evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Centros de Emergencia Mujer — Peru's National One-Stop Network for Gender-Based Violence Survivors

Peru · Lima · See the Peru profile · See the Lima profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 42% 74/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Peru's Ministry of Women runs 433 free, interdisciplinary Centros de Emergencia Mujer nationwide; a peer-reviewed study links their rollout to a 7% drop in violence-related female deaths and a 10% drop in mental-health hospitalisations.

433 centres
Centros de Emergencia Mujer nationwide (mid-2020s)
190 centres
Centres operating 24/7 (mid-2020s)
7 %
Reduction in women's deaths from assault (2025 study)
10 %
Reduction in mental-health hospitalisations (2025 study)
140,000+ cases/year
Cases handled annually nationwide (2023-2024)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables (MIMP)
Period
1999–present
Keywords
social services, justice, health, public administration

Context

Peru's Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables (MIMP) operates Centros de Emergencia Mujer (CEM), a national network of free, interdisciplinary one-stop centres offering legal, psychological and social support to survivors of violence against women and family members. Established in 1999, the network had grown to 433 centres by the mid-2020s, with 190 operating 24/7, achieving near-complete coverage of Peru's 24 regions.

Activities

CEMs provide free, interdisciplinary legal, psychological and social support to survivors of violence against women and family members, nationwide.

Results

A 2025 peer-reviewed study found that the rollout of CEMs was associated with a 7% reduction in women's deaths from assault and a 10% reduction in mental-health hospitalisations in areas served, alongside increased reporting of intimate-partner violence and higher prosecution rates for sexual assault, femicide and rape. MIMP's own 2022 process evaluation and open data show CEMs handling over 140,000 cases per year nationally.

Conclusions

Independent assessments, including a 2022 Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) process evaluation, note persistent challenges: uneven specialist capacity across rural centres, and a continuing rise in reported cases that outpaces resourcing. The model has informed similar one-stop service designs discussed elsewhere in Latin America, though documented cross-country replication remains limited.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Run by Peru's Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables (MIMP), Interdisciplinary teams providing legal, psychological and social support

Conditions for success

  • Near-complete coverage of Peru's 24 regions
  • 190 of 433 centres operating 24/7

Common failure modes

  • Uneven specialist capacity across rural centres
  • Continuing rise in reported cases that outpaces resourcing (2022 MEF process evaluation)

Where it fits

Governance type
national government ministry
Scale
national (433 centres across 24 regions)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful