Preventing violence against women in Bolivia

Project description

Title: Prevention of violence against women in Bolivia
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Bolivia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Justice and Transparency: Vice-Ministry for Equal Opportunities, (Ministerio de Justicia y Transparencia Institucional, Viceministerio de Igualdad de Oportunidades)
Overall term: 2020 to 2023 (completed)

Puppet theatre at school on the issue of preventing violence against women

Context

Gender-specific violence against women is still widespread in Bolivia, affecting round seven in ten women. According to the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE), one third of the population sanctions violence at the hands of a partner. This legitimisation highlights the urgent need to change social and cultural norms. 

The Bolivian Government has ratified key international conventions to combat violence against women and has adopted national laws to protect them against violence. The country is also committed to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include the goals of achieving gender equality and eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls. 

However, until now the Government has focused on providing support for women subjected to violence. Consequently, there is a lack of concrete and effective implementation plans, knowledge, instruments and experiences of key actors when it comes to implementing measures – in particular in educational institutions, the private and public sectors and academia.

Objective

Key stakeholders from the state, the private sector and academia are making a greater contribution to preventing violence against women.

Schoolchildren answer the question of what violence means to them

Approach

The project advises the Ministry of Justice and Transparency, in particular the Vice-Ministry for Equal Opportunities, on the implementation of various laws to protect women against violence.

It is building on the impact achieved by the completed ComVoMujer project. The methods developed and tested in that project are being used to mainstream prevention within education. To this end, the project works with the Ministry of Education and its decentralised offices, provides in-service training for teachers and promotes additions to teaching curricula. This is enabling the preventive methods that have been developed, such as the ‘Finding Courage through Joining In’ children’s programme and the ‘Game Over’ learning format, to be put directly into use.

Schoolchildren and their teacher discuss the issue of violence against women

Owing to their social responsibility, businesses and chambers of trade play a key role in preventing violence against women and girls. They have enormous potential for initiating behavioural changes among their staff. The business management curricula at three state universities and one private university are therefore being expanded to include violence prevention. This will enable experts to develop and evaluate cost studies and other analytical tools on the issue. 

Data-based argumentation offers state-run and private companies further incentives to take action to prevent violence. Selected businesses are receiving tools for identifying and implementing prevention measures.

Last update: June 2021

Additional information