Availability of social services within an acceptable distance

Availability of social services within an acceptable distance

Availability of social services within an acceptable distance

The number and type of organizations in a community that provide
social services pertaining to the prevention and response to sexual and
gender-based violence (SGBV), at one point in time. Social services include but are not limited to:

  • Safe space, or shelters, for women and children
  • Crisis hotlines for intimate partner and sexual violence
  • Case management services including counseling, support groups, safety planning, legal aid/support, child welfare, recreational programs for abused children
  • Crisis intervention skills including training, income generation, and self defense
  • Perpetrator programs, and reintegration

Accessibility needs to be locally defined, depending on the geographic
area and the modes of transportation and communication that are readily
available to most of the population.

Data Requirement(s):

Count of the number of organizations that provide any social-welfare services directed at the prevention of and response to SGBV in a specified geographic area (community, province, region).  Data should be disaggregated by type of service provided, per the checklist above.

Evaluators may want to disaggregate by sex.

In places where agencies providing services might use websites or telephone directories (e.g., in urban centers of South-east Asia), a list should be compiled from these information sources. A list should also be generated by checking governmental offices, such as women’s ministries or departments of social welfare, as well as non-governmental organizations in the geographic area of interest. In many places, consulting informally with key informants in the community, or running a mapping exercise such as the second step of the MEASURE Evaluation PLACE protocol will be needed to generate a list. The list of service organizations should be verified by either calling or visiting the agencies to ascertain what types of, if any, services are provided
to SGBV survivors.

Count the resources listed and disaggregate by type of social welfare-based services provided. If one or more organizations provides comprehensive services (and thus multiple types), the organization would be classified under a category called “integrated services,” noting which actual services are provided.

Those who experience violence in the home or elsewhere need help in a number of areas not specifically addressed by health, educational, or legal programs. This output indicator measures whether there are social services and what type of social-welfare services, directed towards the prevention of and response to SGBV, are available in a community. The disaggregated indicator can be used to identify gaps and, with measurements at multiple time points, trends in availability of specific types of services.

Generating a comprehensive list of organizations may be difficult, and some organizations may be missed, depending on the methods used. Unless organizations are listed accurately, double-counting could occur. If organizations are missed at one count, and included in the next count, the increase in the number of organizations will not reflect growing service availability in social welfare. A true increase in organizations over time may reflect a number of things, including more need (a growing population of affected individuals), increased funding and focus on the problem, or increased attention and awareness within communities.

access, violence, community

Bloom S.  “Violence Against Women and Girls: A Compendium of Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators.” USAID, IGWG, and MEASURE Evaluation, 2008.

MEASURE Evaluation Project.  2005.  PLACE: Priorities for local AIDS control efforts, a manual for implementing the PLACE method.
USAID & MEASURE Evaluation, MS-05-13.

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