Role of the health sector

While preventing and responding to violence against women requires a multi-sectoral approach, the health sector has an important role to play. The health sector can:

• Advocate to make violence against women unacceptable and for such violence to be addressed as a public health problem.
• Provide comprehensive, survivor-centred, quality services, and sensitize and train health care providers in responding to the needs of survivors in a non-judgemental and empathetic way.
• Prevent recurrence of violence through early identification of women and children who are being affected by violence and providing appropriate care, referral and support
• Promote egalitarian gender norms as part of life skills and comprehensive sexuality education curricula taught to young people.
• Generate evidence on what works and on the magnitude of the problem by carrying out population-based surveys or including violence against women in population-based demographic and health surveys, as well as in surveillance and health information systems.

Useful Links:

Link to the related WHO factsheet:

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women

Link to the related WHO news release:

https://www.who.int/news/item/09-03-2021-devastatingly-pervasive-1-in-3-women-globally-experience-violence

Links to related WHO publications:

Caring for women subjected to violence: WHO training curriculum for health care providers

Strengthening health systems for women subjected to intimate partner violence and sexual violence: A health manager’s manual

Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence and sexual violence: A clinical handbook.