How Local Protection Services Respond to Sexual Violence: Capacity, Coordination, and Adaptation in Southeast Sulawesi

Sexual violence against women and children requires coordinated, survivor-centred services that integrate legal, psychosocial, health, and protection responses. Yet limited evidence explains how local government protection units sustain such services under resource constraints. This qualitative study examines service effectiveness at the Technical Implementation Unit for Women and Child Protection (UPTD PPA) in South Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, focusing on goal attainment, multisector coordination, adaptive service delivery, and organizational constraints. Data were collected from January to March 2025 through in-depth interviews, observation, and document review. The findings show that the unit provides complaint handling, legal assistance, psychosocial support, health referral, temporary shelter, and trauma-related support. Service delivery is strengthened by collaboration with police, hospitals, legal-aid organizations, and community actors. However, staffing shortages, limited specialist expertise, budget and facility constraints, fragmented reporting, and uneven inter-agency coordination reduce service consistency. The study contributes a capacity–coordination–adaptation perspective, showing that effective local responses depend not only on formal service availability but also on workforce capability, connected referral networks, and survivor-sensitive adaptation.