The Role of Police Gender Desk in Fighting Gender-Based Violence in Tanzania, a Reflection from Dar es Salaam Region

Abstract

The study assessed the role of the Police Gender Desk
(PGD) in fighting gender-based violence (GBV) amidst
increased cases of GBV in Dar es Salaam region,
Tanzania. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques
were used where survey, interview, focus group
discussion, and documentary review were used as key
data collection methods. A total of 70 respondents who
are police officers working at PGD were surveyed. The
key findings show that common dominating GBV cases
that are reported at PGD include battering (22%),
family/children neglect (21%), sexual abuse,
harassment, and exploitation (17%), property grabbing
(16%), manipulation and shameful acts (8%), economic
exploitation (7%), psychological torture (5%), and
femicide (2%). Moreover, the key challenges reported to
face PGD in fighting GBV include; delays in reporting
cases (22%), premature withdraw of cases (15%),
difficulty in gathering evidence (12%), inadequate
professional training (9%), reluctance of victims to open
up (10%), limited robust equipment’s (7%), lack of
special rooms (8%) etc. The study recommends some
improvement of the PGD by fulfilling all the highlighted
challenges including provision of technical support and
training, improving PGD infrastructure, learning and
understanding gender norms that increase GBV,
creating awareness among community members on the
role of PGD, and fostering peace and justice when
dealing with GBV cases for enhancing the sense of
equality and community development in the country.