Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Safe at Home: Technological Tools to Enhance Agency for Witnesses of Gender Violence.
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is to reduce the risk of domestic violence suffered by women in Mexico City with the incorporation of technological tools that bring relevant information and practical tools to people who witness and/or close to the phenomenon of violence (neighbors, relatives, etc.) to leverage their proximity with domestic violence and turn them into agents of change.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
The Gender Unit at Mexico’s UNDP Country Office leads an effort along with Mexico City’s Government to improve public services concerning gender violence during the Covid outbreak. Gender violence is a multifactored problem that needs involvement by everyone around it to be solved. Women’s close circle of friends, family and neighbors can play a key role in solving the issue of helping women escape the circle of violence.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Confinement measures and social distancing, as well as mobility restrictions, are generating increased risks of violence against women and girls, intensifying their isolation, and generating additional barriers to access to essential services. In Mexico, 43.9% of women 15 years and older have experienced violence from their partner or husband, which makes the domestic environment a precarious context. According to the National Institute of Women, 911 calls to report violence against women increased over 31%. According to UN Women, less than 40% of women who are victims of violence seek assistance and less than 10% reach out to authorities. According to the results of the 2016 National Survey on the Dynamics of Relationships in Households (ENDIREH by its acronym in Spanish), victims tend to share their situation with people close to them. Of the approximately 19.1 million women who reported at least one act of violence by their current or last partner, over 9 million women had talked about it with someone. Of this total, 7 million women discussed it with a family member, 4 million with friends or colleagues, and around 828,558 women with neighbors or acquaintances.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
The containment measures derived from COVID-19 show a negative effect on gender-based violence through two main channels. On the one hand, by increasing the time that women at risk of violence spend with their aggressors, due to confinement. On the other hand, increasing the vulnerability of women at risk of violence who lose their income because of the economic downturn. Among the recommendations in its policy brief on COVID-19 and the impact on violence against women, UN Women Mexico insists on building new social and family relations that are more equalitarian and promote positive masculinities and make actions to include civil society to identify, map, and assist in mitigating the risks of violence against women during COVID-19 and identify opportunities to continue and ensure public services and programs that address violence against women.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
Including the inner circle of women who suffer domestic violence in the prevention and attention of this phenomenon holds great potential. The Accelerator Lab's methodology is a great vehicle for addressing this issue step by step: The cycle begins with a sensemaking phase of the challenges faced by women’s inner circle to help victims escape violence, what role do they play, what can they do, which tools can they use and what areas of opportunity we find to incorporate this into a digital solution. The next step is to explore alternatives in search of a set of viable prototype solutions. The prototypes will be tested to assess their effectiveness. Finally, once there is evidence about what works better, a proposal will be made to integrate and grow the solution in the work of the Secretary of Women who works in favor of improving women’s lives, with whom we have already collaborated before.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
When women are confined at their homes and suffer violence, their inner circles of family, friends, and neighbors are an important opportunity to address it and stop it through tools, knowledge, and other resources.
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Ministry of Women of Mexico City
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
The collaboration will contribute to the Ministry of Women's network of territorial Centers to assist women victims of violence and prevent gender violence and explore a technology solution to create awareness and support the role of witnesses.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
UN Women
What sector does our partner belong to?
United Nations
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
This collaboration builds on a longer-term collaboration with the Gender Unit of UNDP on supporting Mexico City's protocols and solutions to eradicate gender violence. They will provide technical guidance.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Digital Agency for Public Innovation of Mexico City
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
They will provide assistance on the technical requirement of the prototype in order to facilitate its future adoption by the local government.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What role does women’s inner circle of friends, family, and neighbors play in the gender-based violence problem? What kind of information or indicative signs of gender violence are present/conscious in society? What information exists on witness participation to stop gender violence today?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Sessions with the government counterparts of the Ministry of Women and the participation of UN Women colleagues will be designed to map why and how we can assist people close to women victim of violence to improve their capacity as a support network to them. The purpose of this sensemaking phase is to have a comon understanding of the opportunity and map the key questions and lines of work that would be necessary to address. Lastly we want to create a general map of the different existing initiatives and how this project relates to them.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Currently, the existing studies and data available focus on the victims. Designing different user journeys, prototyping the solution, and engaging with people who work on the subject of violence against women, through focus groups, will approximate a better understanding of diverse situations and perspectives that can inform how we design the role of potential witnesses of gender-based violence.
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What grassroots solutions exist for witnesses to be agents of change in the fight against gender-based violence? Who is working on these issues in the fight against gender violence?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
To dientify solutions, we will reach out to organizations and/or collectives to understand what tools, recommendations and ideas are being used, as well as conducting online explorations to map alternative ideas and solutions to improve the support system for women that are victims of violence.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Solution mapping will allow us to identify solutions that are focused for potential witnesses and compare different approaches to the subject, helping us better understand alternative ways of addressing the challenge.
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
How can we connect the technological solution with Mexico City’s current care system for gender violence? What characteristics do current digital solutions have to encourage people to become an agent of positive change in the phenomenon of gender violence?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Design thinking and in-depth interviews will be used to gather qualitative data to add to the understanding of the different problem dimensions, connect existing resources and identify potential contributions to other public programs that address the issue.
User Journeys and human centered design will be used to develop the proposal and identify the different interaction paths of the users with the information. This will allow us to address users in different circumstances and with diverse needs without leaving any open end in the conversation paths of the chatbot.
Through design sprints and human centered design methodologies we will identify ways to better frame, design and edit the information through the possibilities of a chat platform and become more relatable with the experience of the potential users.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
The identified methodologies will allow us to design a suitable and specific solution to the Mexican context, become more efficient and easier to navigate under different circumstances, and integrate the solution of a chatbot to the ecosystem of programs available, increasing opportunities for adoption.
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What technological solution incentivizes women’s inner circle of friends, family, and neighbors to become agents of change?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
A chatbot prototype will be developed and refined through a series of iterations. Once a minimum viable product has been achieved, it will shared with technology developers, people informed of the challenge of violence against women and activists through focus groups to test the pilot. Insights from users collected through questionnaires and group discussions, will be then be used to refine the pilot.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Insights will be gathered to improve the chatbot solution and eliminate possible biases or blindspots based on the experience and diverse perspectives related to the experience and capacity of action of people who witness violence against women.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
The proposed solution could facilitate the dissemintation of the existing public programs and aids and grow into supporting or being incorporated into existing public programs, like 'LUNAS', which are centers operated by the Ministry of Women to provide information, help and services for women in order to prevent and attend gender-based violence.
The information collected from the interactions with the technological solution could: 1. connect to their databases to offer more effective case follow-up and assistance to women who are victims of violence that are already requiring the support of a public program; and 2. offer relevant insights to inform the designs of new programs.
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5Gender equality
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