Geneva, (July 17th, 2020) – Today’s update of the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), which aims to deliver a comprehensive and coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic, does not go far enough to ensure that violence against women and girls )VAWG) is a response priority, says humanitarian organization CARE International.
A severe lack of funding and insufficient prioritization by the UN continues to hamper humanitarian response efforts to address the alarming increase in violence against women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the UN Secretary-General has categorized as a shadow pandemic. Though 1 in 3 women experienced violence even before COVID-19’s spread, projections suggest that for every three months that lockdown measures continue, an additional 15 million VAWG cases could be expected globally. However, violence against women and gorls has not been prioritized in the Global Humanitarian Response Plan, which includes only USD$43million to deliver VAWG programs for women and girls in only 16 of 63 countries that are spiraling into a humanitarian emergency due to COVID-19.
As Assiya Grema, a CARE VAWG counsellor in Ngala Camp, Nigeria notes:
“Due to COVID-19 the beating has increased because people are just locked in. Before I would counsel five people a day, now it’s 9-10…There’s an increase in early marriage because of the economic crisis. Some of these girls, as they approach adolescence, they are seen as a burden, and sometimes a girl sees her peers getting married…She can be sold off for as little as half a bag of sorghum.”
Sofía Sprechmann Sineiro, CARE International Secretary General:
“We were pleased to note increased attention to violenve against women and girls (VAWG) in the revised GHRP document. However, we are very disappointed that there is still no specific objective on VAWG, which is critical if we are to unlock a proportionate level of funding and resources. This is despite a 700 percent increase in women and girls reporting to VAWG hotlines in some countries, and nearly 600 actors from the VAWG global community, including some of the major international donors, calling for a standalone objective on VAWG. If we put our heads in the sand, we should expect massive gaps in the VAWG response to persist and possibly widen. Worse still, if we don’t properly track how the funds are being spent, we will remain largely in the dark about the extent to which local needs are being met.”
Delphine Pinault, CARE International Humanitarian Policy, Advocacy Coordinator & UN Geneva Representative:
“This is an extremely disappointing result in the global fight against VAWG. The COVID-19 GHRP was a chance to show that we were serious about not failing women and girls. We have missed that opportunity in this last update of the GHRP – only 1 in 4 countries covered in the appeal have prioritized VAWG in their response.
Donors and countries are looking to the GHRP to understand what to prioritize and where to put their limited COVID-19 funding; the previous GHRP did not have VAWG as a response priority and VAWG programs were severely underfunded. What makes us think it will be any different this time?”
This update comes on the heels of over 580 NGOs, international organizations and governments calling on OCHA to update the GHRP to reflect the need to address the shadow pandemic of violence against women and girls through a Specific Objective. Humanitarian actors recognize the magnitude of the problem and continue to advocate for GBV response prioritization within the GHRP, including the following recommendations:
- Immediate and substantial increase in donor and UN funding available to address VAWG prevention and response;
- Prioritization of VAWG in COVID-19 within national and regional response plans for 2021;
- Full integration of VAWG risk mitigation needs within response implemented by other sectors;
- VAWG service providers recognition as essential workers;
- Mainstreamed VAWG messaging at key entry points such as hospitals and drugstores, especially during lockdown situations.