One-stop centres

shared how many services, including counselling, were closed during the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, UN Women convened the protection cluster and was able to get GBV services classified as an essential service by the national controllers during the state of emergency and lockdown in PNG. This enabled survivors to access psychosocial counselling even during lockdown restrictions. While psychosocial counselling is offered as a specialized service for GBV survivors in PNG, psychosocial support for GBV survivors is sorely lacking in the Philippines. An informant with knowledge of the legal system shared how the Mental Health Law does not generally cover survivors of GBV. While public hospitals (such as the Philippine General Hospital) can provide for such services, they have limited human resources that can support survivors. If survivors choose to go to private hospitals, they would need to pay at least PhP 2,000 just for a single counselling session. This poses a significant financial barrier for survivors of GBV.

To meet the challenge of fragmentation and inadequacy of services, one-stop crisis centres have been adopted in many low- and middle-income countries to provide a range of services to GBV survivors such as medical, legal, psychosocial counselling, referral and advocacy services. However, despite growing popularity, recent research has shown that significant barriers prevent the one-stop centre model from being implemented as designed and achieving the intended results of providing high quality, accessible, acceptable multisectoral care. These include (1) barriers to implementation such as the lack of multisectoral staff, staff time constraints, lack of medical supplies; and (2) barriers to multisectoral coordination due to fragmented services and unclear responsibilities of implementing partners. Achievement of intended results requires strategic investments, standardized policies and procedures, and regular inter-agency meetings that facilitate multisectoral coordination.372

In Honduras, the Women’s City Program was created in 2017. It is a one-stop centre that works to improve women’s living conditions in Honduras. The first centre was established in Tegucigalpa, and there are now six centres373 across the country, as well as an additional mobile centre. The Women’s City Program has the following thematic programmes: economic autonomy, prevention and care of adolescent pregnancy, sexual and reproductive health, collective education, and assisting VAWG survivors. It brings together 14 public institutions that offer services within the centre. Having all these services available in one site facilitates the referral pathway in supporting survivors. As the director of Ciudad Mujer, a study informant, noted:

“The references that we make between modules are important, because, for example, many of the victims of violence depend economically on the aggressor, so they are invited to go to the module of economic autonomy so that they can also take the route of an enterprise or help them find a job.”