Ghana Police Service's dedicated unit for domestic violence and child abuse has operated in every regional capital since 1998, but peer-reviewed research finds only 9% of female survivors of severe domestic violence use it, exposing a gap between institutional reach and uptake.
40%
Lifetime domestic-violence prevalence, women
9%
Severely affected women who sought police help
15%
Severely affected men who sought police help
Details
Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ghana Police Service
Period
1998–present
Keywords
policing, justice, gender-based violence, victim support
Context
Established in October 1998 as the Women and Juveniles Unit, renamed the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) in 2005, with its mandate anchored in the 2007 Domestic Violence Act. Headquartered in Accra, it maintains offices in every regional capital and desks in most districts.
Results
A 2021 study in the Journal of Family Violence, surveying 565 female survivors of intimate partner violence, found a substantial share did not know whether their local police station had a DOVVSU desk; national prevalence data show 40% of women and 20% of men report lifetime experience of domestic violence, yet only 9% of women and 15% of men who suffered severe domestic violence sought formal police help.
Conclusions
Despite more than 25 years of institutional continuity and a clear legal mandate, no rigorous outcome evaluation of DOVVSU's case-resolution rates or survivor outcomes could be located; the strongest available evidence concerns awareness and help-seeking barriers rather than demonstrated impact.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Government-funded national police unit; no published budget figure.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Operating continuously since 1998, formalised 2007.
Staffing & skills
Ghana Police Service DOVVSU officers, Department of Social Welfare, Legal Aid Board, International Federation of Women Lawyers
Conditions for success
dedicated legal mandate (Act 732)
regional and district-level desk coverage
Common failure modes
low help-seeking uptake among severely affected survivors despite institutional reach
Where it fits
Governance type
national police service
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle-income
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
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Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
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