Skip to main content Skip to secondary content

Publications

Community Engagement in the PEPFAR Special Initiative on Sexual and Gender-based Violence

Elizabeth Doggett of HPI, TO1  
8/1/2010
English
pdf   Full Document (pdf 550.6 kb)

Abstract:

Community engagement is a necessary part of working to prevent and respond to SGBV. Gender norms—especially gendered beliefs and practices—at the community level are among the root causes of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and may support or reject the practice of SGBV. Changing attitudes at the community level is a promising way to decrease the incidence of SGBV. Community-level norms and practices also influence the institutional response to SGBV when it occurs. Because community-level institutions tend to be the most widely accessible, it is at this level that citizens may have the most influence over institutional responses to SGBV—to either promote and support appropriate responses to SGBV or neglect and undermine efforts to address it.

In 2007, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) launched a Special Initiative on Sexual and Gender-based Violence, which sought to strengthen clinical care for survivors of SGBV in 18 public health facilities in Uganda and Rwanda. While the creation and strengthening of clinical services was the main tenet of the Initiative, partners also undertook efforts to involve communities in the process of creating and providing those clinical services to survivors of SGBV. As part of this Initiative, the USAID | Health Policy Initiative provided technical assistance (TA) to local clinical partners to increase their capacity for engagement in the creation and provision of clinical services, and in linking clinical services and other available resources for SGBV survivors in the community.

Document Type: Technical Reports: Global
No. of Pages: 30 
Country: Global 
Keywords: Gender, GBV, Care and Support, HIV/AIDS, Prevention, Strategic Planning 

Last Updated 11/24/10

The Health Policy Initiative is committed to ensuring that its website and content are accessible to all users, including people with disabilities. If you experience any difficulties while using the site, or encounter content you are unable to access, please let us know and we will make every effort to address your accessibility issues.