The Brazilian National Confederation of Municipalities’ (CNM) continuing support for local, cross-sector responses to violence against women and girls is raising the profile of these issues locally and nationally. By increasing focus on prevention and tackling root causes such as gender inequality, and through carrying out a 2-year pilot project in 10 municipalities, CNM has brought together local leadership and created political will at different levels to prevent and address the issue.
From awareness raising to international knowledge sharing
Within the ‘Safe Municipalities Free of Violence against Women’ project, authorities, women’s grassroots and community partners were equipped to advocate, develop, and monitor the effective implementation of laws and policies, and to make sure that accompanying resources are in place to support this action. Based on the local context and joint accountability ensured by a deep understanding of local forms of violence against women and girls fostered during the project, each of the 10 municipalities that took part in the project created, implemented and currently monitors their local pacts for ending violence against women and girls. In addition, two municipalities turned the pacts into local legislation.
Meeting of women leaders
One of the main lessons of the project is that cross sectoral working really is fundamental to ending violence against women and girls. Following this result, CNM is organizing a national event entitled “Meeting of Women Leaders” during its annual conference, Marcha a Brasília em Defesa dos Municípios, that brings together around 8000 local government representatives from all over Brazil, to discuss the pressing issues affecting women at the local level.
Further information is available on http://www.mulheresseguras.org.br/ (in Portuguese)