Workshop gauges the economic impact of violence against women and girls |01 December 2021

A souvenir photograph after the launch ceremony (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

The Family department in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family in collaboration with the Commonwealth secretariat are hosting a workshop on the economic costs of violence against women and girls.

The workshop, being held at the Savoy Resort & Spa at Beau Vallon, was officially launched on Monday and will run until December 3.

The objectives workshop is to: provide training on the Commonwealth secretariat’s Economic Costing of Violence Against Women and Girls (EconVAWG) framework and methodology; and validate the draft Facilitators Guide on EconVAWG in Seychelles and Lesotho where the EconVAWG framework and methodology was first developed.

The workshop is being facilitated by Monica Pindel from the Commonwealth secretariat, Gender Unit and the participants are from agencies responsible for gender and/or women’s affairs; judiciary; police; health; social services; economic planning/development; national statistics offices; tertiary institutions and appropriate non-governmental organisations and community based organisations.

The principal secretary in the Family department, Clive Roucou, noted that VAWG is reprehensible and it has a serious financial cost that we must all bear.

“In a report presented to the Seychelles government in July 2018, for the year 2016, R197 million was estimated as income loss due to VAWG. The report was the culmination of a pilot project conducted in Seychelles by the Commonwealth and the government of Seychelles which sought to identify the direct and indirect costs of violence against women aged between 15 and 65. The project’s principal outcome is the development of a generalised framework to assess these economic costs in Seychelles,” PS Roucou said.

He also noted that the study looked at how violence against women and girls impacted on particular industries including agriculture and the service industry. The result shows that 1.2% GDP is lost annually to VAWG. Globally the figure is 11% of GDP: 5.26% to violence against women and 4.25% to child abuse and sexual crime.

“Additionally, according to the book ‘Economic cost of violence against women and girls, a study of Seychelles’ published in July 2019 by the Commonwealth, Seychelles is the first Commonwealth country where the framework has been applied using real country-level data and information. This publication presents the process and outcomes of applying the newly developed framework and methodology to Seychelles.”

PS Roucou concluded his remarks by stating that indirectly VAWG can result in lost employment, productivity of potential and it drains resources from social services, the justice system, medical system and employers.

“We have to agree that VAWG is a clear barrier to sustainable development and brings setback to the economy of any society. In order to reduce economic costs, we need to have a more coordinated, inter-agency approaches both to the prevention of abuse and collaborative service provision.”

The workshop was also on hybrid and the secretary-general of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, also addressed the participants. “Our aspiration is clearly set out in the Commonwealth chapter which declares we recognise that gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential components of human development and basic human rights. The advancement of women’s rights and the education of girls are critical preconditions for effective and sustainable development. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, a silent pandemic affecting one of three women in their adult life worldwide.

The anticipated outcomes of this workshop are to have a cadre of persons from appropriate agencies, including tertiary institutions who are trained and available to undertake and/or provide technical assistance in the use of the EconVAWG framework and methodology; the EconVAWG Facilitators Guide is validated by persons who were involved in the development of the EconVAWG framework and methodology; and the gaps and inconsistencies in the Facilitators Guide are identified and clarified so that the final draft of the Guide can be readied for field testing in a third country.

This activity also coincides with the 16 Days of Activism campaign. VAWG is a key public health issue and a violation of human rights globally affecting 30 per cent women during their lives.

Addressing and eliminating VAWG is crucial to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs); ending VAWG is also at the heart of the Commonwealth Priorities for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment 2017-2020 and Beyond, which is a critical element in ensuring that the 54 Commonwealth countries working together can accomplish prosperity, democracy, and peace for all Commonwealth citizens.

The secretariat has developed through its Project: Economic Costs of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), an analytical framework as a practical tool for policymakers in small states for evidence-based policy formulation, planning and decision-making for eliminating VAWG and the achievement of SDGs, especially SDG5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Compiled by Vidya Gappy