CITIES AND COMMUNITIES FREE FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
"Cities and Communities Free of Domestic Violence" is a project of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, to build municipal systems of prevention and response to domestic and gender-based violence.
The purpose of the project is to improve the capacity and role of municipalities in developing sustainable mechanisms for protecting and assisting those affected by domestic violence.
The project helps establish a network of high-quality specialized services and enhances coordination and intersectoral interaction among the authorities and services at the municipal level, as well as fostering more active engagement by communities in prevention and early detection of domestic violence.
Establishment of the municipal systems for preventing and combating domestic violence is based on 4P principles and includes:
Over the three-year partnership, UNFPA in Ukraine provides:
- Technical support to establish or maintaining specialized support services for survivors, including shelters, day-care centres,crisis rooms, mobile psychological support teams etc.
- Technical support to monitor services provided to survivors by the specialized services.
- Information support encouraging involvement of the city or community in the global campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”.
Stages of accession of cities and communities to the project
UNFPA selects communities for partnership annually through a contest. The partnership is fixed for three years in a memorandum and provides local councils with comprehensive support to build a municipal system for preventing and combating domestic and gender-based violence. The project currently includes 53 communities in Ukraine.
The project ‘Cities and Communities Free from Domestic Violence’ was launched in 2020. That year, the competitive selection was held among cities with a population of over 50,000 people from 12 regions of Ukraine (Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson). 32 Ukrainian cities filed applications for the project. 15 were selected to take part for 2020-2023, namely: Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Kyiv, Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, Kremenchuk, Lviv, Melitopol, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Pokrovsk, Poltava, Sievierodonetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson.
In 2021, with the support of the Governments of the UK and Canada, the project expanded its support for building local systems to prevent and respond to violence. In April, another 15 territorial communities from all regions of Ukraine were selected through a competitive process. Out of 117 applications submitted, the following were selected as partners for 2021-2024: Avanhard, Bila Tserkva, Dobropillia, Zaporizhzhia, Kalush, Kropyvnytskyi, Lubny, Mariupol, Rokytne, Starokostiantyniv, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Khoroshiv, Khotyn, and Cherkasy.
In 2022, UNFPA had planned to hold a competition and select additional communities to participate in the project. However, due to the full-scale war, the competition had to be suspended.
In 2023, UNFPA conducted a competitive selection of new cities and territorial communities from all regions of Ukraine to participate in the project for 2023-2025. 15 cities emerged as winners: Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr, Nizhyn, Kryvyi Rih, Lutsk, Sumy, Irpin, Mukachevo, Chernihiv, Pavlohrad, Izmail, Ivano-Frankivsk, Korosten, Voznesensk, and Khmelnytskyi.
In May 2024, another 8 territorial communities were selected through a competitive selection process. Of the 33 applications submitted, the following were selected as partners for 2024-2026: Kamianets-Podilskyi, Rivne, Kamianske, Konotop, Uman, Pervomaisk, Chervonohrad and Drohobych.
The project regularly conducts trainings and workshops for social service providers, psychologists, police officers, lawyers, and institutional managers from across the country, as well as events to improve cross-sectoral cooperation in the cities and communities participating in the project.
As part of the project, a Telegram channel was created specifically for professionals working in the field of prevention and counteraction gender-based violence.
The channel contains over 300 articles from leading experts in the field, which will be useful for professionals in their daily work and for improving their professional capacity.
Main topics and directions:
- Prevention and counteraction gender-based violence;
- Analysis of the latest methods and global practices in assisting survivors;
- Advice from psychologists working with survivors of domestic violence;
- Legal analysis of national legislation and judicial practice, analysis of international law.
Specialised support services for survivors
In addition to methodological support for services, training of specialists: social workers, lawyers, psychologists, police; the project provides technical support in developing a network of specialised services.
As of April 2024, 187 specialised survivors support services had been established in the project cities and communities. Of these, 173 are operational:
From 2023 to March 2024, more than 14,000 people in daycare centers, crisis rooms, and shelters received help thanks to the services supported or created under the project.
Dynamics of system development in cities and communities
UNFPA continues to support the development of cities and communities free of domestic violence.
The results of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 showed that:
- in the cities and communities that joined the project in 2020 and 2021, the average completion rate of the Roadmap steps is 79.9%.
- the cities and communities that joined the project in 2023 are building local systems. The average completion rate of the Roadmap steps is 63.9%.
