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Local governments are the entities closest to individuals
and communities and can influence social and community
change. They are well placed to respond to local concerns
and to lead primary prevention activities through existing
mechanisms and via a range of partnerships. They have a
reach and mandate to support people at different stages
of life such as young people, new parents, and seniors,
different faith and cultural groups and marginalised groups.
At all levels of government, international research
suggests that leadership and coordination of prevention
activity and plans should be supported by monitoring,
accountability, and quality assurance frameworks, and
is best undertaken through portfolios with a mandate to
plan and manage whole-of-government prevention activity
(such as appropriately resourced and mandated offices for
women). 124 Interagency structures and processes, such as
ministerial councils and steering committees, can assist with
coordination across portfolios, and governments can build
on existing partnerships and develop new ones to ensure
effective collaboration with non-government and community
stakeholders.
Effective strategies, programs and initiatives require
appropriate resourcing to enable quality development, testing
and evaluation, and ultimately to scale-up or systematise
such initiatives for sustainability over the long-term. To ensure
community ownership of prevention work, and the inclusion
of diverse perspectives, building trusted and transparent
relationships between government and civil society is
important through design, implementation and monitoring. 125
Combined and consistent activity across levels of
government promotes mutually reinforcing messaging
and practice, as well as ensures reach across all
systems and sectors, rather than being limited to single
communities, organisations or contexts. Activity is
tailored for local conditions yet benefits from economies
of scale and quality assurance that comes from state and
national-level coordination and support. Nationally consistent
yet locally-driven prevention of violence against women
strategies can be particularly effective, especially where
supported or mandated by complementary state and
territory level activity.
For example, in the education setting, the Commonwealth
Government is best placed to ensure respectful relationships
education is part of the national curriculum, to develop
learning materials and to ensure consistency in teacher
training to support its implementation. State and territory
governments are responsible for ensuring its quality delivery,
and supporting schools to implement it through a good
practice whole-of-school approach. Local governments can
integrate prevention of violence work in schools with other
activities across the community such as in sporting clubs,
and broker relationships between schools and community
organisations at the local level.
Those working in key settings and sectors
For prevention activity to reach everyone across the diverse
communities they live in and the settings where they work,
learn and socialise, leadership from settings and sectors
beyond those traditionally engaged in responding to violence
against women is needed. A comprehensive, shared national
approach to prevention of violence against women and their
children requires:
• the active involvement of stakeholders of many
kinds, from schools to workplaces, unions,
businesses, leisure venues, sports clubs and civil
society organisations
• action in many settings, from early childhood
to social and leisure settings and the media
• an effective reach to particular population groups,
such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities, culturally and linguistically diverse
communities, faith-based communities, and
children and young people.
Sector associations and national and peak bodies in each
of these settings can play an important coordination and
leadership role in their fields, and high profile or influential
leaders can make valuable contributions to public debate
and act as champions or ambassadors for change.
Opportunities for promotion and advocacy for violence
prevention and gender equality exist across all such sectors,
and in partnership with prevention and gender equality
specialists, sectors and organisations can themselves model
equitable and respectful structures, norms and practices.
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