evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Family Support Unit — Sierra Leone Police's Nationwide One-Stop Model for Gender-Based Violence Response

Sierra Leone · Freetown · See the Sierra Leone profile · See the Freetown profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 72% 48/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Sierra Leone Police's Family Support Unit, founded in 1999 and formalised by the 2007 Domestic Violence Act, has grown to roughly 80 stations nationwide handling thousands of GBV and child-protection cases a year, though independent research documents persistent access barriers.

34 -> 80
FSU stations nationwide (early 2000s - early 2020s)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Sierra Leone Police — Family Support Unit
Period
1999–present
Keywords
policing, justice, child protection, health

Context

The Family Support Unit (FSU) began in 1999 as a Domestic Violence Unit at Kissy Police Division in Freetown. It was formalised nationally when Parliament passed the Domestic Violence Act, 2007, which criminalised domestic violence and empowered FSU officers to mediate or refer cases for prosecution.

Results

The network expanded from roughly 34 units in the early 2000s to about 80 FSU stations by the early 2020s, coordinated through a central hub at Criminal Investigations Department headquarters in Freetown. UNICEF-supported case-management reforms have improved how FSUs record and refer cases of violence against children and women.

Conclusions

A 2025 peer-reviewed socio-ecological study of survivors in Sierra Leone found that despite the FSU's presence, survivors still face significant barriers to healthcare and justice, including under-resourcing, inconsistent case handling and social stigma -- evidence that institutional reach has outpaced service quality in parts of the country.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Government-funded police unit with UNICEF technical support; no published budget figure.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Operating continuously since 1999, formalised in 2007.
Staffing & skills
Sierra Leone Police FSU officers, Department of Social Welfare, Legal Aid Board

Conditions for success

  • dedicated legal mandate (Domestic Violence Act 2007)
  • central coordination hub
  • UNICEF-supported case-management reform

Common failure modes

  • under-resourcing, inconsistent case handling and social stigma persist despite institutional reach

Where it fits

Governance type
national police service
Scale
national
Income level
low-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.

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