Stakeholders Seek Budget To Address Needs Of Vulnerable

To curb the spate of sexual and gender-based violence in the formal and informal sector, HACEY Health Initiative in collaboration with gender development experts, finance and policy makers, has called for budgetary and statutory allocations to address the needs of victims through survival-centric finance to enable victims recover from trauma and shock.

The stakeholders said to gain traction for sexual and GBV victims there is need to drive inclusive finance to achieve gender equality by mainstreaming the GDP into the health sector to become part and parcel of the state ethos to respond to survivors needs.

Speaking on the sideline of the pivotal session at the 68th Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) in New York with the theme: “Accelerating the Achievement of Gender Equality; Increasing Financing for preventing and Response to Gender-based Violence”, the executive director of HACEY Health Initiative, Rhoda Robinson, said statutory and budgetary allocations will address the needs and cases of SGBV victims at workforce and various community levels.

In a statement he issued, Robinson reiterated the need for the government to strengthen political will on SGBV by driving advocacy and informing knowledge through community engagements and sensitization programmes with civil society organizations to achieve a common goal.

“We need to match political will with actions by implementing statutory allocation and budgetary funding of SGBV to address the needs of survivors and help private and public sector drive engagements,’’ Robinson said.

She said we must partner with government agencies to respond to the needs of SGBV victims while stressing the need for partnerships and community driven initiatives.

HACEY director also expanded the need to promote social inclusion for women empowerment to assist victims of GBV to access legal services, social support and welfare packages.

Robinson said we need to accelerate investment in gender equality and promote positive impact in the widest community and achieve workforce balance.