Header banner MUST have an alt or title

The component interventionHeader has not been created yet or is not available for this content page type.

The component headerBackButton has not been created yet or is not available for this content page type.

General Overview

EICS Framework

EMPOWERMENTELEVATIONFOUNDATION

Region of Reference

  • AfricaAfrica
  • AsiaAsia
  • AustraliaAustralia
  • EuropeEurope
  • North-AmericaNorth-America
  • South-AmericaSouth-America
  • WorldWorld

Description

As described by Heise et al. (1999 ) [4], women who experience gender-based violence (GBV) have complex needs and may need services from many different sectors, including health care, social services, legal entities, and law enforcement, and therefore, multi-sectoral collaboration is essential for ensuring survivors’ access to comprehensive services. [4] Evidence from many sectors indicates that the best way to improve the service response to survivors is to implement institution-wide reforms rather than narrow policy reforms or training – a strategy sometimes referred to as a ‘systems approach. [2-6]

This intervention argues for the implementation of multi-sectoral teams to provide support for both (female) public transport staff and public transport users. For example, team members may include medical personnel, counsellors, psychologists, and social workers.

Types of Impact

Area Impacted

  • To/from the stop/station/rank
  • Waiting for train/bus/paratransit
  • In the vehicle
  • At interchanges
Making sure that psychologists and councillors can be accessed by personnel and patrons will influence all areas, except the public streets, as these do not fall in the domain of the public transport operator. Best practice would be for the municipality to step in. However, examples of this are few to none.

Time of Day of Impact

  • Day-time travel
  • Night-time travel
  • Peak-time travel
  • Off peak-time travel
All travel time categories could be positively impacted by this intervention, depending on the scale of implementation and availability of staff.

Mode Impacted

  • Bus
  • Train
  • Rideshare
  • 4 wheelers informal
  • 3 wheelers informal
  • 2 wheelers informal
  • Cycling
  • Walking
Modes with formal and informal transport services that have operators and/or unions (also called associations) will be impacted.

Demographic impacted

  • Girls
  • Boys
  • Adult Women
  • Men
  • Elderly Women
  • LGBTQI+
All public transport users could be positively impacted by this intervention, as any user can report an incident and receive trauma counselling. The literature shows that women experience sexual harassment more than men, so more women/girls are likely to need trauma counselling. [1-3]

SWOT Analysis

  • Ensures staff are trained to counsel/treat passengers and staff

  • Establishes information provision and procedures for victims.

  • Scalable to suit budget and needs

  • Employment opportunies for women

  • As soon as the team complement shrinks, the benefits reduce.

  • Not effective in parts of the transport system where the intervention is not physically present, such as to/from the stop/rank/station.

  • To encourage female passengers to come forward and seak help

  • To apprehend more offenders through counseling reports

  • To negate potential long term backlash of incidents on victims' phyches by action quickly and effectively

  • Female passengers might still feel ashamed and not seek help, due to the stigma around sexual harassment, even if the staff are available.

Effectiveness

There is a tremendous benefit, and therefore expected positive perception by females that seek counselling. Governing bodies will be positive too. The Empower research team is confident regarding the perception rating.

  • Perception by (female) passengers
  • Perception by governing bodies
  • Level of confidence in these ratings

Implementation

Implementation of this intervention takes some time initially, as staff has to be employed and trained. The benefits ensue after the training is finished and the trained staff commences to counsel. Counselling needs to continue for the benefits to last in the future.

Implementation timeframe

  • 0-1 year
  • 1-3 years
  • >3 years

Timeframe to realise benefits

  • 0-1 year
  • 1-3 years
  • >3 years

Scale of Implementation

This intervention can be implemented at a station/suburb or city level.

National
Regional
City
Station or
Suburb

Ease of Implementation

This intervention takes a moderate amount of effort to implement, as it requires skilled personnel, and it takes time.

List of References

North America

North America

2. USAID. Addressing gender-based violence through USAID’s health programs: a guide for health sector program officers. Washington, DC, USAID/IGWG, 2006.

3. Kearl, H. 2018. A National Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault. Virginia, United States.