Welcome to the Global GBV Network. 

Who is the "GBV Network"?

We are an informal network of national and international staff and leaders committed to doing what we can to stop gender-based violence in humanitarian emergency situations.  The site is hosted and managed (well, as much as possible anyway) by Beth Vann, with occasional help from friends and colleagues.  

What is this site about?

On this GBV Network site, you will find information about new publications, resource materials, relevant events, upcoming training opportunities, and sometimes even job openings.  Hopefully you'll also find some postings and stories from colleagues around the world.

Our goal is to encourage and promote information sharing - about field experiences, emerging good practices, outcome measurements, the pains and joys of doing this work, and whatever else we need to talk about.  We also want to provide access to resources for professional development - with a view toward strengthening the global capacity to effectively prevent and respond to GBV from the earliest stages of emergencies.   We encourage you to register, to post your own stories and comments, and to revisit the site from time to time. 

Postings are organized more or less by topic area and can be accessed through the toolbar on the top left side of the page.  Useful links are on the right side of this home page.

How to register?

There is no secret handshake or official ceremony if you wish to join the GBV Network.  If you're here and you're reading and you're committed to this issue and/or already working in this field of practice, you are most welcome as a member!  Those of us who work in the field are aware of what a lonely and stressful job it can be - and how important it is to connect with colleagues who understand.

You may register to become a GBV Network member by clicking "Create an Account" on the Login bar at the top right side of the home page.  By registering, you will have the opportunity to post your own stories and to be notified when new material is posted to the site.  (Of course, if you choose not to register, you can still access most of the postings on this site any time.)

Having difficulty with the site? Need more information? 

You can email host@gbvnetwork.org.  Kindly allow at least 72 hours for a reply.

So again, welcome.

Coordination of Multi-Sectoral Response to Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Settings

International Training Course     Ghent, Belgium     2-13 November 2009

This is a two week residential course is specifically designed to train qualified gender-based violence (GBV) professionals from various backgrounds in the coordination of multi‐sectoral prevention of and response to GBV in humanitarian settings. Since 2007, nearly 50 GBV professionals from 26 countries – a mix of UN, international and national NGOs, government and academic organizations – have completed the 2 week course.  Course organized by UNFPA and Ghent University.

Men Can Stop Rape, Inc. (MCSR) is pleased to announce that our "FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE" STRENGTH TRAINING will be held July 16-18 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. Held every January and July, MCSR's comprehensive training has provided over 9,000 professionals with the skills to engage men in the prevention of men's violence against women. Over three days participants will learn the approach that has made Men Can Stop Rape one of the most sought out leaders in the primary violence prevention field. 

Who should attend?:

* Youth-serving professionals searching for better ways to teach teens about healthy masculinity and positive relationships.

* Activist men strategizing new ways to engage men and teens in their community on role modeling strength without violence.

* Rape crisis and domestic violence center personnel who are looking for ways to engage men on the primary prevention of men's violence against women.

Training Objectives:

* Become more aware of the "Dominant Stories" of masculinity and better understand the importance of "Counterstories," and how these relate to violence against women.

* Explore the challenges of engaging men and learn effective ways to overcome these barriers.

* Learn how men can be mobilized to become better allies with women.

* Strategize with others about how to involve men in our work.

* Build skills for speaking with men about sexism.

* Learn how to better assist men in connecting sexism to other forms of oppression.

* Provide participants with practice responses to common reactions and questions from male audiences.

Register at http://www.mencanstoprape.org/info-url2697/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=442957

Questions? Contact Joseph Vess at jvess@mencanstoprape.org

Too often in humanitarian settings, international organizations working on gender-based violence (GBV) operate without a vision for increasing local capacity, building partnerships, and providing opportunities for communities to guide and sustain programming. With many countries dealing with protracted emergencies and the complexities of transitioning from a emergency relief to a longer-term recovery setting, partnerships with local organizations must become a higher priority in humanitarian efforts....

This article posted by Chelsea Cooper and Leora Ward of the American Refugee Committee (ARC).  Click on the file link below this text to read the full article. 

Entries will be accepted from April 28 until June 28, 2009 By Muevete por la Igualdad, www.mueveteporlaigualdad.org

Bajo La Sombra is a photo contest that tries to sensitize and view the struggle of women around the world to enforce their rights. We want to attract attention of society and the governments to meet the Millennium Objectives and the goals of the Beijing Platform.

Your vision of the world can contribute to the change.  Show it to us!

The photo contest will focus on two subject-matter themes:

- The Political Participation of Women: The importance of women being in all areas of decision-making to politically represent society and be represented.

- The Economy of Care Providers: Focusing on activities, goods and services required for reproduction and maintenance of life, which for years have been realized by women and yet have not been visible or valued. From the campaign, we want to make visible these activities and advocate the need for shared responsibility between men and women and make visible the assumption of responsibilities by the state.

AWARDS

There will be only one award provided in the amount of 1.500 €. Also 9 finalists will be selected with a Special Mention, whose photos will be displayed in an exhibition that will cover at least five Autonomous regions and four countries of Latin America throughout the year 2010.

In the deliberation, the jury will take into consideration the aesthetic, sensitive, and informative qualities of the presented works. Members of the jury will be:

Amelia Varcárcel

Cayetana Guillén Cuervo

Claude Bussac

Iván Hidalgo

Mª Ángeles Durán

Nuria Varela

Rosa Cobo

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Participants must be over 18 years in age and a resident of Spain, Latin America, or Africa, regardless of your nationality. Participants can be enthusiasts of photography or professional photographers. Each participant may submit a maximum of 1 work in each category.

Photographs may be submitted by email or regular mail. The deadline for receipt of works is between April 28 and June 28.

Email submissions should be sent to prensa@mueveteporlaigualdad.org specifying the subject "Photo Contest".

Sending submissions by post is also acceptable. Please include submissions on a CD, using a folder specified as "Photo Contest." Only digital photo submissions will be accepted. The photographs must be sent in schedule form 9 hours to 20 hours at the following address:

Ayuda en Acción

C/ Enrique Jardiel Poncela 6

28016 Madrid

Please specify the following in a Word document:

- Title of the work

- Brief description of the photo (where taken)

- Author's full name, telephone number, postal address, email address and a secondary contact person in case the author is not reachable

The verdict of the jury and the names of the contest winners will be announced at a public event during the last quarter of 2009, at a place and date that opportunely will be indicated.

For more information about the contest, please visit www.mueveteporlaigualdad.org

Forum 2009: "The Next 25 Years Start Today" will feature NGO, corporate and government leaders to celebrate the accomplishments of the development and humanitarian communities and look to the future to find opportunities with improved and increased collaboration among nonprofits, corporations, government and foundations.

Past forums have featured President Bill Clinton, Secretaries of States Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, rock star and activist Bono and the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. This year's Gala Dinner will recognize the long lasting achievements of individuals and leaders within our community as we strive to meet our collective goals.

Information and online registration at http://www.interaction.org/forum/registration.html

"Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis", Oxford, UK

The Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford (RSC), in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (HPG), is organising an international conference on the theme of “Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World”. This conference aims to convene a broad range of academic researchers, humanitarian practitioners, policy makers and civil society representatives to review the state of policy and practice in the broad field of humanitarian protection as we look forward into a potentially turbulent 21st Century.

The conference will address the following indicative themes:

* Populations at risk: Surviving and responding to protection threats
* Concepts of Protection
* The Politics of Protection
* Protection, security and the roles of military and armed actors
* National and regional responsibilities to protect
* Protection in Practice

The conference will take place between 22nd and 24th of September 2009 and will feature a range of keynote lectures, plenary discussions and expert panel debates, paper sessions and practice updates.

Those wishing to participate in the conference are invited to submit abstracts outlining their suggestions for Paper presentations, Paper sessions, Expert debates and Practice updates, and are requested to read the full Call for Papers in the PDF linked below.

Abstracts should address the broad conference themes mentioned above.
Abstracts are welcome from all of those concerned with the question of civilian protection, whether scholars or students, humanitarian practitioners or policy makers, advocates, activists or crisis- affected civilians.

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words long, and should be submitted by Monday 1st June 2009 to rsc-conference(at)qeh.ox.ac.uk.
Please indicate which kind of session your abstract refers to, include keywords and indicate the name of the conference theme to which your abstract most closely applies. Please give your email the subject heading “Abstract: Your Name”.

For general information pertaining to the conference, please contact Simon Addison: simon.addison(at)qeh.ox.ac.uk

Global edition of the course "Empowerment, HIV and Violence against Women"

HIV and violence against women (VAW) are two pandemics putting women's health, wellbeing, and lives at risk. Evidence shows that violence may be a leading factor in the increasing "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic in many countries, and HIV can be both a cause and a consequence of VAW. Integrating HIV and VAW policies and programs, based on an empowerment approach, will enhance their effectiveness and impact by increasing women's access to comprehensive services of care and prevention.

Objectives    This course aims to develop competencies of human resources from governmental and non-governmental organizations to integrate HIV and VAW in prevention, treatment and care interception as well as to respond to emerging policy issues regarding both problems. The specific objectives are:

- To analyze the empowerment conceptual framework and its operationalization addressing HIV and VAW. 

- To examine the strategic and practical implications for integrating policies and programs on HIV and VAW.

- To manage tools for carrying out processes within organizations and intersectoral levels directed toward integration of both issues.

Participants

The target population includes managers, decision-makers at national and local levels, service providers and advocators for people living with HIV and women's rights.

Dates:

Jun 22 - Oct 8, 2009

Coordinators of the course:

Nazneen Damji (UNIFEM) and

Dinys Luciano (Development Connections)

Applications: The registration form must be sent by May 27, 2009.

Fellowships: 25 fellowships are available for candidates that can demonstrate how they will apply the skills obtained in the course within their organizations and who will commit to completing the course. Those individuals interested in applying for a fellowship should submit a request to info@dvcn.org by May 22, 2009.

For more information on the course please contact:

Dinys Luciano: lucianod@dvcn.org

Modules

I. Conceptual framework: Intersections between HIV and VAW, international commitments and national legislation, empowerment approach applied to HIV and VAW and methodological issues regarding scientific evidence on HIV and VAW

II. Prevention: Prevention strategies from a public health approach, best practices on HIV and VAW prevention.

III. Care and treatment: Voluntary counseling and testing, access to treatment, adherence strategies and VAW,  HIV perinatal transmission and VAW, integrating HIV within VAW services: screening, care, referral systems, and support groups.

IV. Considerations for special populations: young girls and adolescents, indigenous communities, migrants, sex workers, prisoners, injected drug users, among others.

Methodology and learning resources

The course is online and has a total duration of 95 hours. It includes online activities and workplace field tasks. Depending on the needs and possibilities in each country, participants may form small groups for face-to-face sessions with the online support of a tutor. The learning resources, for use in group discussions, working groups, virtual forums and assessments within the participants' organizations, include: cases, databases, glossary, checklists and other assessment tools, bibliography, and presentations.

The course will be taught in English.

This course is brought to you by UNIFEM and Development Connections

Development Connections

1629 K Street NW Suite 300

Washington DC 20006

(202) 466-0978

The following links will take you to the growing body of essential guides, tools, and other technical resources for prevention and response to gender-based violence in humanitarian settings:

IASC Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons

IASC Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action 

RHRC Facilitator's Guide: Training Manual for Multisectoral and Interagency Prevention and Response to Gender-based Violence

Clinical Management of Rape Survivors (2005 version)

Population Reports: Ending Violence Against Women

WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women

WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Researching, Documenting and Monitoring Sexual Violence in Emergencies

Gender-based Violence: Emerging Issues in Program Serving Displaced Populations

Gender-based Violence Tools Manual for Assessment & Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation

The GBV Guidelines Introduction and Implementation Planning Package is a set of materials to support introduction of the IASC GBV Guidelines in field sites and facilitate a planning process to develop action plans for implementing the interventions and actions described in the Guidelines.

Click on the attachments below for the package of materials, including:

> GBV Guidelines Introduction and Implementation Planning Guide  (PDF)

    Read this first.  This guide describes the entire process.

> GBV Guidelines Introduction IASC 2008 (MS PowerPoint file)

    This is the PPT used in the meetings/workshops described in the Guide (above)

> GBV Training Manual 2004 (PDF)and Caring for Survivors Training Manual (PDF) These two GBV training guides can be used/adapted as needed for the planning meetings and workshops described in the Guide above.  

> Readme (text file) – If you are downloading for distribution to others, include this text file that explains how these documents can be used together

PLEASE NOTE:  It is intended that these materials are distributed together in a Zip file or on CD-ROM. 

The compendium was developed by MEASURE Evaluation for managers, organizations, and policy makers working in the field of VAW/G program implementation and evaluation in developing countries, as well as for people who provide technical assistance to these individuals and organizations. Indicators were developed to measure the following areas within VAW/G:

1. Magnitude and characteristics of different forms of VAW/G (skewed sex rations, intimate partner violence, violence from someone other than an intimate partner, female genital cutting/mutilation and child marriage)
2. Programs addressing VAW/G by sector (health, education, justice/security, social welfare)
3. Under-documented forms of VAW/G and emerging areas (humanitarian emergencies, trafficking in persons, femicide), and preventing VAW/G (youth, community mobilization, working with men and boys).

The indicators have been designed to address information needs that can be assessed with quantitative methods to measure program performance and achievement at the community, regional and national levels. While many of the indicators have been used in the field, they have not necessarily been tested in multiple settings.  Published October 2008. 

http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/tools/gender/violence-against-women-and-girls-compendium-of-indicators