Issues and Recommendations on Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response in Covid-19 Programming

Intimate partner violence, digital harm, sexual exploitation and abuse, trafficking for commercial exploitation, child, early, and forced marriage, abuse of persons with disabilities and LGBTQI+ individuals, female genital mutilation/cutting, and attacks against female health workers have all been reported to increase during the pandemic. Several factors have contributed to the rise in GBV, including curtailed movement from home due to stay-at-home measures and social isolation, increased use of the Internet, reduced access to support networks, and financial stress. Some reported GBV incidence data indicate decreases in GBV, which are likely due to underreporting. GBV risk mitigation measures are essential at the activity level to prevent unintentional creation of GBV risks. Evidence from previous pandemics, such as the Ebola virus, highlights the importance of integrating support measures, including addressing economic and emotional stressors at the household level, ensuring equal participation in distance learning and safe return to learning for girls, and providing safe access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. Recommendations for GBV prevention and response include implementing rapid assessments to identify context-specific GBV vulnerabilities, devising relevant strategies to mitigate and respond to those risks, and including GBV prevention messaging in national or sub-national Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) strategies and action plans. Targeted prevention programming that addresses triggers contributing to increases in GBV during the pandemic, such as economic support to families and respite care for childcare, is also essential. Limited access to GBV response services has been a significant challenge during the pandemic. Stay-at-home measures and quarantines have forced some GBV survivors to remain confined with abusers and perpetrators, limiting their ability to access legal, health, and other frontline GBV services and informal support networks. Health services for GBV survivors have also diminished in some contexts due to the diversion of healthcare supplies and facilities from GBV and sexual and reproductive health care services to the COVID-19 response. Recommendations to address limited access to GBV response services include allocating financial, planning, and human resources to GBV service providers to ensure availability of culturally appropriate GBV services, strengthening the capacity of existing GBV service providers to adapt case-management protocols and incorporate remote services, and integrating GBV prevention and response into health systems' response to COVID-19. The mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) needs of GBV survivors have been significant during the pandemic. Access to MHPSS resources has been limited due to increased demand, reduced budgets, and reduction in MHPSS services. Recommendations to address MHPSS needs include updating GBV referral pathways to include available MHPSS services, increasing the availability of virtual or localized MHPSS services, localizing existing MHPSS services by establishing community focal points and working with existing networks, and encouraging informal social support networks. Economic support for women and GBV survivors has been a critical issue during the pandemic. Women who have to miss work, do not have sick leave, become infected with COVID-19, or become unemployed due to closure of a job site may not be able to leave an abusive partner. Recommendations to address economic support for women and GBV survivors include adapting livelihood activities to identify and mitigate challenges that female beneficiaries, including GBV survivors, might experience as a result of receiving economic relief and support, expanding and reinforcing economic safety nets for women and men, expanding shelter and temporary housing for GBV survivors, and providing targeted economic support to GBV survivors. Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) of affected communities by aid workers during COVID-19 has been a significant concern. SEA is a form of GBV for which all aid workers are accountable, and it can have serious emotional and physical health implications for those affected. Recommendations to address SEA include prioritizing SEA prevention through ongoing efforts targeting USAID and its partners that tackle structural gender inequalities, patriarchy, and power imbalances, ensuring that safeguarding practices to prevent, report, and respond to SEA are contextualized and responsive to the heightened vulnerability in the context of COVID-19 and specific contexts, developing culturally appropriate, context-sensitive, and survivor-centered approaches to prevent, mitigate, and respond to SEA allegations, and placing community members' knowledge and needs at the center of planning and implementation of measures to prevent and respond to SEA.