Home > Events/Training > Technical Update on Gender-Based Violence Technical Update May, 2002 On May 1, 2002, the IGWG held a Technical Update on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), one of the IGWG's priority areas. This launched a process for looking at GBV in relation to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS within USAID's population, health, and nutrition sector. The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE, www.genderhealth.org) gave important technical input to this launch and helped identify speakers (see below) from less developed countries. The meeting drew over 130 participants from the USAID and cooperating agencies (CAs) community wanting to learn about field examples of interventions that address GBV. The update focused particularly on service delivery, behavior change communication, and community mobilization. The audience participated in identifying next steps, and determined that outreach (sensitization, awareness raising, and education) was a priority, to be done through presentations to USAID missions and CAs. A report summarizing the Technical Update was published in the fall of 2002. Summary of a Technical Update (PDF: 512KB) Agenda (PDF: 100KB) Gender-based violence activities by cooperating agencies (MS Word document: 75KB) Gender-based Violence and RH/HIV Technical Update Speakers Amy Bank, Puntos de Encuentro (www.puntos.org.ni), Nicaragua A U.S. citizen who has lived in Nicaragua since 1985, Amy Bank is currently co-director of Puntos de Encuentro (literally, "Meeting Points"), a Nicaraguan nonprofit organization dedicated to women's and youth individual and collective empowerment and rights, as well as strengthening social movements and coalitions. She is the founder of the grassroots feminist magazine La Boletina, the largest circulation magazine in the country. Ms. Bank directed Puntos' first five multi-media campaigns against gender-based violence (GBV) and has played a central role in the creative direction of the campaigns that helped the Women's Network Against Violence become the largest women's movement coalition in Nicaragua. Her current main project is as co-executive producer and story editor for Puntos' "social soap" TV series Sexto Sentido, the central piece of an integrated communications strategy to promote young people's rights. Suzanna Stout Banwell, Center for Health and Gender Equity (www.genderhealth.org), United States Suzanna Stout Banwell has a long career working on women's human rights and gender-based violence, including a focus on integrating violence programs and policies and health programs. She has been associate director at the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) for the last two years, where she assists with the overall management of this reproductive health (RH) and rights organization while at the same time heading-up CHANGE's focused effort on integrating GBV and RH programs. Her experience includes research and programming on issues of violence, RH, trafficking and human rights in several developing countries; founding a women's economics and legal rights program in Cambodia; and working with U.S. health professionals, lawyers and law enforcement, and battered women's programs to design and implement comprehensive responses to women experiencing violence in this country. Siula Bulu, Wan Smolbag Theatre (www.wan-smolbag-theatre.org), Vanuatu After working for several years as a secondary school teacher, Siula Bulu joined Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB), an NGO based in Vanuatu. At WSB, she is research officer for projects and manages the organization's reproductive and sexual health clinic. Alessandra Guedes, IPPF/WHR (www.ippf.org) A native of Brazil, Alessandra Guedes is based in New York working as a senior program officer at IPPF/WHR where, since 1999, she has managed a multi-country project on gender-based violence with the goal of integrating GBV screening and services as a routine part of sexual and RH provision. She has also been working in the areas of legal protection and advocacy in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil. Prior to joining IPPF, Ms. Guedes coordinated a youth sexual and RH project in slum areas in the outskirts of Brasilia, Brazil. Kanchan Mathur, Women's Resource Center, India Professor Kanchan Mathur is an expert on gender and development issues in India and the South Asian region. She has nearly 17 years of research, training and advocacy experience on women and development and mainstreaming gender concerns in policy planning and implementation. She has worked extensively on issues related to gender-based violence, gender and education, and health. She has presented several papers and articles at National and International forums and has published in journals and books of international repute. Professor Mathur is currently on leave from the Institute of Development Studies at Jaipur, where she is a faculty member, to set up and direct the UNFPA-supported Women's Resource Centre at the Rajasthan Institute of Public Administration in Jaipur. The WRC has a four fold agenda of documenting, advocacy, research and training on women's issues in the State of Jaipur. Manisha Mehta, Men as Partners, EngenderHealth (www.engenderhealth.org) Manisha Metha is the Program Manager of the Men As Partners Program at EngenderHealth. The objectives of the program are to improve men's awareness and support of the partner's RH choices; increase men's awareness of and responsibility for disease protection and cooperation and improve men's access to comprehensive RH services. Mzikazi Nduna, Stepping Stones, South Africa Mzikazi Nduna first became interested in sexuality, reproductive health, and gender power issues while working as an educator in a rural high school in South Africa. She worked with the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA) as a project manager for an HIV/AIDS training and resource centre project for several years. Ms. Nduna is now with the Gender and Health Research Group of the South African Medical Research Council, working as program manager for the Stepping Stones program primarily in the area of training and evaluation research. The goals of the Gender and Health Research Group are to improve women's health status and quality of life with an emphasis on GBV, youth sexuality, and sexual behavior interventions. Bruce Ragas, PhilDHRRA, Philippines Bruce Neri Ragas is the program officer of the Gender and Reproductive Health Program of PhilDHRRA, a network of 21 NGOs in the Visayas area, working on various rural development issues and concerns. His work includes coordinating projects like the Reproductive Health Circle that convene workers, professionals, researchers and advocates on gender and reproductive health. He also provides gender and RH-related technical assistance on project development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and advocacy to network members of PhilDHRRA. Mr. Ragas is a Gates and Packard Fellow on International Family Planning Leadership Program, which develops and supports emerging and established leaders on population-related works. He is a member of the Men Opposed to Violence Against Women and Children, Reproductive Health Circle, Cebu Women's Coalition and Regional Population Council of Region 7, Philippines. For More Information Fact Sheet: The GBV Global Technical Support Project (PDF: 61KB) New Publication: Gender-Based Violence (PDF: 9KB) Gender-Based Violence Initiative (PDF: 39KB) Contact Information Beth Vann, vannbeth@aol.com Jeanne Ward, jeanne@theirc.org