And How serious Is Lagos State in tackling all forms of violence against women and girls?




It is the duty of the government to protect the lives and property of its citizenry, and that includes the lives of all women and girls and vulnerable groups in that society.
When a government truly values its citizenry it enacts laws and policies that creates an enabling environment. So one would have thought it shouldn’t matter if society is patriarchal

 so long the rule of law is seen to be consistent towards giving the citizenry a sense of dignity, security and justice, at the maximum.
                      
It also remains a well-known fact that our society and individual relationships continues to be patriarchal consisting of a male-dominated power structure and this has been the reason behind sustained cultural beliefs and the treatment of women and girls as subordinates in society and inferior to men and boys.
It is the reason why till date despite proven facts that women make up the numbers and are foot soldiers of political parties, their numbers as elected representatives is disproportionate to their equity. It is the reason why the gender equality and opportunities bill- with the intended benefit a proposed law and like many other treaties and bills before it, should stamp right in the heart of society -women and girls rights as legitimate human rights too, but instead it continues to receive resistance from the over numbered men  that make up the legislative houses of senate and representatives and might I say the story isn’t different at the state levels where only a handful has passed the domestic violence law often due to combined pressure of necessity.
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It would then seem that  the pockets of sub national governments, aided by the massive interventions and funds of international non-government organization and donor agencies, including an unrelenting civil society and women groups have forced the issue of domestic violence to the front burner more than other inequalities women and girls keep facing in our society of today.

Violence against women and girls is a crime against humanity which all too often continues to be hidden in our society. But we most fight on to see it eradicated. We must not tolerate a society where many women still suffer in silence from crimes that wreck their lives and their relationships, neither must we ignore the cost impact of VAWG, on the larger society. The cost to individuals is immeasurable, but the costs of violence and abuse to the economy must be calculated in light of our commonwealth.

What are these impact you might ask, they vary but some of includes the experience of  abuse from the psychological, emotional and physical consequences, which often leads to multiple disadvantages, including murder, homelessness, poverty, prostitution and mental health problems to mention a few.




With little or no centrally generated statistical record of the domestic abuses and sexual violence of girls and women nor publicly assessable statistics of prosecution of VAWG offences in Lagos state it will be safe to say, as a society there is a slow paradigm shift in the deeply rooted social norms, attitudes and behaviors, indicative of a whole lot that still has to be put in place

But my question to the government and all stakeholders of domestic violence in the state would be “are we clear on the overall outcomes we want to achieve and if so by when? And then how and by who needs to do what? A vague answer won’t do but a vivid answer such as what % of reduction in the prevalence of all forms of violence against women and girls, matched by increases in reporting, police referrals, prosecution and convictions do we want to achieve? Our goal must be clear cut.

To really tackle domestic violence or better still all forms of violence against women and girls in Lagos state more needs to be done in interpreting and implementing the state law denouncing all forms of violence.
The implementation of such law is life impacting. It has to have a long term vision and strategy marched with every ounce of naira in funding to effectively combat this menace! But before that violence against women and girls in the state must be properly 1ST UNDERSTOOD AND THE RIGHT STRATEGY, PUT IN PLACE
Here I put together some guidelines the Lagos State government or any other government needs to adopt.


A Stakeholders mapping and baseline survey:
A collaborative, cross-government approach to tackling this violence and abuse is essential as well as identifying practitioners in the state and garnish the wealth of expertise, knowledge and resources that already exist in coming up with a long term strategy and a consensus statement of expectation, practices and guidelines for tackling VAWG in the state.
That way tackling VAWG then becomes a social action and business of all.  However we must have in mind that these terrible crimes are disproportionately gendered which is why any framework within a violence against women and girls strategy must benefit all victims of these crimes.
A baseline survey must be conducted to gather data and statistics for an in depth state analysis of the issue. And yet again the existing stakeholders will be available to provide secondary data from years of data compiled on the fieldwork.

Initiating a centralized and registered body of all stakeholders, practitioners, local partners and agencies to augment state to local government efforts. This includes the government devolving responsibility for DV local service provision, mandatory data collation and practice of standardized guidance of DV in the state to existing women’s groups, NGOs already providing the services well but suffering from funds constraints. There should be up scaling not replicating of low quality service rendering points across the state.

An overall strategic plan in combating all forms of violence against women and girls must then be developed, through a number of roundtables with cross government services, practitioners and representatives of the women sector who are critical stakeholders. It is essential they are the think tanks for the government on this issue; listened to and adhering to what they proffer because they are the ones that know what is needed having been the frontline service providers to the victims and survivors. Without the acknowledgment of these expertise and ownership to lead in a robust overall strategy, no plan solely by government and agencies is sustainable nor achievable. Let’s put round pegs in round holes, if we really mean business.
And yes this plan will be robust and ambitious but it will also be encompassing of all that is possible within a society to drive the transformation in the delivery of VAWG services, whereby making prevention and early intervention the embedded approach, and of course it will be broken down into manageable pillars but enough to permeate the culture of ending violence against women and girls as ‘everyone’s business’ across agencies, services and the wider public.
  
The strategic plan can be broken down into these 9 Pillars
Pillar 1. The Prevention Pillar
Whereby changing attitudes in society, ie. preventing violence and abuse by educating, informing and challenging from early on our youths about healthy relationships, abuse and consent beliefs is targeted at
A.   Supporting a culture change to family problems by putting in place troubled Families intervention programs.
B.   Improving on prevention i.e. State training to work with the police to improve their responses to these crimes, Protection Order systems, to allow authorities in contact with victims to take control before harm of domestic violence, sexual violence is done.
C.   Setting up  a 24hrs state functioning domestic violence helplines
D.   Setting up a domestic violence offenders register, and a mandatory check in key positions
E.   Drive an overall reduction in prevalence of VAWG crimes and reduced rates of re-offending by possibly rehabilitating mild offenders with coercive and anger behavior patterns.

Pillar 2. Early Intervention Pillar
This clearly state what streamlined support service consists of and will be provided as a standard to all vulnerable victims wherever they are in Lagos State
This include state wide support services  to identify and deal with the earliest signs of abuse, stop violence before it happens, prevent abusive
Central Referral system from a wide range of entry points, faith based inclusive.
 Specialist support such as therapy /counselling from becoming entrenched and perpetrators from moving from one victim to the next.
More importantly, it will provide victims and their families with support before a crisis point is reached


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Pillar 3. Overall Service Funding Pillar
The multi-faceted and complex nature of VAWG means that it cannot be addressed alone by government or by any one agency or other agencies such as health, housing and skills acquisition, criminal justice and civil legal services. It requires the commissioning of local services by practitioners, NGOs, CSOs and women’s group state wide and adequately funded and supported to deliver the needed interventions on VAWG locally.
ie. Having local crisis centers
Pillar 4. Prosecutions /Criminal Justice Pillar.
The quick and timely prosecution of perpetrators regardless of class and creed will send a strong message to the public on government zero tolerance stance to VAWG. So the continued overhaul of the criminal justice system is crucial to winning on the campaign. So an overall
Sensitive criminal justice system is required.
Quick turnaround for domestic violence related cases
Introduction and strong application of flexible laws ie. Restraining and protective orders
Criminalizing Domestic violence acts
Criminalizing the breaking of restraining and protective orders
Promoting and admitting modern technology to offer greater protections to victims and admittance of adequate evidence and proof.

Pillar 5. Data Pillar.
Driving data collection and data systems all through the overall strategy.
Periodic /quarterly releases of state collated domestic violence data analytics to all stakeholders and public domain
Exploring and developing of technology for the use of tracking and offering greater protections to victims and gathering VAWG evidence.

Pillar 6. Service Transformation Fund Pillar

This is to enable all commissioned services and providers have access to the best examples of local practice, as local areas are best placed to understand local needs and given the devolved power and responsibility for meeting those needs accordingly.
Providing local services with updated, modern technology, data capturing tools and  relevant information needed to provide an integrated, effective, whole family approach service to addressing and stopping violence and abuse.
To encourage new approaches and best practices.
Establish and embed the best ways locally suitable to help victims, and their families, and prevent perpetrators from re-offending.

Lagos State for example must have a blueprint on what effective service provision should look like and institutionalized as standard of best practice in its new health centers launched recently. This standard must be the yardstick for all local providers to imitate, setting out core expectations, but giving them the freedom to respond to meet local needs.

Pillar 7. Monitoring and Evaluation Pillar:
Open Data and data analytics has become an essential evidence gathering essential for planning in today’s world, so
Investing in a centralized VAWG data capturing systems across the state
Training all practitioners on such centralized program
Funding all center’s with the intranet version of the centralized data collecting systems.
A mandatory review period to ensure the quality of service and value for money of provision of core services for victims, alongside meeting the broader needs remains engrained.

Pillar 8: Knowledge Hub/Capacity Building Pillar
Continuous evaluation of emerging models of tackling VAWG especially which support earlier intervention and coherent pathways of victim support
Adaptation to and sharing of best practices in VAWG data, tools and information disruptions
Periodic state meeting of the VAWG registered body
State training and capacity building
Reward Incentives such as awards to best services and stakeholders in the industry to motivate others is crucial.
State wide localized but synchronized celebration of 16 days of activism against gender violence.

Pillar 9: Legislative Pillar
the vested role on the House committee on women affairs should build on existing oversight functions and arrangements to reflect on monitoring judiciously the multi-agency nature of VAWG provision in the state will encouraging renewed advocacy in better gender legislative instrument by advocacy  groups including the GEOB bill  presently at the state house of assembly while the Ministry of women affairs and poverty alleviation (WAPA) monitor the Inter-Ministerial partnerships side by side  the Ministry of Justice.

The Call for Gender Responsive Budgeting and Budget Tracking in Lagos State.

Going by the popular saying that “If it’s not budgeted for, it doesn’t get done”, so can the state domestic violence strategic framework gather dust and not see the light of implementation if proactive lobbying is not put in place to see it become cross cutting budget line items of the ministries, department and agencies core to the VAWG framework implementation like justice, WAPA and housing to mention a few. The call circular seasons and annual budget consultative forum is critical to all stakeholders of the state and more so the passing of the budget and annual budget tracking. This then leaves us with the need to understand gender responsive budgeting towards seeing the goal achieved.
An example of gender responsive budgeting , where it has worked is the UK’s tampon tax advocacy where by a direct percentage derived from the governments taxes on all tampons and other  feminine hygiene products sold is linked as an additional budget in the budget as the women’s budget for more information go here
Since a woman right from the time of puberty will for the next 30 years  thereafter have a period once a month and have need for other feminine products which  are necessities and not a luxury ,yet women and girls are taxed for, it is only fair that such funding follow women’s needs like service  to their benefits and  the provision of a robust domestic violence prevention and intervention service in all society until the day all forms of violence against women and girls becomes a thing of the past is an essential for women and girls.

In summary Lagos State will be seen as fully enlisted to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls when it puts in place a VAWG strategy of short, middle and long term so that by year 2037 in Lagos State there

·         There is a significant reduction in the number of VAWG victims, achieved by challenging the deep-rooted social norms, attitudes and behaviors that discriminate against and limit women and girls, and by educating, informing and challenging young people about healthy relationships, abuse and consent
·         All services make early intervention and prevention a priority, identifying women and girls in need before a crisis occurs, and intervening to make sure they get the help they need for themselves and for their children;
·         Women and girls will be able to access the support they need, when they need it, helped by the information they need to make an informed choice; a family crisis intervention center and support scheme will be incorporated across board.
·         Specialist support, including accommodation-based support, will be available for the most vulnerable victims, and those with complex needs will be able to access the services they need;
·         Services in local areas will work across boundaries in strong partnerships to assess and meet local need, and ensure that services can spot the signs of abuse in all family members and intervene early;
·         Women will be able to disclose experiences of violence and abuse across all public services, including hospitals and community health centers. Trained staff in these safe spaces will help people access specialist support whether as victims or as perpetrators;
·         Elected representatives in the Lagos state house of assembly will show the leadership, political will and senior accountability necessary to achieve the necessary change, and will champion efforts to tackle these crimes;
·         Everyone in a local area will be able to hold their elected leaders to accountable through clear data on how local need is being met;
·         There will be a lower level of offending through an improved criminal justice response and a greater focus on changing the behavior of perpetrators through a combination of disruption and support; and

·         A stronger evidence base of what works, and victim safety, will be embedded into all interventions to protect victims of VAWG.


   Abimbola Junaid is a portfolio manager -policy expert on governance and gender- anti campaigner on gender responsive budgeting and anti corruption in Africa. A serial net worker and media consultant. she is in twitter as @a4arise,@vorafrica. Her other blog is https://vorafrica.blogspot.co.uk/


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