AYV News, August 12, 2024
Sierra Leone’s Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh has officially launched the Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) Referral Protocol done by various government agencies and development partners, noting that when children are violated, people are committed to taking action.
Dr. Sengeh said: “Today, I launched the Sexual and Gender-based Violence referral protocol that was done by various government agencies and development partners. When our children are violated, we are committed to taking action, and this protocol is a tool to help communities towards justice”.
The National Referral Protocol on Sexual And Gender-Based Violence is a pathways to service provision for survivors of gender-based violence.
For a system to respond effectively and deliver survivor-centred services to sexual and gender-based violence survivors, a wide range of actors and service providers must coordinate with confidentiality, must collaborate effectively and must each fulfil their roles and commitments fully.
The 2022 National Referral Protocol (NRP) sets out the objectives and the terms of coordination and collaboration between the key governmental and non-governmental entities that support the process of reporting and responding to cases of SGBV and outlines these entities’ roles and responsibilities to do so in a way that puts the survivor at the centre of the response (survivor-centred).
Delivering a survivor-centred response to SGBV is complex for multiple reasons: (1), survivors face multiple levels of exclusion and marginalisation; (2) survivors have a wide range of needs; (3) individual survivors have differing needs as no two women or girls are the same; (4) survivors often face many barriers to accessing support to address their needs; and (5) SGBV stems from discriminatory social and gender norms and power dynamics, and efforts to tackle this often faces deep-seated challenges.
In response to high rates of SGBV in Sierra Leone and recognising the complexity of delivering survivor-centred responses, the Government of Sierra Leone produced the 2012 Gender-Based Violence National Referral Protocol (GBV NRP, 2012).
The GBV NRP 2012 was a technical guidance document developed to ensure that survivors of SGBV, including children, receive free, prompt and coordinated responses from service providers including free medical care, legal advocacy and advice, and psychosocial support from the point at which the report is made to beyond the time when the legal case is completed.
The National Strategy for Response to Sexual and Gender Based Violence reinforces the importance of delivering SGBV response in a way that prioritises the dignity, needs and wishes of the survivor.
