“Women and Girls Create the Future”: Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence in the CAR

Context and objectives

Gender-based violence (GBV) is still one of the major protection issues in the Central African Republic. Despite the efforts made in recent years by the government and its technical and financial partners, as well as by humanitarian organizations, the challenges remain enormous. In 2021, 11,592 cases of GBV were reported, an increase of 26% compared to those reported in 2020 (9,216 cases).

Under the 3rd phase of the Bêkou Fund's gender program (Gender III), the European Union is providing EUR 6,100,000 for the project "Women and girls create the future: prevention and response to gender-based violence in the Central African Republic", which will be implemented over a period of 36 months. 

This project is implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in consortium with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Handicap International / Humanity and Inclusion (HI), International Medical Corps (IMC) and more than a dozen national non-governmental organizations.

The overall objective of the project is to improve the protection and reintegration of women, girls and people with specific needs who are vulnerable to GBV in CAR.  As a logical continuation of the Gender I and Gender II projects financed by the Bêkou Fund and implemented by IRC and COOPI from 2016 to 2020, it consolidates their achievements and strengthens local ownership in order to ensure the effective sustainability of the action.

The overall objective will be achieved through two specific objectives:

1. Improving access to integrated and multi-sectoral quality care and socio-economic reintegration in an environment where GBV is not tolerated and survivors are not stigmatized.
2. Strengthening governance in the fight against GBV.

Project implementation strategy

The project implementation strategy is based on 4 axes, namely:

• The empowerment of local actors (national NGOs and governmental actors) through organizational and technical capacity building. The preferred methodology is that of transferring skills through first implementing with these organizations and then supporting them to implement programming independently so that they can become, beyond the action, a privileged entry point for integrated and multisectoral quality care for survivors.
• Prioritize the socio-economic empowerment of women and girls who are vulnerable to GBV (including survivors) with a focus on the AVEC approach (village savings and loan associations), which allows the creation of credit and self-financing opportunities for vulnerable groups, especially at the community level. This will be done in accordance with the national strategy to fight GBV.
• Structured community engagement to prevent GBV through the SASA methodology. This activist approach to community mobilization seeks to positively influence the power dynamics in communities and mobilize members around violence prevention.
• Cross-cutting consideration of inclusion of disability, age, and diversity. Inclusion is a cross-cutting priority of the consortium and inclusion activities will be mainstreamed in all activities with the support of HI and its national partners: the National Organization of Associations of People with Disabilities (ONAPHA) and La Main des Sourds Muets.

Clients and key figures

In total, 130,494 women and girls who are survivors of GBV or who are vulnerable to GBV will benefit from quality, multi-sectoral and integrated case management services. In addition, 63 support groups will be set up; 50,694 people will be sensitized in order to contribute to the creation of a more protective environment; 1,035 care providers and social workers will be trained as part of the skills transfer foreseen by the project; 8,600 people will benefit from rapid economic support to meet immediate basic needs, 4,042 will benefit from training to support basic literacy and 3,710 from income-generating activities (IGA).

Implementing partners and funding

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