What are the main barriers facing the national referral pathway for Gender-Based Violence in Egypt? and what kind of solutions can be implemented to bridge these gaps?
In light of celebrating the International Day of Action towards Women’s Health, Shamseya, in partnership with Friederich Ebert Stiftung, held a launching event for two of its most recent publications. The first one is a policy brief on gender-based violence management pathways in Egypt as a culmination of our work on this topic as part of the Women Friendly Services project.
According to the Economic Cost of Gender-Based Violence Survey conducted in 2015 by UNFPA, the National Council for Women (NCW) and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), around 7.8 million women suffer from all forms of violence yearly in Egypt.
Extensive efforts have been exerted on the national level to address violence against women including the establishment of a referral system or a national track for its victims. This referral system is comprehensive, systematic and inclusive. It details the legal, medical and civic pathways that a woman who has experienced GBV might need to follow. While in theory this “national pathway” checks all the boxes, its practical implementation is still lagging behind. In reality, there is still a lot more to be done to ensure the effectiveness of this pathway and its capacity to meet expectations.
This policy-brief addresses one of the main issue that this pathway is currently facing: “its entrance”. The “gateway” to this pathway that would eventually enable victims of GBV to access all the services it provides. The main current challenge is to find clear and actionable answers to 2 key question:
“How would women know of the existence of this support system and how would they be able to access it?” and “To what extent does this pathway address the needs of particularly vulnerable women, namely women with disabilities and elderly women?”
You can check the published policy brief here.