21 February 2021
Writers: Mariana Lamprea and Arta Anindita
Editor & Picture: Gabrielle Pascal
Seek ideas and solutions to reduce violence against women . Violence against women is defined by United Nation of Women (UN Women) as a “any act based on gender such as physical sexual or mental harm which makes suffering to women. This includes coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty in public or private life. The research based on WHO with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South Africa Medical Research Council, refers to data from over 80 countries in the world found that 1 in 3 or 35% of women have been victim to physical or sexual violence by intimate partners (UN Women, 2017).
Then, how are we to tackle this issue?
Here, we can discuss further about violence against women. Many organizations established exist to help these women, pushing governments to create laws to protect them. Another solution citizens can make a competitionfor example in Columbia. Through the Zero violence platform ,innovation and entrepreneurship teams from all over the country apply to give their ideas or technological solutions, aimed at solving and preventing violence against women.
This is an idea that seeks to promote changes in social behaviors that naturalize and trivialize violence against women in public spaces; identify in which public spaces, place, date and time acts of harassment occur (georeferencing) and risk factors with maps of consolidated results; and inform services of attention to violence and sexual harassment in public spaces.
An IDB project in Peru is a clear example of how to impact violent behavior in the short and long term: “We are developing a project that uses WhatsApp groups where men recruit their friends to join a group of men who exchange messages. The leader has the responsibility to share information and lead discussions that try to promote some of the changes that the program produces, but in a virtual way. Our bet is that it will generate much impact compared to the cost of the intervention. It's using technology to produce relatively rapid changes to scale, ”Morrison said.
Another example is the ELSA instrument, which stands for Harassment-Free Work Spaces. “It is a virtual platform that we are developing to put it at the service of private companies, and in Colombia also public institutions, to reduce sexual harassment in the workplace. What the ELSA platform is going to offer organizations is a confidential diagnosis for the company of the state of harassment, an action plan and follow-up to the plan ”, explained Morrison. ELSA, which will be launched on February 25, is a virtual tool, which uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to diagnose companies.
In Colombia, one in three women run the risk of suffering violence at some point in her life, so the Presidential Council for Women's Equity, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), UN Women, in partnership with the Universidad del Rosario, and the support of USAID and AECID , have joined in an "ideation " to mitigate the impact of this problem. At the end of the process, the three winning teams will receive a five-month support program for the development of their ventures, during which they will have the support of the organizing entities and high-level strategic and technological advisers. The estimated value of this accompaniment is US $ 13,000. In addition, US $ 7,000 in cash to implement and develop the project and participation in a Demo Day, where they can present themselves in front of potential investors and clients.
The winners will also have the possibility to be visible on the social networks of the Inter-American Development Bank and UN Women. This call offers the opportunity to achieve changes both in the short and long term. In short, impact communities by modifying behaviors and beliefs, and positively transforming certain situations. In the long run, make the intergenerational transmission of values and respect for women consolidated both with the younger generations and those to come.
“There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable”
- Ban Ki Moon-
(South Korean Politics and Diplomat Who Serve as the Eight Secretary-General
of the United Nations)
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