Attachments
The third phase of the Sud Kivu Programme aimed to contrib-ute to a society where women and girls can live free from sexu-alised and gender-based violence (SGBV) and discrimination.
Implemented between September 2021 and December 2024, the programme collaborated with four local wom-en-led organisations in the Democratic Republic of the Con-go: Association des Femmes pour la Promotion et le Dével-oppement Endogène (AFPDE), Ensemble pour la Promotion de la Femme et Famille (EPF), Réseau Associatif pour la Psychologie Intégrale (RAPI), and Réseau des Femmes pour les Droits et la Paix (RFDP). It sought to strengthen commu-nity and institutional capacities to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls through an integrated ap-proach that combined psychosocial, medical, legal, and eco-nomic support with community mobilisation and advocacy.
This phase built on the lessons learned from previ-ous programme cycles, with a stronger focus on com-munity engagement, survivor economic empower-ment, and the institutionalisation of a Stress—and Trauma-sensitive Approach (STA) to service provision.
However, persistent barriers—including judicial inef-ficiencies, entrenched patriarchal norms, resistance within judicial institutions, financial instability among local partners, and limited institutional engagement from law enforcement and government stakeholders— have hindered progress in achieving systemic change.