Context and Initiative
In Ecuador, violence against women is a serious human rights issue which affects 6 out of 10 women (INEC, 2011), but also has impacts on society and public health. Its impunity and naturalization is deeply rooted in society and adversely affecting the development of individuals, companies and countries. The National Telecommunication Cooperation of Ecuador (CNT-EP) is a company with more than 7.000 employees. In one year and with technical support of the GIZ, through its regional Program “Fighting Violence against Women in Latin America” (ComVoMujer), the company converted into a leading business in preventing violence against women. CNT quickly understood the impacts of violence against women and implemented measures with all its stakeholders, which further positions them as a company taking its corporate social responsibility seriously and which generates comparative advantages for them in the market.
Gender – A Quality Feature of Our Work
CNT can count on
• almost 3.000 trained people who received the certification “Safe Company – leader in zero tolerance towards violence against women” within only three months. The first to do so was the general manager!
• 14 specialized persons as promoters and trainers. CNT implemented • internal information campaigns using CNT magazines and broadcasting spots on harassment and bullying on the job site on its internal news channel.
• at the external level a special publication in the national newspaper The Telegraph and they produced the spot In Ecuador we have a problem that has been broadcasted since 2015 regularly in the 32 customer service centers. CNT developed
• Junt@s (together), a free and far reaching application, with the potential to quickly reach thousands of people, aimed at affected women or anyone close to any case of violence against women. The App combines gender specific and differentiated sensitization with help functions and emergency hotlines. The App is a standard feature of all new smart phones. To protect its user – mainly women, the use of its help or emergency function is not recorded and as such cannot be traced by the perpetrator.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is replicating the certification through its SCORE project and has requested the App CNT to be adapted in other countries, for which the company gave its permission.
Gender Impact
Our counterparts, the BMZ, other development agencies as well as the IDB and the World Bank continue to ask for expertise and experiences of Com- VoMujer, recognizing the innovative strategies which are based on a human rights and gender equality approach. ComVoMujer has compiled an online catalogue with more than 300 publications and videos, which are disseminated through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Today ComVoMujer cooperates with over 100 companies directly and about 400 indirectly.
Contact
Christine Brendel
Programa Regional ComVoMujer
E: Christine.Brendel@giz.de
I: www.mujereslibresdeviolencia.usmp.edu.pe
The competition entry can be downloaded (in Spanish) here: