Prevention Intervention in Papua New Guinea - Bougainville

Partners for Prevention (P4P) is excited to announce that a new prevention intervention will commence in March in Papua New Guinea (PNG)-Bougainville. Funded under the UN Peace Building Fund in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, UN Women and UNICEF PNG will lead the joint programme, Planim Save, Kamap Strongpela (Plant Knowledge, Grow Strong) to prevent violence against women.

The Family, Health and Safety Study in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea,  which is part of the UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence found that 85 percent of ever-partnered men reported perpetrating physical, sexual, emotional and/or economic partner violence in their lifetime. Sexual violence was also highly reported with 59 percent of men reporting rape of a female partner and 41% reporting rape of a female non-partner. The research found that mental health of women and men was a significant concern for long-term wellbeing, with high rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress in the survey population. The study also found that a key contributing factor to violence is persisting post-conflict trauma.

Planim Save aims address to these findings by strengthening community social cohesion and security in Bougainville by addressing conflict related trauma effectively, reducing the levels of gender based violence by transforming gender norms and improving access to district level gender based violence support services. The project will be implemented in selected sites across Bougainville, in partnership with the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation, a local civil society organization.

The project will use two key strategies, one focused on community education programs utilizing a community conversations model and the other focused on improving access to counseling and trauma support. Community facilitators from selected Village Assemblies across Bougainville will be trained to run community conversations and to work with their local communities to develop sustainable responses to violence against women and trauma. Community conversations aim to encourage wider conversations around violence, gender norms and community change to influence community norms and will be conducted with men, women, youth and community leaders. To improve trauma support and response services the project will assist the Buka Family Support Centre by engaging qualified nursing and counselling staff. The project was designed using P4P’s research, local knowledge and promising prevention practices and addresses multiple factors related to men’s perpetration of violence.

Planim Save will run for 18 months and involve rigorous monitoring and evaluation through baseline and end line data to identify learnings of what works in violence prevention in the Pacific. P4P will provide ongoing technical assistance and financial support to the project.

(Photo: Local partners in Southern Bougainville discussing the findings of the Family, Health and Safety Study.)