On International Women Day, France announces scaling-up support to UNFPA’s Gender Based Violence response in Libya

Tunis, 8 March 2021 – As a commitment to continue supporting the people of Libya in a humanitarian context marred by a decade-long instability further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, France provides UNFPA with EUR 285.000, to maintain and expand the Psychosocial Helpline.

 The ‘1417’ helpline established by UNFPA with the support of France in 2019 has proved instrumental in providing psychosocial support and legal consultations on emotional, domestic and physical abuses to vulnerable communities, especially survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

 GBV remains an issue of concern worldwide.  In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic further affected people’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, particularly women, children, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees. In order to address an increasing demand, France and UNFPA agreed to continue and expand the project for another year.  

 “On International Women Day, and as a further commitment to the UN “Generation Equality Campaign” France is renewing its contribution  to preventing GBV in cooperation  with UNFPA, Libyan institutions, health personnel and civil society. By expending the helpline’s nationwide free services, France and its partner UNFPA seek to improve the quality and accessibility of services for GBV survivors, regardless of their status and nationality, and to raise awareness on violence against women, which continues to affects all our countries”, stated Beatrice le Fraper du Hellen, French Ambassador to Libya.

“In 2020, over 4,090 calls were successfully addressed related to psychosocial support and legal consultations on emotional, domestic and physical abuse issues. All individuals in need were referred for further specialized services to referral centers.”, said Asr Toson, Representative of UNFPA in Libya. “We are thankful to France for continuing their support to UNFPA to address the challenges around survivors’ help-seeking behaviors and alleviate their suffering,” said Toson.

UNFPA, in coordination and collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs Libya and PSS Team organization, has been running the established national free psychosocial support hotline 1417 successfully since 2019. The project has been successful in providing multi sectoral services including psychosocial and legal counselling, referral, case management and data management. The project will continue with the generous support of the French government.

For more information, please contact

Salman Khalid, UNFPA Communications Analyst: ksalman@unfpa.org