This Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Quality Assurance Tool offers health care providers, facilities, and program planners a straightforward way to start, strengthen or expand post-GBV health services through the use of evidence-based standards. It was developed by Jhpiego, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with reviews and input from gender/GBV partners at the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an array of international organizations, GBV health providers and ministries of health. The Tool was originally developed by Jhpiego Mozambique with providers and program planners and has been adapted, piloted and refined in several low and middle-income countries.

The standards are organized by different aspects of service delivery (e.g., facility readiness, clinical care, etc.). Verification criteria are listed in a column directly next to these standards, and indicate what must be in place for each standard to be considered “achieved”. Verification criteria that are marked with a + symbol are considered to be aspirational/ambitious measures of high quality care. A minimum care version of the tool does not include these aspirational standards. Facilities in more resource-constrained settings or facilities just starting to develop their services should be assessed using the minimum care version of the tool.

Many of the standards in the tool can be verified by doing a facility tour PRIOR to beginning the conversation. The full version of the tool takes approximately 3-4 hours to implement, and the minimum care version of the tool takes approximately 2-3 hours. The assessor should familiarize her/himself with the whole tool prior to the assessment to identify the standards that can be answered by observation during the facility tour.

Read the ‘Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Quality assurance tool‘.

Read the ‘Gender-Based Violence Quality Assurance Tool: Facilitation Guide‘.