Building Resilience and Response to violence against women and girls under Covid-19 in Albania
Project Abstract
The overall goal of the proposed intervention is “Women and girls in marginalized communities at increased risk of VAWG due to factors exacerbated by COVID-19, have exercised their rights and improved their wellbeing in Albania by May 2024”. IAMANEH, jointly with its partner Albanian organisations Women to Women (WtW) and the Counselling Line for Women and Girls(CLWG), and the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), will cover about 34% of the country’s population from 10 selected municipalities in northern and central Albania. The intervention will target 4900 primary beneficiaries (women and girls survivors/at risk of violence, Roma and Egyptian women, elderly women, women with disabilities, and women living in rural/remote areas) and 3000 secondary beneficiaries (government officials, members of the VAWG referral mechanisms, health professionals, and communities in selected municipalities).
These marginalised communities are recognised in the National Strategy for Social Protection (2023), while following the start of the pandemic, the Decision of Council of Ministers (DCM 236/2020), defined the same categories as vulnerable for the purpose of support during pandemic. The intervention focuses on increased awareness, accessible knowledge and enhancing positive behaviour, empowering the most vulnerable women and girls. The intervention will strengthen the response system to VAWG, reflecting the needs of communities, build community resilience, and contribute towards disaster preparedness. The intervention will contribute to integrated and better prepared multi-sectorial response system for VAWG, detecting and effectively responding to VAWG, including in times of specific need/ crisis. Combining multiple level interventions, we aim to a longer-term impact by strengthening the targeted beneficiaries and stakeholders and introducing detection, referral and response instruments (local level) as well as policy and legal proposals addressing preparedness, introducing changes related to sexual crimes and digital/online violence against women.
Awareness raising and a reflective process of M&E carried out in parallel, will contribute to longer-term results of the proposed intervention.
