People & Performance
Gender-Responsive Practice
Led by practitioners who helped write the global standard on gender-responsive policing and have put it into practice internationally.
The offer
- What it is
- Research-informed reform of policing and security institutions, and of the service they give the public — survivor-centred response to gender-based violence (GBV), the policy and training behind it, and equitable culture, careers and leadership inside the organisation.
- Why it matters
- Funders and boards now ask what changed in the institution, not how many officers were trained. And a response to violence against women designed somewhere else does not survive contact with the community it is dropped into.
- How we deliver it
- Led by Jane Townsley MSc BSc, co-author of the UN Women Handbook on Gender-Responsive Police Services, and Dr Melissa Jardine — working with GCG's Evidence-Based Practice team so change is measured in outcomes rather than activity.
- What to expect
- An assessment with the priorities in order, policy and training your institution can sustain itself, and evaluation that shows funders and boards what changed.
Led by our Experts
We have sourced the world’s best policing and emergency services SMEs. Gender-Responsive Practice is led by Dr Melissa Jardine and Jane Townsley.
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GCG Consortium
Vietnam
Dr Melissa Jardine
Consortium member
A former Victoria Police officer with a PhD from the University of New South Wales Law School on organisational culture and gender in male-dominated environments across the Asia-Pacific. She has worked on these topics in more than twenty countries for UN Women, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and INTERPOL. Twenty-five years' professional experience, 15 of them on public health and gender equity in policing and security, gender-based violence and LGBTQ inclusion.
Skills & focus
- Policing & public health
- Gender-responsive policing
- Research & needs assessments
- Training design & delivery
- International policing reform
Years of service 25+
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GCG Consortium
United Kingdom
Jane Townsley
Consortium member
Senior Police Advisor to UN Women's headquarters in New York, where she led the development and worldwide rollout of the Handbook on Gender Responsive Police Services for Women and Girls Subject to Violence. Former President of the International Association of Women Police and now Chair of its Board of Trustees, she advises on gender-responsive policing and police reform after a 30-year policing career with Lincolnshire Police and British Transport Police, and has delivered training and mentoring across four continents.
Skills & focus
- Gender-responsive policing
- Police training & capacity building
- Security sector reform
- Violence against women & girls response
- Leadership & mentoring
Years of service 30
Delivered by our Experts 1 supporting member
Australia
What we bring to your organisation
Two pieces of work. Select either for the detail.
Capability 01
Gender-Responsive Practice
The two services below reflect a real split in the market and the evidence base: reform of the services an institution delivers to the public, and reform of the institution itself — its culture, careers and leadership.
Gender-Responsive Policing & GBV Response Reform Survivor-centred reform of policing and justice responses to GBV.
What it is
An institutional assessment of gender and gender-based violence (GBV) practice, producing a ranked reform roadmap. We adapt global standards — including the UN Women Handbook on Gender-Responsive Police Services, which Jane Townsley co-authored — into national policy, standard operating procedures and training curricula. Survivor-centred GBV response training is delivered as training-of-trainers, so your own people can run it after we leave. We design safeguarding and complaints mechanisms to the UN standards on protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH), and build the monitoring, evaluation and learning that shows funders whether behaviour changed rather than how many people attended.
Why it matters
Governments and multilateral agencies funding GBV prevention and response programmes are under growing pressure to evidence behavioural and institutional change rather than training counts. Communities need policing and justice responses to violence against women that are survivor-centred and culturally safe.
What you get
An evidenced institutional assessment with a prioritised action register; contextualised policy, SOPs and curricula ready for institutional adoption; trained personnel and a sustainable in-house training-of-trainers capability; a tested, documented complaints and safeguarding mechanism; and an evaluation framework built to track institutional and behavioural change, not just activity.
Gender-Responsive Institutions & Leadership Equitable culture, careers and leadership inside security agencies.
What it is
Three pieces of work. An independent review of workplace culture, complaints handling and career pathways, delivered with specialist review partners. Recruitment, retention and promotion design — competency frameworks, assessment design and a retention strategy that widens the pool and keeps women progressing into leadership. And women's professional networks and leadership development programmes, including operational command and leadership training for women officers, as delivered in Bangladesh, Georgia and Ukraine.
Why it matters
Police and security agencies carry real reputational, legal and retention risk when culture, complaints handling or promotion pathways are not genuinely equitable for women — and the operational cost of losing women officers mid-career is high. Boards want assurance, not just intent.
What you get
A culture and equity report your board can act on, with the priorities in order; recruitment, retention and promotion frameworks ready to implement; and an established professional network with a plan, or a delivered leadership programme with evaluated impact.