Gender-Based Violence (GBV) negatively impacts the health, wellbeing and dignity of its victims and survivors. Because of its horrific nature, survivors of GBV are exposed to among other issues, sexual and reproductive health challenges such as sexually transmissible infections including HIV, unwanted pregnancies which may lead to unsafe abortions, among others. As such, there is always a need for a holistic approach in addressing this human rights violation and mitigating its impact on lives and livelihoods.
In The Gambia, at least 3 in every 4 women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone Female Genital Mutilation while 49.9 percent of women within the same age bracket believe that their husbands/intimate partners can beat them. In responding to these and all other forms of GBV happening in Gambian communities, there is a strong need for a comprehensive response package that provides survivors with health, legal and psychosocial support services. This is the idea behind the One-Stop Centers.
In The Gambia, the One-Stop Centers are health facility-based centres positioned in major government hospitals and are best-suited for achieving the broadest range of health and legal outcomes, through the support of a multi-disciplinary team of staff working to ensure the best health and wellbeing outcomes for survivors and victims.
However, the One-Stop Centres currently operating in The Gambia have been faced with numerous challenges over the years, ranging from inadequate hospital supplies/equipment, dedicated hospital personnel (doctors and nurses), social workers, police and legal aid personnel to effectively operate the centres as well as to collect data for effective response and programming. These challenges have resulted in an uncoordinated approach in dealing with survivors, thus hampering the centres’ goal to effectively deliver quality care.
In order to support the government of The Gambia address these challenges and ensure a fully functional GBV response in the country, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the projected increase in incidences of GBV across the globe, UNFPA with support from the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) funded project aimed at mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in The Gambia, is supporting the establishment and renovation of 3 One-Stop Centres at the Essau District Hospital, Soma District Hospital and Bansang General Hospital. The support towards these centres will help ensure the delivery of holistic health, legal and psychosocial support services to survivors of GBV, thus strengthening the country’s GBV response mechanism and promoting the wellbeing, health and dignity of all survivors, especially women and girls.
In order to ensure the provision of the above services, an assessment was conducted by UNFPA and Ministry of Health personnel, in order to gauge facility readiness for the operationalisation of the centres and the response services they will deliver.
UNFPA remains committed to continue to support the government and people of the Gambia in addressing GBV and its resulting impact, through investments in gender equality and women’s empowerment programmes, strengthening the institutional capacity of government and other partners to provide a comprehensive and coordinated response and supporting community sensitisation programmes that influence positive change in behaviours and perceptions regarding GBV.
Media contact:
Haddy Jonga - Programme Analyst Communications, UNFPA The Gambia jonga@unfpa.org
