USAID-supported interventions are combatting sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through confidential medical care, counseling, legal help and community discussion groups.

Morgana Wingard, USAID

Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime. In the developing world, 1 in 7 girls is married before her 15th birthday. And between 1998 and 2008 alone, sexual violence against men was noted in reports on 25 conflict-affected countries.

Gender-based violence threatens lives, halts progress, and undermines societies. It is a global phenomenon preventing people, especially women and girls, of their right to a life free from violence.

If women are not healthy and safe, they cannot care for themselves, support their families, or contribute to their communities. From kidnappings to shootings, from acid attacks to poisoning, and from discrimination to intimidation, women and girls around the world are being threatened, harassed, attacked and killed. It has to stop.