March 15-17, 2017. Workshop: Strengthening the capacity of health systems to prevent and respond to violence against women. Trinidad and Tobago

Venue: The Hilton Trinidad and Conference Center in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Dates: March 15-17, 2017.

Violence against women affects a large proportion of women. According to WHO (2013) estimates, 35% of women in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region have experienced intimate partner violence and/or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Violence has serious consequences for women's physical, including sexual and reproductive, health and mental health. It also has adverse economic and social consequences for women, their children, and families.

Through this capacity building workshop PAHO/WHO, in collaboration with UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, and CARICOM, aims to contribute to strengthening efforts to prevent violence against women, as well as health systems' capacity to respond to women survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence in select Caribbean countries.

Specific objectives include:

1. to share the latest evidence available on the prevalence and health consequences of violence against women;
2. to enable Caribbean countries to exchange experiences and lessons learned in preventing and responding to violence against women, particularly within health systems;
3. to enable Caribbean countries to identify multisectoral evidence-based interventions to prevent violence against women including the role and contributions of health systems in prevention;
4. to introduce participants to evidence-based recommendations from WHO/PAHO on how to respond to women subjected to intimate partner or sexual violence;
5. to identify actions that countries can take in order to strengthen their health systems' capacity to address to violence against women.

General Materials

• Agenda
• Concept Note
• Participants List
• Logistics Note

Presentations:

Day 1:

• pdf Context (SDGs, Global, and Regional mandates), objectives, housekeeping notes     
• pdf Every Caribbean Woman & Every Caribbean Child - CARICOM  
• pdf Snapshot 1: Understanding the evidence and links between VAW and health  
• pdf Snapshot 2: Risk and protective factors for VAW and principles of prevention  
• pdf Snapshot 3: What works to prevent VAW: Promising and effective interventions   

Day 2:

• pdf Recap of day 1 of the Workshop on VAW  
• pdf Snapshot 4: Intersections between VAW & VAC: an overview   
• pdf Addressing intersections between VAW & VAC: the Canadian experience   
• pdf Snapshot 5: Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women: WHO clinical and policy guidelines    
• pdf Snapshot 6: VAW and family planning services   
• pdf Breaking the cycle on child sexual abuse - UNICEF  

Day 3:

• pdf Snapshot 7: Tools to support country implementation of health response to VAW   
• pdf Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence  
• pdf Snapshot 8: Introduction to evaluation and scaling up programs on VAW   
• pdf Bahamas and Turks and Caicos follow up actions on VAW  
• pdf Barbados follow up actions on VAW  
• pdf Guyana follow up actions on VAW  
• pdf Jamaica follow up actions on VAW  
• pdf Suriname follow up actions on VAW  
• pdf Trinidad and Tobago follow up actions on VAW  

Reference material:

• Strategy and Plan of Action on Strengthening the Health System to Address Violence against Women 
• Global plan of action: Health Systems Address Violence against Women and Girls 
• Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence: A clinical handbook
• Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women: WHO clinical and policy guidelines
• Strengthening the medico-legal response to sexual violence (document in English and French and policy note)
• Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence
• A framework to underpin action to prevent violence against women
• Child Maltreatment: The Health Sector Responds (WHO, 2017)
• Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls: What does the evidence say? 
• A Call to Action on Violence against Women
• Selected practices recommendations for contraceptive use (WHO, 2016)
• SASA! Findings: Interventions designed to prevent violence against women to reduce children's exposure to violence
• Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use - Fifth ed. 2015
• Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use - Fifth ed. 2015 Summary
• Global Guidance: School-Related Gender-Based Violence
• Family planning and Zika virus: need for renewed and cohesive efforts to ensure availability of intrauterine contraception in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Emergency Contraception: A Last Chance to Prevent Unintended Pregnancy (Princeton Review, 2017)
• Intimate partner violence and contraception: How family planning providers can help - Draft 

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Resource Guide Series: 

• Resource Guide Introduction
• Brief on violence against older women
• Brief on violence against sexual and minority women
• Health Sector Brief
• Citizen Security, Law, and Justice Brief
• Disaster Risk Management Brief
• Education Sector Brief
• Finance and Enterprise Development Brief
• Social Protection Brief
• Transport Brief 

Research:

Ethical and safety recommendations for intervention research on Violence Against Women (VAW) (2016)-The new WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Intervention Research on Violence Against Women (VAW) -developed in conjunction with global experts on the topic - give crucial guidance on how best to address questions of ethics and safety to researchers working on violence against women. The new recommendations reflect the ethical concerns on VAW research, expressed in numerous articles and publications, that have come to light since WHO published Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence Against Women in 2001. As the evidence base on the magnitude, context, and consequences of VAW has grown, research efforts and attention have begun to focus on decreasing the knowledge gap on effective responses through intervention research. There is, therefore, a need to consider ethical and safety questions unique to this context.

Researching Violence Against Women: A Practical Guide for Researchers and Activists (WHO, 2015)

Advocacy tools:

• A short animation film on strengthening the health system response to violence against women available in English, Spanish, and French. This animation highlights how the health system can play a role in responding to women who have experienced violence against women.
• Infographics on the role of the health sector to address violence against women, including guidance for a first-line response from health care providers (LIVES).