Together for Girls (TfG) commits to ensuring girls and boys (younger than age 18) in participating TfG countries experience a reduction in sexual, physical and emotional violence; and those who experience violence have greater access to services that improve their safety, health and wellbeing.
During 2019, the Together for Girls (TfG) partnership, with support from our generous donors and partners, have had exciting developments across the organization’s three pillars of work, with key developments highlighted herein.
Data
Three additional countries launched VACS reports, including Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Colombia (the first in South America). Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya also finalized their reports, with launches postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenya’s VACS is the country’s second and provides the opportunity to compare indicators from the two surveys to understand where positive change has taken place, including notable reductions in some forms of violence, and where resources need to be further leveraged to catalyze further momentum.
In 2021, the first U.S. pilot of the VACS will take place in Baltimore. No comparable data source exists in the United States. In the last several months, TfG has worked with AidData and CDC to plan and undertake research supported by USAID and Global Affairs Canada focused on secondary analyses of a dozen VACS data sets to better understand school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) and barriers to girls’ education.
Action
The Government of Kenya held its Data to Action workshop in November 2019, with support from CDC and UNICEF, with the development of a new national response plan on VAC that integrated the INSPIRE framework already well underway. Kenya will launch its VACS report and new national response plan concurrently, with a national campaign to ensure the national policy is disseminated to stakeholders at the county level. On Universal Children’s Day, TfG officially launched What Works to Prevent Sexual Violence in Childhood Resource, a systematic review of evidence-based solutions to prevent sexual violence against children and youth. The resource was previewed during an event at the biennial forum of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative in October. TfG’s #SVsolutions campaign highlights additional resources to end SVAC. TfG participated in learning events at UNGA, SVRI, webinars in lieu of an in-person CSW, and additional convenings addressing VAC with partners including the SRSG-VAC, End Violence, Promundo, World Vision, and SVRI.
Advocacy
TfG developed a series of fact sheets: Examining Sexual Violence, The Intersection of Violence and HIV, and SchoolRelated Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV), as well as new country fact sheets with VACS data for Botswana, Zimbabwe, Honduras, El Salvador, Lesotho, and Eswatini. TfG also launched a new, searchable resource bank featuring violence prevention tools and resources by country, topic, author and language, as well as a VACS hub as part of the main menu of the TfG website to increase understanding and use of the data from the VACS.
TfG’s Every Hour Matters campaign and suite of resources on access to post-rape care continues to gain traction, with uptake by PEPFAR, World Vision, and PSI in a number of sub-Saharan African countries.
