Hot SourceSeptember every year is the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month. The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), which is saddled with this responsibility, has consistently raised the bar in driving advocacy and strengthening institutional response to gender-based violence. Each year, it launches new initiatives to sustain public enlightenment, such as the Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, a framework designed to ensure uniform and coordinated responses to sexual harassment across both private and public sectors in the state. While commemorating this year’s awareness month, Esther Oluku reports that the event also served as a fitting avenue to reward the commitment of the Agency’s strategic partners
Many have described the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), formerly known as the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), as “a stitch in time” in social service, strengthening the state’s response to these twin menaces.
From its humble beginnings with a few staff and volunteers in 2014, the agency has evolved into a multidisciplinary team of over 100 experts spreading awareness, handling cases, and providing efficient and timely responses to incidents of sexual and gender-based violence across the state.
Between August 2024 and July 2025 alone, the Agency attended to a total of 8,692 cases, comprising 3,685 cases of domestic violence, 243 cases of defilement, 244 cases of child abuse and physical assault, 99 cases of rape, 48 cases of sexual harassment, and 25 cases of sexual assault by penetration.
Other cases included 41 cases of cyber harassment, 32 threats to life, and 726 family-related disputes such as custody, neglect, abduction, and child labour. In addition, 3,090 children were identified as having suffered emotional abuse due to exposure to domestic violence at home.
Operating under the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, the Agency has created legal pathways for survivors to access justice, prosecute offenders, and manage the state’s Sexual Offenders Registry.
Notable achievements include the creation of safe spaces and the provision of grants to help survivors rebuild their lives after abuse; supervision, procurement and disbursement of sexual assault evidence collection kits; and prioritisation of child protection through the development of a pioneering resource tool titled “Overcoming Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Lagos State’s Drafted Executive Order on Safeguarding and Child Protection Programme.”
The DSVA Executive Secretary, Mrs. Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, noted that while significant progress had been made, more remained to be done.
Launching the Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
The Agency commenced this year’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month with the Turn Lagos Purple campaign, followed by an advocacy walk against SGBV, market and couple sensitisation programmes, survivor day, symposiums and engagements with both public and private sectors, a safeguarding and child protection week, and finally, the Governor’s Commendation and Awards Night.
This year’s highlight was the official launch of the Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
The document was unveiled during a private sector symposium held at the Civic Centre, Lagos, on September 24, 2025, themed “Impact of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence on Labour and Organisational Productivity.”
According to Vivour-Adeniyi, the launch marked “a step forward in strategic private sector engagement towards curbing the menace of sexual harassment and gender-based violence in workplaces while fostering uniform private and public sector adoption.”
She said: “We are launching the Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace deliberately with the Trade Union Congress Women’s Council because we believe it is a way of ensuring uniformity, acceptance and implementation of the project across the various sectors here represented.
“In furtherance to this launch, we intend to engage with Human Resource personnel in the private sector on trainings to ensure full implementation and enforcement. Sexual harassment is a crime punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
“As a government, we believe enlightenment should come before enforcement. Government has that responsibility to assist the private sector in ensuring that they are able to do what they need to do, and when survivors break the culture of silence and report, we will ensure that justice is served.”
Chairperson of the Lagos State TUC Women’s Council, Comrade Ololade Gbajumo, urged stakeholders and employers of labour within the state to support the project, enjoining all to ensure that the standard is not only launched but “lived, enforced and sustained.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Iyadunni Atinuke Gbadebo, Director of Sales and Marketing, Eko Hotels and Suites, emphasised the need for a national reorientation that starts from the family.
She said: “As a people, I think we require a national reorientation. This reorientation has to start from the family. Families must raise children to understand that they are special in themselves. When we start to raise children this way, they have the confidence to say no to sexual harassment.”
Governor’s Commendation and Award Night
The month-long event culminated in the 10th Governor’s Commendation and Awards Ceremony, a gathering of collaborators and partners of the Lagos State DSVA, designed to reward the dedication of organisations and institutions that have supported the state’s vision of an abuse-free environment for all.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN), described the event as more than a celebration, but “a reaffirmation of the state’s commitment to eradicating sexual and gender-based violence.”
He said: “This year’s theme, ‘SGBV – It Concerns Us All’, is a clarion call underscoring a simple truth — government alone cannot fight this battle. It requires families, communities, institutions, and every member of society.”
Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Kazeem Alogba, represented by Mrs. Joy Omoiki, lauded the Agency’s efforts in restoring moral sanity in the state and commended the Governor for his commitment to building strong family values.
He stated: “I stand here in recognition of the pivotal role, yet not enviable task, of this Agency in bringing some level of sanity to the moral decay of certain ethical values, principles and acceptable behaviours in society.
“I know as a fact that the predominance of evidence falls on women and children as major victims in domestic and sexual violence, and there have been increasing incidents of domestic violence and sexual abuse against men and boys today.
“I thank the Governor for his support and relentless pursuit of healthy families to lead the affairs of our state. A healthy family is a healthy society and nation. It is in recognition of the important role of this Agency that we are having this event.”
Celebrating Partners
Among the recipients of the Governor’s Commendation were: Owutu Family Support Unit (Best Family Support Unit), Sangotedo PHC (Best Primary Health Centre), Ikorodu General Hospital (Best General Hospital), Eti-Osa LGA (Best Family Social Services Department), Education District V (Most Responsive Education District), and Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP) (Outstanding NGO Service Provider Award).
Each category winner received a cheque of ₦1 million. Beyond the gifts, Mrs. Vivour-Adeniyi said the recognition of outstanding partners serves as a call to greater commitment.
She said: “Indeed, all of us have a role to play. From the police to the health care worker to the social worker, even to the workers at the correctional facilities — all of us have a role to play. We all have a duty to see ourselves as reporters. If you see something, say something so that we can do something.”
