Launch workshop of Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Victims of Violence

Thank you for the invitation to deliver a brief message in solidarity at the start of this 3-day workshop to officially launch the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Victims of Violence in Ghana.

I would like to thank UNFPA and partners for bringing stakeholders together for this important workshop.

The Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence is a joint global programme of the United Nations.  It is a partnership involving UN Women, UNFPA, WHO, UNDP and UNODC. It seeks to provide greater access to a coordinated set of essential and quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls who have experienced or are experiencing gender-based violence.

It is multi-sectoral in that it involves a wide range of sectors including health, social services, police and justice systems providing guidelines for the coordination of services by these sectors. It is a full package of service delivery targeting women and girls who are experiencing or have experienced gender-based violence.

The United Nations family in Ghana is very pleased that since 2015 when the Essential Services Package was launched, today Ghana is among the man countries benefiting from this tool by way of introducing it to the sectors that matter and developing the requisite national road map to support women and girls victims of violence.

I am confident that this workshop will provide us the tools and knowledge on how to adapt acceptable standards and guidelines to fit the national context and help us further refine support at the country level to improve quality and access to essential services for women and girls victims of violence.

I commend the UNFPA for taking the leadership role in this endeavor to help us build a common understanding of the functions of the multi-sectorial response, provide the technical support and strengthen capacity during this workshop.

I understand that at the end of the three-day workshop, you will develop a plan for the introduction of a coordinated multi-sectorial response to Gender-Based Violence at the country level.

This will no doubt form the basis for future intervention relating to gender-based violence.

I wish you the very best in this three days and look forward to a fruitful meeting.

Thank you