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Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action

Reducing risk, promoting resilience and aiding recovery

Moving Beyond the Numbers: What the COVID-19 pandemic means for the safety of women and girls

On 5 April 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence” since Governments around the world had begun imposing lockdowns, quarantines and movement restrictions in order to control the spread of COVID-19. In his remarks, the Secretary General noted that in some countries calls to gender-based violence (GBV) support services had doubled. Similarly, a plethora of reports from around the world have signaled an increase in reported cases of gender-based violence – particularly intimate partner violence – since the beginning of the pandemic. However, in some places, the service provision statistics actually show the opposite – that fewer GBV survivors are reaching out for support from service providers as compared to the levels seen prior to COVID-19. This discrepancy is a classic example of why – in every humanitarian emergency – experts advise against relying too heavily on the number of reported cases when making programmatic and policy decisions about GBV.

Contributor: UNICEF

Region: Global

Sector Resources: Child Protection

Language: English

Year: 2020

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  • Home
  • Capacity-Building
    • Integrating GBV risk mitigation capacity-building toolkit
    • IASC GBV Guidelines Introduction
    • Online Course
  • Additional Resources
    • Print Ready Documents
    • Stocktaking workshops 2020
  • Community
  • Pocket Guide
  • Knowledge Hub
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • CVA & GBV Compendium Training Modules
    • Information Management
    • Measuring Effectiveness
  • Where We Work
  • Contact
  • English
    • Français
    • Español
    • العربية