At the cutting edge>>Launch of our Security Sector Knowledge Module


First published: 2012-02-24

Social Development Direct is delighted to announce the launch of its security sector module which can be found on the UN Women Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls website. The module provides step-by-step guidance on how to design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives that work with the police and military to respond to violence against women and girls.

In the last few years, international agencies, including the UN and DFID, have become increasingly aware of the enormous number of women and girls who experience violence, both in the home and in public spaces, and how such violence impacts upon their ability to access key services, such as health and education, to participate fully in public life and how it violates their human rights.  These organisations have also begun to understand how such violence can impede the achievement of international development targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals.

In 2010, in recognition of the seriousness of the issue and the need to address it, UN Women chose Violence against Women and Girls as one of its six focus areas. In order to improve future work in this area, UN Women has established a Global Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls. The aim of the Knowledge Centre is to be an innovative and cutting edge online ‘one stop’ service for those working to improve the prevention of and responses to violence against women and girls, across a range of different sectors. It allows its users to access key tools and evidence, drawing on expert recommendations, policy and programme reviews and practitioners’ own experiences from around the world.

In 2010, SDDirect was contracted to develop and write the Security Sector Module for the Knowledge Centre, focusing primarily on the role of the police, and to a lesser extent, the military, in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. In late 2010, a small SDDirect team began to work on the module, planning what key areas it needed to cover, gathering information and reaching out to experts in the field.  Our work was conducted in close collaboration with the UN Women team to ensure that the module was in line with other modules previously commissioned.

First, we conducted an initial online search, to source a range of materials including research and evaluations on the ways in which the police and other security sector actors deal with women/ girls who have experienced violence, as well as more practical tools such as police training manuals and curricula. Whilst we found quite a large number of practical tools online, there were far fewer research and evaluations documents available. In addition, the material available online was predominantly from the Global North or post-conflict settings.

To access a greater number of documents, particularly from the Global South, we therefore found it necessary to contact experts from research organisations, government and civil society working on these issues and from as many different regions as possible. In many instances documents tools or small scale reviews existed but were not yet available online so these had to be directly accessed from the authors/users.

Where we found a particularly interesting initiative, we commissioned a number of case studies, to describe in detail the process through which it developed, as well as challenges and lessons learned. Final case studies include those on women’s police stations in Latin America, a police training programme in Pakistan, a programme for the safety of women and children in India and a case study on the Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference between London police, local authorities and service providers in the UK.

Before the module was completed, it was reviewed by more than 20 experts including police officers, military personnel, as well as experts from research institutes, NGOs and government.  In January 2012, the module was launched online and joins other modules on Campaigns, Legislation,  Men and Boys, Health, Safe Cities and Justice.  It aims to be user-friendly and to outline key approaches, as well as to provide step-by-step guidance on how to design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives that work with the police and military, to respond to and prevent violence against women and girls. The module also provides a range of different media including posters, photographs, film and audio. Later this year the guide will be translated into French and Spanish to reach a larger audience.

We hope that those working with security sector actors on issues around violence against women and girls will find it a useful resource to draw upon when they develop both programmes and policy. It is also the hope that those using the module, will also help to update it and keep it fresh by adding their own materials and findings to allow it to continue to grow and become an even more useful resource. 

For more information please contact Alice Kerr-Wilson.