Addressing Sexual Violence in Conflict and Emergency Settings

Testimonial

“I was fortunate enough to be part of this course as we are setting up gender and sexual violence response and prevention activities in Borno state, Nigeria. This has meant that I could already feed in some of the learnings into the activity design.  As a result of the course, we will, for instance, be implementing more comprehensive support to survivors than previously planned to respond in a more tailor-made way to the needs of each survivor. This course has motivated me to continue seeking ways to improve and extend our programming to support survivors of sexual violence and prevent it from occurring where possible. Within my organisation, sexual violence programming is still marginal compared to other sectors. Still, I intend to advocate internally for increased resource allocation to this often underfunded area and strengthen our organisational capacity.”

Alexander Gnädinger, Programme Manager

The content and the course organisation, as well as the facilitation, were very impressive. Presenters addressed their topics in a pedagogical way tailored to adult training and learning needs. Sexual violence in conflict settings and emergencies and in times of peace should be seriously considered. It has several negative impacts on the lives of individuals, whether males or females and communities. It destroys the social fabric and cohesion of communities. As humanitarian workers, we need to be aware of that and anticipate that sexual violence might happen anywhere and anytime. I was very satisfied with the training. This is a key course that should be offered to all humanitarian actors, not only those working specifically on Sexual violence.

Marietou Dia, Sexual Violence Regional Advisor for Africa, ICRC

“Having facilitators who are experts in the field, not only in knowledge but also in practice, was key to my learning.”

Course participant

“The course was an eye-opener. I interacted with so many practitioners, which was important because we [researchers] make policy recommendations and
must interact meaningfully with those actors who interact routinely with survivors. We often do not have these engagements.
I would definitely recommend this course to researchers on sexual violence in humanitarian settings”.

Course participant

“The course reminded me of the importance of tackling the topic of sexual violence with no preconceptions about its prevalence in a given context, who it affects and what survivors need and want. Preconceived ideas can lead professionals to miss or misunderstand important elements. The course also reminded me of the importance of creating spaces for survivors to speak and of taking the time to listen to them to understand their experience and better address their needs.”                                                                                                                                                                             

Layla Clément, Human Rights Professional and Investigator

“Looking solely at a (potential) individual victim is fundamentally incomplete. There is a need to adopt a multi-survivor programming and consider the negative implications of those victimised, be they male or female, on their spouses, children and, in fact, communities.“

Anastasiia Doroshenko, Protection Delegate,  Danish Red Cross, Sudan

“Listening to the survivor leaders about their needs and wants, about what they think about the humanitarian aid and what we are providing also opened my eyes to several things: some support can only be provided by the community, and we could put more resources to facilitate this. The aid we provide sometimes doesn’t meet the needs and wants of the survivors, because it is based on what we think they need, and we can only understand this by listening to them.”

Course participant.