UNFPA contributes to the integration of gender equality and women's reproductive rights into legislative, regulatory and sector policies. Jointly within the GTG group, UNFPA participated in recent work and in support of Parliament's manifest desire to provide concrete and concerted responses to specific violence against women through a proposal for a legal framework for violence to fight against inequalities in women's rights under the leadership of Senator Dieudonne Etienne Luma. Advocacy efforts were supported to fight against de facto inequalities by analyzing the obstacles to women's decision-making in favor of their health and a Gender Equality strategy in these 2 projects SSIAF and SajFanm pou Fanm.
UNFPA has found opportunities to develop cooperation with the departmental coordinations of the Ministry for Women's Status and Women's Rights and to strengthen their capacities in matters of sexual and reproductive health and the fight against gender-based violence. UNFPA has mobilized its partners to help prevent GBV and rehabilitate survivors.
The prevention of GBV has been the subject of various initiatives depending on the opportunities that arose with women's NGOs or in the more structured framework of the SSIAF project. These strategies initiated by UNFPA (safe spaces, natural helpers, male advocates for women, communal committees and units to combat violence against women, etc.) and supported by the development of standards and implementation guides constitute Pilot initiatives documented and implemented by three civil society organizations (SOFA, Fanm Deside and AFASDA) with financial support from UNFPA. Advocacy with the Ministry for the Status of Women and Women's Rights is underway for the validation of the standards of safe spaces. UNFPA needs to activate this advocacy and support these strategies pending an opening at the national level to define a context-appropriate policy to fight GBV.
According to the organic law of the MCFDF, the deconcentrated structures ensure the function of reception, reference for women, public awareness on gender issues including GBV, information collection and monitoring in the field. UNFPA has focused its support on departmental Coordination. The financial, technical and logistical support has not yet produced tangible results.
In addition, UNFPA support has increased awareness among health professionals of the protocols for treating victims of GBV through training. Likewise, departmental or national officials were made aware. The public, especially women and girls, have been exposed as much as possible to key messages about GBV. This action has taken very different forms depending on the audiences and the opportunities to include information on GBV prevention and treatment in broader actions undertaken by UNFPA implementing partners.
