Health professionals and members of the community will be able to better understand their duties and response to gender-based violence through specialised training.
Health Ministry head of Family Health Unit Dr Rachel Devi said this after the launch of the Fiji Health Guidelines for Comprehensive Case Management for Responding to Gender-Based Violence.
She said Fiji and other Melanesian countries had some of the highest rates of violence compared with other Polynesian and Micronesian countries.
“In 2019, the Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DIVA) report showed that 83.64 per cent of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and gender non-conforming people experienced physical violence by their intimate partner,” Dr Devi said.
Of this, only 43 per cent shared the assault with close friends while 12 per cent did not report.
Additionally, over 72 per cent of women reported having experienced physical, sexual and/or emotional violence from their partner.
About 15 per cent experienced violence while pregnant, and 16 per cent of women were abused before the age of 15.
Dr Devi said the guideline was aimed at training and guiding healthcare workers uniformly throughout the ministry and the private sector.
“It gives healthcare workers knowledge and skills to manage and support cases of gender-based violence and quality healthcare services to ensure safety and health for all members of society.”
She said the ministry would work in close collaboration with NGOs,
CSOs and the private sector to train healthcare workers through a national training of trainers, which would eventually be rolled out to the various divisions.
The 98-page guideline was compiled by the ministry alongside its partners from Spotlight Initiative, an initiative of the United Nations funded by the European Union, with support from agencies such as the United Nations Development Fund (UNFPA), and a number of local NGOs and CSOs.
