Congo's Online Domestic Violence Map: Building Access to Justice, Health Care, and Social Rehabilitation for Survivors

"All victims need to be believed and heard, they need to cry, shout or be silent, get rid of guilt and normalise their reactions. They need their expectations to be confirmed, supported and upheld. They need to be respected at their own pace, to be safe, encircled and to regain power over their lives."

This 20-page case report discusses the experience and lessons learned from the Holding Government Accountable to Gender-based Violence project in the Republic of Congo, which used interactive online mapping and capacity building to strengthen documentation, reporting, monitoring, and support services related to domestic and sexual violence. The project was implemented by the Women’s Rights Programme of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and AZUR Développement, with the support of the Africa Technology and Transparency Initiative (ATTI). The case report explores how combining information and communication technologies with ground level support and interpersonal communication was used to spotlight issues of sexual and domestic violence.

The report explains that domestic and sexual violence are widespread problems in Congo and the project set out to document and demonstrate prevalence as a way of generating evidence and tools for advocacy. The intervention strategy included developing shared data collection tools for project partners, gathering information on a central platform, developing an interactive online map, building capacity of partner organisations, providing support and referrals to survivors, and sharing information gained with government authorities, district chiefs, service agencies, law enforcement, and the media.

According to the report, the project resulted in a better understanding of the extent and characteristics of sexual and domestic violence, and more information on services for victims available through churches, community leaders, police stations, military police posts, radio messages, and media coverage. As well, the report notes a watchdog effect: "Survivors whose cases we followed tended to encounter fewer problems when dealing with the authorities than unaccompanied complainants."

Furthermore, the interactive online map provided a tool for generating information and statistics that could be used in meetings with government and service providers and for the media. It offered a visible, public platform for the topic to be discussed, and for survivors to make their stories heard. Research conducted by UNICEF in 2008 found that a major weakness in responding to gender violence was lack of coordination among the different institutions, including the absence of a common set of tools. "The process of developing an online map led the CSOs to rethink our strategies for combating domestic and sexual violence and importantly to work together."

However, while the technology was the central component of the strategy, the report reflects on the importance of interpersonal communication and community-based interactions. For example, following advocacy workshops with district chiefs, project partners made regular drop-in calls to each chief to keep communication flowing, and would often hear of cases not reported to the police. As well, activities at community level enabled both information sharing and helped improve relationships. "But for us, technology aside, the real impact was the development of a district-by-district intervention which included quarterly meetings with decision makers. It is an approach that we have all continued to use because we found that it really works."

To facilitate future work, a survey was carried conducted in December 2013 and January 2014 with survivors, health workers, criminal investigation officers specialising in violence against women, criminal justice personnel, and government officials responsible for women’s rights and human rights, on the barriers to addressing sexual and domestic violence. The research found that there are many social, cultural, and institutional obstacles for a survivor seeking legal justice and health services following an assault. Click here to access this report.

Click here to download the full case study in English in PDF format.