Press Release
February 20, 2024 • 2 min read
One in three women worldwide has endured physical or sexual violence over the past decade
(Tuesday, 20th February @ 0800 hrs) 14 CEOs representing the Irish Consortium of Gender-Based Violence (ICGBV) membership convened at the Department of Foreign Affairs today for the annual Leaders Roundtable meeting. At this meeting, the Leaders from international human rights, humanitarian, and development organisations comprising INGOs (including Trócaire, Oxfam, GOAL, and World Vision, and others), Irish Aid and the Irish Defence Forces, reviewed progress on implementation of the Consortium’s Strategic Plan (2021 – 2026), which focuses on the prevention and mitigation of, and response to GBV, and will reaffirm their commitment to sustained action at eradicating this global pandemic, which pervades every country and culture across the world.
The Leaders Roundtable featured addresses by the Minister of State, Department of Foreign Affairs, with special responsibility for International Development and Diaspora, Sean Fleming, and Siobhan Walsh, CEO, GOAL Global and ICGBV Chair. Insights into the critical work undertaken by the Consortium under its three strategic pillars, prevention, mitigation, and response, were shared. Examples included initiatives such as sexual ethics and respectful relationship lectures for Irish Defence Forces staff, efforts to mitigate risks of FGM and child marriage in Ethiopia, and support for victims of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea.
WHO-derived data confirms that for the past decade, one in three women worldwide has endured physical or sexual violence, primarily at the hands of an intimate partner. This violence often begins at a young age, with one in four young women (aged 15-24 years) who have been in a relationship already experiencing violence from an intimate partner by the time they reach their mid-twenties.
Speaking in advance of the ICGBV CEO’s Roundtable Meeting, Siobhan Walsh, CEO of GOAL Global and ICGBV Chair, said,
“Given the global crisis of gender-based violence, the ICGBV advocates for an increase in funding allocated to tackle GBV. We have to turn the tide on this crisis and to do this; we need to ask Governments to sustain and increase their support at the Commission on the Status of Women in March. Right now, development financing to end violence against women and girls remains less than 1% of ODA”.
Established in 2005, the ICGBV is an Irish-based alliance of international human rights, humanitarian, and development organisations which works to increase knowledge and understanding of violence against women and girls. Consortium members aim to achieve this by leveraging the Consortium’s Strategic Plan (2021 – 2026), which focuses on amplifying women’s voices and Survivor Cantered Accountability.
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