Work on violence against women in government agencies often develops sporadically. It can be reactive to lobbying on salient issues or high-profile cases that reveal gaps in protection and provision. The acknowledged forms of violence against women and work of different ministries/departments may not initially be connected. This means that opportunities for creating consistent, coherent and victim/survivor-focused responses can be lost. If there is a lack of national coordination, this can be felt at local levels where coordination may be quite advanced, but cannot become more effective as national policies are not integrated.
The United Nations Secretary-General (2006a) recommends that states take the following actions to achieve more coherent and effective policies on violence against women:
- Involve national and local government sectors in coordination;
- Create institutional mechanisms for coordination and accountability at the sub-national and national levels;
- Integrate efforts to end violence against women into all relevant programme areas, such as HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, urban planning, immigration, poverty reduction, development, conflict, post-conflict and refugee situations and humanitarian relief; and
- Integrate an understanding of violence against women into education and training at all levels, including for professionals, such as teachers, social workers and criminal justice/law enforcement.