The provision, coordination and governance of essential, multisector health, police, justice, and social services can significantly mitigate the consequences that violence has on the well-being, health and safety of women and girls’ lives, assist in the recovery and empowerment of women, and stop violence from reoccurring. One key component of developing coordinated, multisector care, at national and local levels, is to develop standard procedures that guide how key service providers work together to respond to cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and support survivors in their help-seeking journey.

These standard procedures – known in the Pacific region as ‘Service Delivery Protocols’ or ‘Interagency Guidelines’ – are designed to ensure that services of all sectors are coordinated and governed to respond in a comprehensive way, are women-centred and, where necessary, child-centred, and are accountable to survivors and to each other.