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Today, in preparation, they held a stakeholder consultation to discuss what they can do better to address gender based violence. The Executive Director told us more.

Cynthia Williams, Executive Director, National Women's Commission
"Well this morning what the National Women's Commission is doing is holding a national consultation workshop we are bringing in various stakeholders who play a role with the implementation of the National Gender Based Violence Action plan, the plan continues from older plans and what it does is charters the way forward, it is a framework that guides not only the national women's commission, the Ministry of Human Development and other ministries who work in the area of gender based violence so the main goal is the elimination of gender based violence in Belize."

"This is not something that becomes stagnant once a document is developed. It is a living document, we need to be able to see what we will be implementing, who are the people who are implementing, what has succeeded, what has not and that is one of the things we are doing today."

Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"So this is one level, this is at the official level where the stakeholders meet, how as you said does this plan come to life, you said this is a living plan, how have you all implemented what the plan seeks to do in the communities?"

Cynthia Williams
"One of the ways we have done it is restructuring the Gender based violence committee that has representatives not only from government but also from non-governmental institutions so what happens after that is that in each district, we have district committees that have representatives from these areas as well at a local level."

Courtney Weatherburne
"What are some of the accomplishments so far, have you all seen a decrease in let's say domestic violence, is there an increase based on your research?"

Cynthia Williams
"Well from the latest statistics that we got from January to June 2018 we do see an increase in the statistics of cases being reported when you compare it to the statistics last year so the important things is to be able to look at how do we link the various areas not only behavioral change but awareness, not only on legislation but also rights and opportunities people have, the services that are available for them because often people feel hopeless and feel they are not part of a community thus they are unable to report."

It was a one day event.