Over the years, silence has been the norm when relating to issues of abuse and sexual violence. Women and girls feared to open up or even come forth with cases of abuse and violence for fear of being stigmatized by society. This attitude has caused survivors to remain hidden nursing the deep scars on their own.

EVA keyed into this problem and joined forces with Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme: NSRP to set up and observatory which monitors, collects, validates and reports incidences of Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), setting up the observatory was no easy task as cases of violence were almost never reported or documented.

The Promoting Affirmative Response to Violence against Women & Girls (PARV) project is aimed at contributing to output 3 of the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Program (NSRP) which is to reduce the impact of violence against women and girls and increase their influence on peacebuilding. This will be achieved through the management of a virtual “safe space” for women and girls called an observatory.  The Observatory will form a repository of information about Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), its trends, prevalence and the response by state and non-state actors who bear responsibility The initiative aims to ensure both reporting and response to incidences of VAWG. The collection of information will also be done by mentoring CSOs, health workers, security personnel, paralegals and other members of the community.

EVA is the coordinating CSO anchored with the responsibility of data collation, validation, and analysis. This project is being implemented in partnership with the Fund for Peace who are the platform providers.

The PARV project is funded by DFID through the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Program (NSRP).