Comparative country study of the quality of health care for survivors of sexualized and gender-based violence

Analysis of the quality of health care for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

As part of medica mondiale’s Transnational Health Training Programme (THTP), a comparative study of the current situation of the quality of health care for survivors of sexualized and gender-based violence (SGBV) was conducted in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq (KRI).

The purpose of the study was to analyse and to compare the structural obstacles and barriers that survivors of sexualized and gender-based violence face when they try to access health care services. The focus was the degree to which heath care services are offered to SGBV survivors in a stress- and trauma-sensitive way. This was done by comparing country studies conducted in each of the four countries.

Based on this analysis, recommendations were made to promote the institutionalization of stress and trauma sensitivity in the health care services at country and at international level.