End GBV Africa | Researchers expand portal on Africa’s GBV laws
Marking Africa Day, 25 May 2024, ALT Advisory has launched an expansion of End GBV Africa (endgbv.africa), an online portal mapping African countries’ legal and policy responses to gender-based violence (GBV), with new country fact sheets for Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritius, and Nigeria.
With this expansion, which was undertaken in collaboration with a network of researchers on the continent, End GBV Africa now includes assessments of the state of GBV responses in ten countries across Southern, East and West Africa, with more countries to be introduced in the coming weeks. Our analysis includes frameworks which seek to combat online forms of GBV, such as online abuse, harassment, and stalking.
We have also updated the fact sheet for South Africa to reflect the President’s signing of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act, which provides for a new statutory body to coordinate efforts to combat GBV and femicide.
- Explore the interactive map, country fact sheets, and other resources, at endgbv.africa
By unpacking the GBV-related laws of each country, analysing local trends and developments, and drawing together hotlines and other support mechanisms, this initiative aims to help policymakers, activists, and civil society bodies in efforts to combat all forms of GBV in Africa, and to equip survivors and their families with relevant information and access to resources.
The End GBV Africa portal also rates each country’s progress in addressing GBV through a colour-coding system: Red, Amber, and Green. It is concerning to note that none of the countries in our assessment showed enough progress to be rated ‘Green’. However, recognising recent developments in updating laws, and introducing new support mechanisms, in this latest phase we have included a new rating of ‘Yellow’ to differentiate countries that have made significantly more progress than their counterparts in addressing policy gaps, even though there is much more that needs to be done.
In time, we hope to expand coverage to the whole continent.
Our hope is that this project will continue to inform and advance efforts to develop meaningful protections for people experiencing gender-based violence in Africa, both on- and offline.
End GBV Africa is an ALT Special Project. These updates were made possible through ALT Advisory’s Public Interest Fund and from the Africa Digital Rights Fund, with support from the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).
