A survivor-focused training on gender-based violence response has concluded, advancing the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) among agencies serving Saint Lucia’s most vulnerable persons.
The two-day training formed part of the Build Back Equal initiative, implemented by UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to address gender-based violence as a barrier to women’s social and economic participation. The training follows a consultancy to develop SOPs across key response sectors and was coordinated by the Department of Equity, Social Justice, Gender and Older Persons.
“It forms the heart of our push towards a survivor-centered approach, towards addressing gender-based violence and responding. Really, at the heart of the survivor-centered approach is that you're putting the needs, the safety, (and) the dignity of survivors at the forefront of every decision that you make. This is important because what we want to do is to prevent retraumatization by survivors having to continually relay their experiences in a fragmented way. So the whole emphasis of bringing agencies together to understand the standard operating procedures and to build their capacity in using this is so that we see a coordinated system as opposed to fragmented service provision, poor or delayed referrals to more timely, highly prioritized referrals and case management.”
The Director of Gender Affairs, Janey Joseph, underscored the importance of practical SOPs informed by frontline experience. She noted that effective implementation would establish clearer case-management and focal-point support to guide survivors across agencies and reduce the burden of repeated disclosures.
“The takeaways are both for our division and for the taskforce. So on a coordination level, which is what the division of Gender Affairs is responsible for, it (the training) really concretized the need for the setting up of standard operating procedures. As it relates to the task force, we recognize where some of the gaps are and where some of the hurdles will be highest and we have a good idea as to how to be able to roll out the implementation of the of the standard operating procedures, so that it would be useful to the persons who are actually going to be using it.”
The training brought together representatives from law enforcement, health, justice, education and social services to identify opportunities for strengthening day-to-day service delivery, enhancing trauma-informed care and protecting survivor dignity.
“One of the most important aspects of this training is that while we understand that the vulnerabilities of victims and survivors of sexual violence is high, setting SOPs and creating standards around this ecosystem better positions us as social service providers, law enforcement, justice to not guess what is happening in our communities, but to pull from the information that we have, of course, in a responsive way, in a confidential way, the sorts of information that can inform our data, so we, at the highest level, can understand trends and patterns that are happening, can better make a case for funding internationally, because we have the data to present, and over the long term can understand what really is our position in Saint Lucia when it comes to our response to GBV, and overall how we handle the sensitivities around GBV.”
The Department of Gender Affairs highlights that support for survivors must also include elderly persons, who are especially vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and neglect.
The development of standardized procedures is expected to strengthen referrals, improve survivor support and generate reliable data to guide policy, resource allocation and future investment in Saint Lucia’s gender-based violence response.
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