DOVVSU — Ghana's National Domestic Violence and Victim Support Police Unit

Established in October 1998 as the Women and Juveniles Unit (WAJU), the unit was renamed the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) in 2005, with its mandate anchored in the 2007 Domestic Violence Act (Act 732). Headquartered in Accra, it maintains offices in every regional capital and desks in most districts, handling domestic violence, sexual abuse, child abuse and neglect cases in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare, the Legal Aid Board and the International Federation of Women Lawyers.
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 — signalling that the unit's institutional reach outpaces its actual uptake.
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. It is therefore included here as a structurally durable but under-evaluated national model.

Read the full analysis: https://police.gov.gh/en/index.php/domestic-violence-victims-support-unit-dovvsu/