Since the end of 2016, UNFPA technically and financially support seven multi-sectoral and integrated care centers for women victims of violence (WVV). This support provided in the framework of a partnership with the Ministry of Women, Family, Children and Seniors and with the European Union ends in September 2019, after what the opportunities for the proper functioning of these centers remain limited.

In light of the commitments made by the Tunisian State and the importance of the experience of these seven pilot projects that have provided services to more than 1300 women in 2018, their sustainability has been identified as a priority. A sustainability strategy was developed and validated during the 4th quarter of 2018, in a participatory process that included all the partners. This work allowed to identify a number of strategic areas of which we can mention:

• •Setting an appropriate legal framework that governs their activities
• •Developing Strategic partnership scenarios with the Ministry of Women, Family, Children and Seniors
• •Introducing strategic models of civil society organizations

During 2019, UNFPA and its partners will implement the main priorities of this strategy through advocacy and capacity building activities.

In partnership with UNFPA, and within the framework of the United Nations Joint Program for the Improvement of Services for Women and Girls survivors of violence, the Ministry of Women, Family, Children and Seniors has put in place a capacity building plan for women service providers of multi-sectoral and integrated care centers for women victims of violence and the Green Line counselors.

The training courses held in the fourth quarter of 2018 were an opportunity to build capacities of 46 workers from different regions in terms of psychological care, multi-sectoral orientation and legal guidance in accordance with the Tunisian legal framework in terms of private law and violence against women laws, including the law 58.

The capacity of the services providers has also been strengthened to better assess the risks faced by women victims of violence and to implement security plans to preserve their physical and moral integrity.

As a part of the Promotion of Equality between Women and Men Program, the CREDIF, with the support of UNFPA, conducted a qualitative study on "Social representations of violence against women among men, young and adults " the findings of which were presented on June 28, 2018.

The results revealed that the violence experienced by women comes from beliefs, images and social representations, sources of justification for violent men such as:

• •The masculine gender is superior to the feminine gender
• •The masculine gender must dominate the feminine gender
• •Modernity is a threat to the masculine gender
• •The male gender is in rivalry with the female gender
• •Violence is a proof of male virility

This strong link between the male perception of women and the violence they perpetrate against women requires intervention to prevent and combat gender based discriminatory. A woman is never responsible for the violence she endures and nothing can justify violence.

To promote these messages and transform these social representations of violence against women, the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and Seniors and UNFPA launched the #Kifek_Kifha campaign on November 25, over a period of sixteen days on the occasion of 16 days of activism against violence against women.

An awareness campaign deployed through the urban billboard in the capital and the regions of Sfax, Gafsa, Sousse, Kasserine, Kairouan and Jendouba, via radio messages and a digital campaign broadcast through social networks which has reached over one million and three hundred thousand users.