The Secretary of the Department for Community Development and Religion, Jerry Ubase, officially launched the first ever national website on gender-based violence (GBV) with support from the United Nations Development Program under the EU-funded Spotlight Initiative.
The website – accessible at www.ngbvs.gov.pg – will be managed by National GBV Secretariat, as the body is designated to drive implementation of the National GBV Strategy (2016-2025).
Secretary Ubase launched the website at a meeting to update development partners on the work of the DFCDR, to facilitate coordination of different stakeholders across the country.
“I am very committed to ensuring that my department works hard to ensure that we achieve the goals set out in the National GBV Strategy and contribute meaningfully to reducing violence in our country. GBV hurts the people of our country and it undermines our national development. We must do better to support provincial governments, civil society and communities to reduce violence.” said Ubase.
The secretary also made mention to the National Government’s substantial budget allocation provided to DFCDR to address GBV.
“The Government has put its trust in us by allocating 7.93 million Kina from the 2022 National Budget to address GBV, as well as another 39 million Kina through the Public Investment Programme. I am committed to urgently establishing a full cohort of staff for the National GBV Secretariat to ensure that that we have very well-qualified staff in place who can effectively use the resources entrusted to us to ensure proper GBV prevention crisis response services are provided across the country,” he said.
Ubase also used the opportunity of the website launch to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with UNDP and the Consultative Implementation Monitoring Council’s Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) which aims to strengthen coordination regarding GBV activities between the three bodies.
