BURUNDIANS RESPONDING AGAINST VIOLENCE AND INEQUALITY (BRAVI) QUARTER 1 REPORT

The project aims to improve prevention and response efforts to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in targeted communities. During project year (PY) 3, the project received an additional US$500,000 from USAID to integrate family planning (FP) into the existing project. The project's specific objectives have been adjusted to reflect the integration of FP and SGBV, with a strategic objective of improving SGBV prevention and response efforts, including the provision of integrated FP and SGBV services. The project's specific objectives are: 1) to strengthen the health sector response for SGBV survivors, including FP service provision; 2) to promote awareness and use of available SGBV and FP services, and strengthen referral networks; and 3) to promote gender equitable norms in the community to prevent SGBV, and support voluntary FP use. During the reporting period, the project continued to support health facilities in improving the quality of SGBV services in its 39 supported sites. A total of 77 SGBV survivors received medical care, including post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), against the quarterly benchmark of 34 and 25, respectively. The project also trained 120 community leaders in SGBV prevention and response to increase their involvement in community mobilization efforts for SGBV prevention and survivor support. The project's activities during quarter (Q) 1 of PY4 included conducting monitoring and evaluation (M&E) meetings with health providers to strengthen their capacity to provide quality SGBV services and to improve SGBV data collection, training for community leaders in SGBV prevention and support of survivors, activities related to the SGBV Technical Working Group (TWG) and strengthening CDFC coordination, and SGBV prevention-related media activities during the national 16 Days of Activism Campaign Against GBV. One major challenge faced during this reporting period included Ministry of Health (MOH) stock-outs of PEP for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The project proposed actions to address these challenges in Q2, including advocacy to the MOH to ensure the regular availability of anti-retroviral kits, second line treatment, PEP, and emergency contraception, prioritization of on-site supportive supervision, integration of community-based psycho-social support, adjustment of the project's implementation plan to increase activities in Q2, and engagement of short-term consultants to expedite recruitment delays. The project continued to strengthen the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs, and Gender's (MHRSAG's) ability to coordinate Burundi's multi-sectoral response to SGBV. The project also supported its efforts to improve SGBV response and prevention by joining efforts with other partners to support the updating of programmatic tools for SGBV, including the National SGBV Strategy (2017-2021). The project provided support to the CDFC, which plays a key role in coordinating SGBV stakeholders' efforts to improve the prevention of and comprehensive response to SGBV for survivors at the communal and provincial levels. The project's activities under IR2 were primarily focused on M&E, as reflected in the M&E section of this report. The project also supported a 3-day technical review workshop from December 5-7, 2017 in Gitega province to finalize the National SGBV Strategy. The review process included ensuring the integration of the amendments issued during the national validation workshop in July 2017, and developing a dissemination plan for the strategy on a large scale. Workshop participants included four men and seven women (primarily BRAVI employees and senior counselors and inspectors from the Ministries of Health and Human Rights, Social Affairs, and Gender). The project's data shows higher rates of SGBV among younger couples, and supports the project's decision to target couples of this particular age group with gender-synchronized community workshops. The purpose of these workshops is to foster healthier relationships between women and men, while taking care to protect and acknowledge the experience of violence, and to hold perpetrators of violence accountable for their actions.