Ending Violence Against Women

Feb. 22, 2006—Living free from violence should be a basic human right. Yet, an estimated one out of three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or abused in her lifetime. In some countries, as many as half of all women reported being physically abused by an intimate partner, according to the World Health Organization.

The impact of this violence is devastating. Violence kills and disables as many women of reproductive health age as cancer, according to the United Nations. Women and girls who survive abuse are likely to suffer long-term health and psychological effects, including increased risks for contracting HIV/AIDS.

Countries also pay a high price for gender-based violence, including increased healthcare costs, losses in educational achievement, and losses in productivity and wages.

The Centre for Development and Population Activities is taking action to combat violence against women by empowering women, youth and others to become advocates against violence.

For example, CEDPA worked with women in La Rinconada, Peru to develop a strategy to encourage neighbors to report acts of family violence to local police. Neighbors rang a community alarm bell if they witnessed violence. Trained volunteers responded by escorting the perpetrators to the police and providing victims with emotional and physical support.

Evaluation of CEDPA’s La Rinconada program showed that it reduced incidents of sexual violence, and that public shaming of the perpetrators played a major role in reducing the violence.

CEDPA’s youth programs educate girls and boys to recognize and understand causes of violence against women, understand its impact on families, and develop skills to negotiate within their relationships.

Building awareness is especially important because violence against women remains a hidden problem in many countries. Many communities continue to view violence as a ‘family affair’ and assume that husbands and fathers have rights over their families.

In Potosi, Bolivia, CEDPA partnered with local organizations to develop awareness among youth about sexual and other forms of violence. We focused on promoting respect for human rights and gender equality, changing behavior and promoting community interventions to prevent gender-based violence. Youth advocacy led to buy-in from community leaders including the mayor, who committed to including messages against gender-based violence in his public health campaigns.

Elsewhere, CEDPA has worked with local partners to combat certain traditional practices that support violence against women, including female genital cutting. Female genital cutting is perceived as a rite of passage for girls in certain communities of Africa and the Middle East and has detrimental, life-long effects on women’s health and well-being.

In Egypt, CEDPA has worked for nearly a decade to raise awareness of female genital cutting and develop local champions to advocate against the practice. Local community partners recruited women who had not been through the procedure to visit families with daughters, raising awareness about the negative consequences of the procedure. They also persuaded community and religious leaders to speak out against the practice.

CEDPA’s work in Egypt has broken the silence against female genital cutting. The more open discussion helped to educate community members as well as civic, religious and medical leaders. Today, increasing numbers of people in the communities where we work in Egypt are questioning and opposing the practice.

Our work in Egypt and around the world demonstrates that by raising awareness, empowering women as advocates and working hand-in-hand with community leaders, it is possible to combat violence against women.

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