Acted is committed to Ensure the Protection of Women at Risk and Survivors of Domestic Violence in Central Asia/Uzbekistan

Tashkent, March 7, 2024: On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Acted Uzbekistan acknowledges and praises the Government of Uzbekistan for its broad transformative reforms on ensuring gender equality, protection of women’s rights and ensuring economic empowerment of women in Uzbekistan. Acted also wants to express its gratitude and respect to all development partners, CSOs and state organizations, for their dedication in supporting women who are motivated to change their lives and committed to the advancement of the country. With the financial support of the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Acted is implementing the regional project “Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society to Ensure the Protection of Women at Risk and Survivors of DV in Central Asia/Uzbekistan” in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.  

Worldwide, almost one in three women report that they have ever experienced violence¹. 18 percent of women in Central Asia have also experienced violence in their lifetime². Gender-Based Violence is the most pervasive human rights violation and must be prevented. 

Acted’s action is oriented to improve the countries’ legislative frameworks, to strengthen the work of service providers and to promote more equitable social norms, working on the following three objectives: 

• Strengthening legal and policy frameworks through state organizations, civil society and local authorities activization; 
• Providing comprehensive services and economic empowerment to survivors of domestic violence.  Such services include information dissemination and outreach; medical, psychological, social, and legal consultations; and economic empowerment activities including technical and vocational trainings, business development assistance, and business grants; 
• Promoting gender-equitable social norms, attitudes, and behaviours throughout society to prevent Gender-Based Domestic Violence via local advocacy, information and awareness raising campaigns. For instance, Acted organized awareness raising campaigns among men and perpetrators to foster positive fatherhood.
  

These three specific interrelated objectives aim at generating sustainable change by addressing the issue of Gender-Based Domestic Violence in a systemic way in different segments of society.  

The direct beneficiaries of the project are divided into two distinct groups. First, a group of more than 7,000 women and girls at risk, survivors of domestic violence. Second, a group of “institutional beneficiaries”, including 30 civil society organization, 50 state organizations, 102 mahalla representatives, 14 shelters and rehabilitation centres, 25 police officers and 23 private sector managers, 170 state body representatives, and 150 CSOs representatives. The project’s indirect beneficiaries are the local community members in the targeted regions and districts, with an estimated number of 200,000 to 600,000 local inhabitants in the targeted districts. 

In Uzbekistan, Acted is partnering with the national implementing NGOs Ayol va Shodlik and Mehrjon in Fergana and Surkhandarya regions to provide women with a comprehensive support in the form of legal, medical, social, and psychological consultations, awareness raising of women on their rights, vocational training, and support of business start-ups of women. 

For more information, please contact: 

Name: Shakhnoza Djabbarova – Acted Project Coordinator. 

Phone number: + 998 (97) 265-22-82 Email address: shakhnoza.djabbarova@acted.org 

¹https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures

²https://blogs.worldbank.org/europeandcentralasia/gender-based-violence-affects-20-women-eca-costing-countries-billions-dollars