity are socially constructed and their relationship to gender-based violence
• Implement the recommended strategies and standards for interagency, multisectoral prevention and response to gender-based violence
• Effectively manage gender-based violence survivors
• Promote and apply culturally sensitive participatory approaches to developing and implementing interventions for prevention and response to gender-based violence

Audience

This course is suitable for programme managers/coordinators and health care providers responsible for developing and implementing interventions to address gender-based violence in different contexts. They will include staff from humanitarian organizations, health institutions, civil society organizations, development partners and technical assistance agencies.