The Samoa Victim Support Group (S.V.S.G.) has launched an online web application that will help the humanitarian organisation handle and process data connected to their cases.

The UNESCO Office of the Pacific States, in a collaboration with the digital agency RIVER to develop a tech-solution and progressive web application, will use the application to support women and girls facing domestic violence and intimate partner violence in Samoa.

Supported under the auspices of the Spotlight Initiative, the S.V.S.G. said in a statement that consultation with key partners was undertaken, to contribute to an informed analytical approach that will guide the design of the technology, and result in the current application to support and empower case managers. 

The RIVER tech company has worked closely with the S.V.S.G. and other Spotlight Initiative partners during the pilot rollout while abiding to the required ethical approaches to information gathering.

RIVER Agency Director Isaac Rolfe said they are working closely with the humanitarian organisation and a number of Spotlight Initiative partners in order to lead the architect and design of the application. 

"During the consultative process we worked through many considerations including ease of use, target audiences, relevant functionality, anonymous reporting, data integrity and privacy, before settling on a solution," Mr. Rolfe said. 

"Overall, we have been honored to work on the project, and look forward to seeing the difference it makes.”

They said that with this innovative solution, the project aims to enable more efficient responses to domestic violence/intimate partner violence realities in society while contributing to the generation of efficient, realistic and reliable data on domestic violence/intimate partner violence in Samoa. 

As case management related to violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Samoa is primarily carried out on paper, and with reporting generally carried out with Excel, this tech solution provides case officers with an application that digitizes the work they were already doing.

This makes it easier to manage existing cases, and enables them to carry out improved reporting, and generating data that support national policy around the prevention of violence against women and girls.

Siliniu Lina Chang, the S.V.S.G. President, said in a statement that they welcome the use of technology to make case management more efficient. 

"The added value of the innovative solution is the consistent data, which should allow timely analysis of trends in domestic violence cases, which translates into relevant community prevention activities by SVSG," she said. 

"The use of digital technologies can improve the efficiency and impact of already existing services. 

"In order to better respond and offer high quality services addressing domestic violence/intimate partner violence, it is important to capture accurate data which can assist in improving the availability and quality of data on violence against women and girls."

In the long term the technology has the potential to contribute to the sustainability of interventions addressing domestic violence and intimate partner violence and remains crucial for complex decision-making regarding VAWG on a policy level.

This initiative is contributing to Pillar 5 of the Spotlight Initiative that focus on Data and Systems availability. The actions under this Pillar is aim at supporting the collection, analysis and use of quality disaggregated and globally comparable data on different forms of VAWG and harmful practices to inform laws, policies and programs.