By Rebecca Ekpe
The RESPECT Women website, a new online one-stop platform that aims to drive concrete actions – in policies and programmes – to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls has been launched.
The website was launched during the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, which convened more than 6,000 delegates, which focused on advancing gender equality and the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
Launch of The RESPECT website is timely given the harrowing statistics on violence against women and girls and the need to further interrogate the issues.
According to statistics, globally almost 1 in 3 women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, mostly by an intimate partner – ‘’a stark reminder of the scale of gender inequality and discrimination against women and pressing need to address violence against women as worldwide public health, gender equality and human rights priority’’.
“Violence against women and girls remains an immense crisis for rights and health for millions of women and girls around the world,” said.
According to Dr. Pascale Allotey, Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at WHO, and Head of the UN Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), more is expected of policy makers.
“Governments need to ‘walk the talk’ in investing in evidence-based resources for violence prevention and response, while advancing gender equality. This new platform aims to support this process,’’ Dr. Allotey noted.
The RESPECT website is user-friendly, interactive platform providing practical guidance to implement the RESPECT women framework’s seven evidence-based strategies to address violence against women and girls, with step-by-step guidance, examples of successful programmes, and training and multimedia materials for advocacy.
The World Health Organization (WHO), together with UN Women, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Development Programme launched the RESPECT Women website, at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali.
Women Deliver 2023 coincides with the mid-way point since the Generation Equality Forum appointed WHO and UN Women as co-leads of the Action Coalition for ending gender-based violence, which continues to affect millions of women and girls around the world – with devastating health impacts. The new RESPECT women website https://respect-prevent-vaw.org/ contributes towards delivering the Action Coalition’s commitments for violence prevention.
