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Mass media plays a critical role in shaping public opinions and raising awareness, creating an enabling environment for changes in structural and social norms. By working with media partners, strategic influencing and campaigning can improve laws, policies and regulatory frameworks on matters relating to gender inequality and VAWG. Relevant policy analysis, research and recommendations can be useful tools to share with journalists in their coverage.

Working with media partners to provide sensitivity training and encourage positive storytelling can help challenge harmful stereotypes and contribute to changing norms about violence. It is important to encourage positive media content about survivors and their resilience and about successful interventions to prevent and respond to violence. At the centre of efforts should be the principle of ‘do no harm’, such as not re-traumatising survivors. For example, Spotlight Initiative programmes in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, and Uganda, among others, have trained journalists to sensitively…

Programmes working with girls should ensure that rigorous risk mitigation measures are included to recognise and safeguard against risks of backlash and potential violence and abuse perpetrated during the programme.  As most girls will be under 18 years, it is important to put in place child safeguarding policies and protocols.

This means organisations commit to not exposing children to the risk of harm and abuse, and that any concerns an organisation has about a child’s safety within the community they are working in are reported to the appropriate authorities. Equally, this includes…

Adolescent girls commonly face gender-based and age-based barriers to their participation in decision-making spaces, and leadership opportunities on issues that affect them and matter to them. Evidence shows that building girls’ self-efficacy, confidence and skills can support changes in attitudes to gender equality and help reduce gender-discriminatory practices, such as child marriage or limitations on girls’ mobility outside the home. Such capacity building can be provided through awareness raising, skills training and peer support initiatives, for example in safe spaces. Girl-led…

Programmes should support the police to develop strong synergies with the Justice Sector to ensure that the Justice Sector has all the information needed to bring perpetrators to justice during prosecution. Programmes can do this by supporting more efficient and safe data sharing processes, by improving coordination and collaboration across the sectors, and by providing training to both the Police and Justice actors about what is needed to strengthen VAWG cases and bring perpetrators to justice.

The police have an important role to play in collecting, handling and storing data in VAWG cases. This evidence is needed to develop strong legal cases against perpetrators and in some cases, survivors of VAWG are required to provide evidence to access social support. Programmes should work with police forces and WROs representing survivors of VAWG to understand and address the barriers to safely collecting, handling and storing data. Programmes should provide training for police on how to safely collect, handle and store data. They could also consider strengthening operational processes to…

Survivors who report crimes of VAWG are at higher risk of violence and backlash from perpetrators and communities. Police should recognise these risks and support survivors to find a safe place to stay once they have reported. In instances of intimate partner violence or domestic violence, where the survivor lives in the same house as the perpetrator, it may be unsafe for a survivor to return home. This is particularly the case when the survivor is also financially dependent on the perpetrator. While supporting survivors to find a safe place to stay, police should ensure that all information…

The police should work with other services providers to establish clear referral mechanisms to link survivors and witnesses to other VAWG response services in a timely and appropriate way. This process is known as a referral, with referral mechanisms providing a structured framework for guiding survivors of VAWG to the appropriate care. Referral processes should incorporate standards to ensure the smooth and safe navigation of the different essential services available to victims and survivors.

The services featured in referral mechanisms may vary based on the context and available…

Some police forces decide to establish specialist units to support survivors of VAWG, and these are usually run by female police officers. When adequately resourced and trained, specialist units can help reduce re-traumatisation, improve ethical evidence collection that respects the dignity and safety of survivors, and foster greater trust with communities by demonstrating the commitment of police forces to addressing VAWG.

However, specialist units may also be used to justify a lack of training on addressing VAWG and taking a survivor-centred approach among the broader police force. If the…

Survivors of VAWG are at particular risk of re-traumatisation which can be triggered by insensitive service delivery. Police forces should put the safety and comfort of survivors at the forefront of service delivery, ensure survivors know they are believed, avoid intrusive questioning, respect confidentiality, ensure survivors have access to support at all stages, and allow survivors to engage at their own pace. In most cases, women and girl survivors prefer to be supported by a female police officer and thus focusing on the recruitment, training and support of female officers is critical. Inv…