Strategic Review of the Program to Prevent Gender-based Violence: El Salvador and Guatemala, National Level 2013-2015
Three-year strategic review of the Prevention for Gender-based Violence Program in El Salvador and Guatemala focusing on the progress and effectiveness of Oxfam’s national advocacy strategies.
Oxfam America’s Program for the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence (PPGV) was launched in 2005 and has worked to achieve implementation of public policies through the strengthening of social and institutional mechanisms for the application of national and local laws. This focus was capitalized on the formal, systemic change Oxfam had helped foster with its contributions to the passing of the Comprehensive Special Law for a Life Free from Violence for Women in 2011 which addresses domestic violence, gender-based violence, human trafficking, and promotes the rights of the child and gender equality. Aside from the policy work, the program sought to influence informal norms, beliefs and practices regarding gender-based violence in a broader context of societal (gang) violence and a culture of impunity that disempowers the public. The focus of this strategic review, covering 2013-2015, is primarily on activities at the national level with the judicial and legal system, and to some extent the educational system, with some attention of the interface at the municipal level. The report reviews the extent to which institutions such as the Supreme Court and the Institute for Development of Children and Adolescents (ISNA), for example, have internalized and are applying the relevant laws on gender violence prevention, as well as any progress they have made toward mainstreaming gender in their policies and strategies.