FLOW: Ending gender based violence in conflict affected areas

Every day, everywhere, women and girls face violence. This ranges from emotional and psychological to physical and sexual. Through the Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) fund, we aim to strengthen women and girls to live a life free from violence and as active citizens. 

The programme focuses on elimination of violence against women and girls in three countries affected by conflict: Burundi, Liberia and Guatemala. 

As widely recognized, violence against women and girls is one of the most systematic and pervasive abuses of human rights, directly affecting one in three women globally and indirectly affecting all women and girls. It is both an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and a means of perpetuating it. 

Women and girls living in poverty or conflict are at greater risk of experiencing gender based violence due to the absence or weakness in national systems to prevent and protect women from violence along with impunity due to poorly functioning judicial systems. The measures to support victims are likewise often not in place. The FLOW programme works holistically and in an integrated manner to address such flaws under the headline of Transformative Justice.    

Oxfam IBIS is the grant holder, and the program is implemented by a consortium consisting of Oxfam IBIS (Denmark) and Impunity Watch (the Netherlands) in close collaboration with national partners in the three countries.