One of the things about the Violence Against Women Act federally in the United States is that it names violence against women and gender-based violence as violations of federal civil rights in a system in which criminal law, of course, is state by state, so you don't have a unifying federal force.
I guess what I would say about this idea of local versus national is it may be very true that the actual programs that are happening, the most innovative, are at the local level, but there is no reason that the federal government could not pick five priorities--ending women's poverty, attacking attitudes that encourage male violence against women and the idea that aboriginal women are appropriate recipients of male violence and male sexual violence, promoting education, having some kind of a clearing house for funding, and setting standards and some kind of a program to encourage really good research about which programs are working and which should be expanded to other jurisdictions.
I know it seems like a big and overwhelming problem, but pick five things and do them. When you're finished, pick five more. At least then something would get done. That is what I would say.