Scaling up GBV Response and Prevention through  Women and Girls Friendly Spaces (WGFS)  in Aweil Centre County, Northern Bahr Ghazal State  Kapoeta South and Kapoeta East Counties in Eastern Equatorial State in South Sudan. The creation of Women and Girls’ Friendly Spaces (WGFS) has been globally recognized as a key strategy for the protection and empowerment of women and girls in emergencies. This is because in most societies, women have limited space to meet since public spaces are mostly inhabited by men. The situation is worse during conflict as mobility for women and girls is curtailed for fear of sexual violence, harassment, and indiscriminate attacks.

In South Sudan, the establishment of Women and Girls’ Friendly Spaces helps to reduce risks and prevent further harm during conflicts. These spaces provide women and girls with a safe entry point for services such as health, emotional support services, food, livelihoods, safety and security, shelter among others and a place to access information. Safe gathering points also offer them an opportunity to engage with each other, exchange information for instance on services available, and rebuild community networks and support. In this way, safe spaces can be a key way of building women and girls’ social assets. ARC proposes to utilize SSHF funding to strengthen ongoing GBV interventions in Aweil, Kapoeta South and Kapoeta East Counties by supporting three existing WGFS, one per County. Currently, ARC is running four WGFS in these locations two in Kapoeta South, one in Kapoeta East and one in Aweil. The actual locations were determined by a consultative process involving all stakeholders but most importantly prioritizing the views and suggestions from women and girls themselves. This enabled the decentralization of GBV services and improved accessibility to services by vulnerable communities from remote areas. All the WGFS operations and activities will conform to UNICEF’s WGFS guidelines for South Sudan. Some of the proposed activities will include but will not be limited to (1) Case management services and referrals, (2) Psychosocial support (PSS) services, (3) Awareness raising on services available (4) Information dissemination sessions on GBV, WASH, nutrition and reproductive health etc. (6) Open days/unstructured sessions (6) Skill building activities, and (7) integration activities with other Clusters such as nutrition, NFIs, food, livelihoods and child protection. 

The on-going GBV response and prevention activities in the Aweil, Kapoeta South and Kapoeta East are supported by UNICEF. Amplify Change is supporting one of the two WGFS in Kapoeta South County only. Both UNICEF and Amplify Change grants will be ending in October 2018. Key achievements include establishment, equipping, and operationalization of four WGFSs in the locations, two in KS and one each in Aweil and KE. By May 2018, ARC had provided case management and psychosocial support and coordinated consent-based referrals to 304 GBV survivors in the three locations. Furthermore, 647 (447 women and 200 girls) accessed skill building activities of their choice at the WGFS and were able to build relationships and bond with each other, share experiences, find things in common and support each other. Over 35, 240 beneficiaries were reached with GBV messages by the outreach team alone by the end of April 2018. Out of these, about 800 women and girls were reached with GBV messages through the WGFS. ARC proposes to strengthen the existing GBV response and prevention in Aweil, KS and KE and continue rendering life-saving interventions to GBV survivors and those at risk while raising awareness on violence against women and girls. ARC will provide specialized case management services and PSS activities while ensuring that WGFS are diversified beyond skill building activities such as embroidery, crocheting, beading to address the multiple and complex needs for GBV survivors and those at risk. ARC will endeavor to ensure that activities are adding value with no overlap. ARC will coordinate with partners on the ground to ensure complementarity to avoid duplication of efforts.