Population Council Research that makes a difference

The Population Council is supporting a network of partners from several countries that approach the problem of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) from different fields of expertise. These include research, medical management, psychosocial care, and legal and justice components. The partnership is dedicated to strengthening services for people who have experienced sexual and gender-based violence in Africa.

Multicountry SGBV network
With support from the Swedish/Norwegian Regional HIV/AIDS Team for Africa, the Council initiated a multicountry SGBV network in 2006. This network includes eight partners in seven African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Together, they are putting projects in place that seek to address the many causes and results of sexual and gender-based violence. Their work aims to strengthen national programs for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. This will help to ensure that their needs—be they medical, psychological, or justice-related—are met. It will also improve plans to prevent such violence.

The Council is working to keep a record of lessons learned from these experiences. These will provide a foundation for the development of appropriate policies throughout Africa, as well as guidelines for putting these policies into action. The partners will share these lessons and guidelines with other people and groups working on this topic in the region and around the world.

Initiative on Sexual and Gender-based Violence
PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is building on the strengths of this network. Its Gender Technical Working Group has partnered with the Population Council to start its Initiative on Sexual and Gender-based Violence. Under this program, the Council is providing technical assistance to help network members exchange information and ideas to support PEPFAR's projects on sexual and gender-based violence in Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda.
As a result of the Council's work with the Swedish/Norwegian Regional HIV/AIDS Team for Africa and PEPFAR's Gender Technical Working Group, the partnership has grown to include nine new partners in Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda.

The Council is working with the Constella Futures Health Policy Initiative to start this conversation among organizations. The PEPFAR program is meant to strengthen broad-based responses to sexual and gender-based violence. It emphasizes connections among community groups as well as medical treatment for victims of such violence, including provision of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) services. (PEP refers to medical treatment that is started immediately after exposure to a disease-causing agent, such as HIV. The risk of HIV infection can be greatly reduced if people begin treatment with antiretroviral drugs soon after they are exposed to the virus.)

In March 2008 partners and organizations involved in the two projects met at the Africa Regional Meeting on Sexual and Gender-based Violence. The idea was to expand the network of organizations working on sexual and gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. Experiences gained and lessons learned from implementing work on sexual and gender-based violence in the region were reviewed and shared at the meeting.

Related project: Special Initiative on Sexual and Gender-based Violence