Comprehensive responses to sexual violence in East and Southern Africa: Lessons learned from implementation

Recent population-based surveys demonstrate that SGBV is common in the East and Southern Africa region and cuts across nationality, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. SGBV affects a large proportion of women across the region; for example, 47 percent of Zambian women report ever experiencing physical violence and 59 percent of Ethiopian women report suffering SV (Figure 1). In many cases the perpetrator is known to the survivor, and intimate partners (such as husbands and boyfriends) are frequently identified as the perpetrators. Other data indicate that girls in the region frequently experience coerced sexual initiation which is often viewed as a normal part of relationships.3