The ‘Ending Violence against Women and Girls: Essential Services Package and Prevention Frameworks and Guidance’ programme, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia (DFAT), was a five-year initiative (2020 – 2025). It had three inter-connected streams: 

1. Supporting initiatives to end gender-based violence through the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls (UNTF) by providing grants to organisations address, respond to and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls.
2. Strengthening quality, coordinated and multi-sectoral services for victim-survivors through the continued roll-out and adaptation of the Essential Services Package for women and girls subject to violence (ESP)
3. Addressing the root causes and risk factors of violence against women and girls (VAWG) through the roll-out of prevention frameworks and initiatives.

This End Term Programmatic Review evaluated the ESP and prevention elements of the programme, with the UNTF evaluated through existing separate processes.

The objectives of the ESP and Prevention elements of the program were:

Area 1: Strengthening quality, coordinated and multi-sectoral services for VAWG survivors:

1. Countries have national guidelines, protocols and action plans for a coordinated set of essential services for VAWG survivors in health, justice and policing, and social services that are based on internationally agreed norms and standards and adapted to the national context, including for use during the COVID-19 crisis
2. Coverage of and access to quality essential VAWG services, provided in line with quality standards and tools, and adapted for use during the COVID-19 crisis, has improved
3. Use of VAWG essential services, including during the COVID-19 crisis, provided in line with the global standards and tools by women and girls, has increased.

Area 2: Addressing root causes and risk factors to prevent VAWG:

1. Increased global, regional and national frameworks, policies, guidelines, and implementation of evidence-based VAW prevention, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region
2. Strengthened capacity of government ministries, NGOs and women’s rights organizations to design and implement effective VAWG prevention programming in development and humanitarian settings, in line with the RESPECT Framework
3. Strengthened advocacy, research capacity and networks on VAWG prevention at global level and in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The End Term Review concluded that the Ending Violence against Women and Girls Programme spearheaded transformative advances in preventing and responding to VAWG, and one of UN Women’s strongest contributions was fostering a globally shared understanding of the internationally agreed-on standards and principles of VAWG prevention and response. UN Women effectively built bodies of knowledge and evidence on newly emerging priorities in the EVAWG space, and significantly, accelerated the shift towards gender-responsive policing services at global, regional and national levels. It also highlighted that multiple activities strengthened the provision of VAWG survivor services across sectors, and efforts succeeded in advancing a strong understanding of what VAWG prevention means.

Download the report

• UN Women Ending Violence Against Women: Essential Services Package and Prevention Frameworks and Guidance  (EVAW Programme) [DOCX 295 KB]
• UN Women Ending Violence Against Women: Essential Services Package and Prevention Frameworks and Guidance  (EVAW Programme) [PDF 1.4 MB]

DFAT’s response to the Independent Evaluation

DFAT considers the report to be of high quality. It has addressed the Terms of Reference well. The report also is consistent with the Evaluation Plans and Evaluation Tools documents prepared by the independent team.

DFAT agrees with each of the seven evaluation recommendations noting that the project itself and DFAT’s funding have concluded, and implementation of the recommendations will be carried forward by UN Women in accordance with its own management response.