EU Regional Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls in the Southern Neighbourhood Countries

The European Union awarded EuroMed Feminist Initiative (EFI) a three-year grant with the value of 3,239,843 EUR to implement "the Regional Campaign to Prevent and Combat Violence against Women and Girls in the Southern Neighbourhood Countries"

EuroMed Feminist Initiative is a policy network that encompasses women’s rights organizations from the two shores of the Mediterranean. It provides expertise in the area of gender equality and women’s rights as inseparable from democracy building and citizenship, advocates for political solutions to all conflicts, and for the right of peoples to self-determination.

Launched in January 2019, EuroMed Feminist Initiative and a consortium of member women's rights organizations in Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt started implementing a three-year regional project "Combating Violence against Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region", funded by the EU. The overall objective is to contribute to the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the Southern Neighborhood States, by promoting a social environment that does not tolerate VAWG and where decision makers address it as a political priority.

The project supports a comprehensive approach to VAWG and encompasses three main actions that are interrelated and mutually reinforcing, these are:
1) Launching a Regional Campaign on Zero tolerance for violence against women and girls (VAWG) to help to get violence out of the private sphere and to support changing of public attitudes;
2) Strengthening the women's rights CSOs-led dialogue with decision makers and contribute to the balance of power needed to achieve legal and policy change;
3) Establishing a Regional Civil Society Observatory to follow up on governmental commitments in the field of VAWG, women, peace and security (WPS) and preventing violent extremism (PVE) and to ensure improved collective knowledge to support the adoption and implementation of policies.

The campaign addresses priorities specific to the different national contexts, aiming to reach out to over one million people and involve a broad variety of national and local actors: from women's rights organization and broader civil society, to decision makers, first respondents (police, social workers, judges), relevant Ministries, opinion makers, academics, school teachers and students, victims of violence and discrimination, and globally, the whole society, women and men aiming to challenge gender stereotypes and achieving social change.
The campaign encourages the whole society to stand up against VAWG, to demand adoption of a comprehensive legislation that criminalizes all forms of VAWG, and the implementation of such legislation when it exists. A rights-based approach and gender equality in education has a particular focus.

Consortium members of this project are:

Association Najdeh, Lebanon
Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), Lebanon
Tunisian Women's Association for Development and Research (AFTURD), Tunisia
Arab Women Organization (AWO), Jordan
Information Center on the Rights of Women and Children (CIDDEF), Algeria
Association for Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development (ACT), Egypt
Women’s Action Union (UAF), Morocco
Federation of Women's Action Committees (PFWAC), Palestine
Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), Palestine