One Stop Centres in Shinyanga and Singida — Tanzania's KOICA-Funded Hospital-Based GBV Response, and Survivors' View of Its Gaps

Under the joint programme "Realizing Gender Equality through Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls" (2020-2023), UNFPA and UN Women, funded by the Republic of Korea through KOICA (USD 4.9 million), handed over in May 2023 three One Stop Centres (Ikungi District Hospital and Singida Referral Hospital in Singida; Bugarama Health Centre in Shinyanga), a Police Gender and Children's Desk in Bugarama and a produce collection centre. One Stop Centres offer health, legal and psychosocial support to GBV survivors in one place. UNFPA reports that the programme reached over 10,000 people, trained over 450 duty bearers on preventing and responding to violence against women and children, and trained nearly 300 health workers in GBV case management.
An independent cross-sectional, mixed-methods study (Mntambo and Bwikizo, East African Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 2024) surveyed 96 female GBV survivors in Shinyanga Region and interviewed key informants. Sexual and physical violence were the most common forms reported at the centres. Services differ between centres depending on staff, accessibility, partner funding and testing equipment. Among barriers recorded (136 mentions), 36.8% were limited awareness of the centres, 35.3% fear of shame and stigma, 14.7% reluctance to report in order to protect a family-member perpetrator and 7.4% insufficient privacy and trained staff. Centres reported staff shortages, budget constraints and inadequate transport.
The evidence is perceptions and process counts: neither source measures reductions in violence, case outcomes or costs, and the study is regional with a modest sample. The practice is included as a transferable example of donor-built one-stop capacity whose sustainability depends on government funding and stakeholder collaboration, as the authors recommend.

Read the full analysis: https://tanzania.unfpa.org/en/node/144762