The Department of Foreign Affairs, through Irish Aid (the Irish Government's official development assistance programme), and the Irish Defence Forces collaborate with 14 other Irish Non Governmental Organisations on addressing violence against women in humanitarian and developmental contexts. This collaboration is known as the Joint Consortium on Gender-based Violence. It was formed to advance the institutional and collective capacity of Irish organizations working abroad to respond on a systematic basis to gender-based violence. The objectives of the consortium are:

1. To ensure that actions to prevent and respond to GBV are visible and systematically addressed in the policies and work of all member agencies;

2. To document experience and share resources on the prevention of, and response to, GBV, drawing particularly on the experiences and achievements of members;

3. To develop and implement an advocacy strategy at national and international levels, to promote awareness of and improve actions on prevention of and response to GBV.

The Consortium has produced two publications, compiled a GBV resource library, developed a website (www.gbv.ie), commissioned research on the links between GBV and poverty, and hosted a number of events to highlight the issue of GBV among the Irish public. The first publication 'Gender Based Violence: A Failure to Protect, A Challenge to Action' provides an overview of endemic and conflict related forms of GBV, and promotes an understanding of the dynamics of GBV. The second publication, 'Gender Based Violence: Ireland Responding' provides guidance to institutionalise approaches to GBV within individual agencies.