Ulaanbaatar - The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), launched two new One Stop Service Centers (OSSCs) in Bayan-Ulgii and Khuvsgul aimag to provide service to survivors of violence in Mongolia.
The back-to-back ceremonies were held on 26 October in Khuvsgul, and on 29 October in Bayan-Ulgii aimags. Both events were attended by UNFPA Country Representative, Ms. Naomi Kitahara, and local authorities.
The OSSCs provide survivors of gender-based violence and domestic violence with accommodations, as well as health, psychological, legal, counselling, and protection services. There are now 8 OSSCs in total, with 3 in Ulaanbaatar, 1 each in Bayankhongor, Gobi-Altai, Zavkhan, and now, 1 each in Bayan-Ulgii and Khuvsgul.
For every OSSC, UNFPA invests 10 mln MNT for renovations and 71.4 mln MNT to fully stock the Centers with equipment, furniture, and other needed items. UNFPA will be providing additional financial support in the coming years to help with the operation of the OSSCs.
Bayan-Ulgii aimag also allocated 100 mln MNT in the 2018 aimag budget and constructed a two floor building for the OSSC, while Khuvsgul aimag authorities renovated an existing building with 26 mln MNT from the local budget. With these initiatives, local authorities of two aimags have shown their strong commitment to protect its citizen and contribute to build violence free society in their aimags. These centers will provide a safe accommodation as well as essential services needed for the victims of violence including their children.
UNFPA is prioritizing setting up OSSCs in aimags with high prevalence of gender-based violence while also taking geographical balance into consideration. Bayan-Ulgii has the 2nd highest incidence of women who are or have been in a relationship experiencing violence by their partners in the last 12 months (40.5%), while Khuvsgul has the 10th highest incidence in the country (33.5%) but is in close proximity of other high prevalence aimags, particularly Uvurkhangai (1st) and Arkhangai (8th). Additionally, 54.4% of women in Bayan-Ulgii and 53.7% of women in Khuvsgul experience violence by their partners in their lifetime. With UNFPA technical and financial support, new OSSCs are also slated to be launched in other high prevalence areas, such as the Darkhan-Uul aimag and Khan-Uul district by the fourth quarter of 2018, with more planned for 2019.
"We acknowledge that accessibility to the resources needed to escape domestic violence remains a challenge, especially in rural areas." says Ms. Kitahara. "We are grateful for all the support of our enabling and implementing partners as we work toward setting up OSSCs in aimags across the country so that survivors will not have to go through the added burden of traveling far to receive the care and attention they need."
The OSSCs are part of a larger multi-sectoral endeavor to combat gender-based violence (GBV) in Mongolia by (1) institutionalizing data collection for more targeted interventions; (2) raising awareness among key stakeholders and the public on the realities of GBV; and (3) providing multi-disciplinary responses to GBV and domestic violence.
This initiative is spearheaded by the UNFPA, in partnership with the SDC and the Government of Mongolia.
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About UNFPA. UNFPA is the UN agency delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA Mongolia currently implements the 6th Country Programme 2017-2021, closely in line with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Mongolia. For more information, please visit http://mongolia.unfpa.org.
Contact: Kai Jimenez at jimenez@unfpa.org.
