Building understandings of prevention in the Pacific

Gender-based violence practitioners in the Pacific deepen understanding of effective prevention programme UN Women and Partners for Prevention (P4P) jointly held the, ‘Gender-Based Violence Prevention Workshop’, in Nadi, Fiji over December 5- 7 with 30 participants from around the Pacific – all of whom are grantees of the Pacific Fund to End Violence Against Women. The workshop deepened participants’ understanding of strategic prevention programming, using P4P’s ‘5 Steps to effective prevention programming’ http://www.partners4prevention.org/sites/default/files/documents/5_steps_for_primary_prevention_programming_0.pdf as a guide for the agenda. The participants learned more about the specific risk and protective factors related to violence in the different countries across the Pacific while building an understanding of how to use this data for more effective and targeted prevention interventions. P4P presented data from national surveys on VAW from the Pacific, to show how data could be used to identify specific risk and protective factors that influence the likelihood that a person will commit an act of GBV. The data was further used to show how findings could be used to identify target groups and areas to promote change (geographically and in terms of ages and demographics for targeting prevention work). This will go on to inform future interventions in the Pacific. “Having this knowledge of ‘what is prevention?’ and ‘what are risk and protective factors?’ is important,” said one participant. “I can see how it is very important to use data to inform our work, so that we can define who are the target groups we are trying to create change amongst, and so we can choose the best approach to address the problem with this target group. The workshop also helped to build new opportunities to link prevention and response services in the Pacific region. “After attending this workshop, I feel I will be able to facilitate workshops on GBV prevention and incorporate that into my work, but this will also help me to work better with survivors,” said a participant, indicating the worth of supporting both prevention and response services as vital parts in a comprehensive strategy for addressing GBV. For more information, contact [email protected]