CARIBBEAN UNITED AGAINST GBV

“Addressing the Root Causes of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the Caribbean through the Caribbean GBV Prevention and Survivor Support Small Grants” is a Caribbean-led project, designed by and for Caribbean communities, with a strong focus on capacity building. It will be implemented in twelve Caribbean countries, namely: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

OBJECTIVES

The goal of the project is to address the root causes of GBV in the Caribbean through a series of community-level small grants, to achieve it, six objectives have been defined:

Objective 1: Foster partnerships between civil society and local municipalities to help address the root causes of GBV and improve services to GBV survivors, through the effective management of the Caribbean GBV small grants program.
Objective 2: Strengthen the capacity of sub-recipients capacity to provide GBV prevention and response services by providing ongoing in-person and virtual training in their own language ( i.e. French, Spanish, English, and/or Creole).
Objective 3: Improve available data on individual local community GBV prevention and survivor services and on people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices in the communities where activities will take place, through the development of simple stakeholder maps or gap analyses and KAP surveys.
Objective 4: Reduce socio-cultural attitudes that lead to GBV by providing intervention activities aimed at youth as part of the small grants’ programs.
Objective 5: Strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs) and local governments’ abilities to improve access to GBV survivor services and networks by working with and providing training to local government agencies that already participate in the GBV prevention sphere.
Objective 6: Address GBV issues that result from COVID-19 and emergency GBV care by adapting project activities as required by the regulations in place in each country and point in time and by including specific activities that respond to the challenges that COVID-19 regulations pose to GBV survivors.

STRATEGIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

To tackle specific barriers and support the creation of an enabling environment the project proposes four sets of interventions:

Change social norms: This includes activities such as a baseline KAP survey, trainings to men and boys that address socio-cultural attitudes that lead to GBV and social-emotional learning programs.
Build institutional capacity and alliances: This includes trainings with CSOs and with government entities, establishment of multi-stakeholder discussion spaces and participation in networks.
Empower youth: This includes empowerment and leadership trainings, and direct involvement in local project activities as advocates against GBV.
Improve availability and access to services: Which includes mapping of existing services, signature of MOUs among sub-recipients and other service providers, establishment of a referral system and multi-stakeholder case management system.

Some of the results that these interventions will yield are:

Accurate baseline data on GBV services
Strengthened ability of healthcare providers and/or municipal governments to provide crisis support, transitional housing, care services, psychological care, medical services, or legal aid for survivors of GBV in urban, rural, and marginalized communities
Attitudes and practices condoning GBV have decreased in targeted communities
Increased access to services for GBV survivors at the community level, including those from marginalized and remote communitie

SMALL GRANTS ACTIVITIES

COIN as the prime grantee will develop and effectively manage a small grants competition of between twelve small grants for a total of $350,000 allocated in this manner:
• One sub-award of up to $80,000 for the Dominican Republic to address GBV issues with Dominicans of Haitian descent;
• One sub-award of up to $50,000 for Jamaica to address the root causes of GBV;
• One small grant for Haiti and another one to Trinidad and Tobago of $30,000 each to address the root causes of GBV
• Eight small grants for eastern Caribbean Countries of $20,000 each to provide training on GBV prevention for civil society and local government officials