Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Gender-based violence against women and girls (GBVAWG), with intimate partner violence as its most common form, is highly prevalent in many societies, where it erodes social cohesion and development. Emergency situations, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, aggravate the threat of GBVAWG to individuals, families and societies. Indeed the risk and consequences of GBVAWG may be exacerbated by lockdown policies implemented by many countries throughout the world, the disruption of economic, social and protective networks, sudden changes in family functioning, stress, increased substance use and decreased access to services.

Gender-based violence (GBV) increases during every type of emergency – whether economic crises, conflict or disease outbreaks. Pre-existing toxic social norms and gender inequalities, economic and social stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, have led to an exponential increase in GBV. Many women and girls are in ‘lockdown’ at home with their abusers while being cut off from normal support services.
This briefing note provides concrete actions and strategies that UNDP, UN agencies and other development partners can take to prevent and address GBV in the context of COVID-19. It includes recommendations for adapting dedicated GBV services and support to the crisis context, and for mainstreaming GBV prevention and response in 'non-GBV specific' interventions. 

This rapid review focuses on identifying evidence and lessons learned on the links between life skills interventions in emergency settings and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and early marriage and return to education post crisis amongst adolescent girls. It seeks to enable learning from past emergencies to inform the design of effective support to adolescent girls throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Due to the focus on adolescent girls and emergency settings, an area with limited rigorous evaluations (Nobel et al., 2019), this report is based on a rapid literature review of academic studies, grey literature and emerging evidence, to enable the capturing of any significant learnings from relevant programmes.

This technical note is intended to provide a simple checklist for policy-makers, partners and UNICEF staff as they engage in the design and implementation of COVD-19 related social protection interventions. It builds on the SPIAC-B Joint Statement on the role of social protection in responding to the pandemic, particularly the need for urgent action to prioritise the most vulnerable.

This technical note, developed by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, supports the development of preparedness and response plans for addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls and women at risk of and affected by female genital mutilation.

This brief provides recommendations and resources for responding to the needs of adolescent girls during and after the COVID-19 crisis, and its impact on child marriage. The global pandemic of COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for us all.We have developed this brief on child marriage and COVID-19 for all our development partners, including civil society and governments. It provides insights, recommendations and resources for responding to the needs of adolescent girls during and after this crisis, including those at risk of early marriage, married girls, and those in informal unions.

Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex. This policy brief focuses on each of these issues in turn, exploring how women and girls’ lives are changing in the face of COVID19, and outlining suggested priority measures to accompany both the immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts.

This brief highlights emerging evidence of the impact of the recent global pandemic of COVID-19 on violence against women and girls. It makes recommendations to be considered by all sectors of society, from governments to international organizations and to civil society organizations, in order to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, at the onset, during, and after the public health crisis, with examples of actions already taken. It also considers the economic impact of the pandemic and its implications for violence against women and girls in the long term.

It is a living document that draws upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of experts who support solutions to end violence against women and girls, attentive to the country context in which the crisis is occurring.

Women and men, girls and boys, urban and rural populations in East, Central and Southern Africa are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate impacts at the time of this research center around reduced income and access to basic needs due to government lockdowns, changing gender roles in households, and increased gender-based violence. The COVID-19 pandemic in East, Central and Southern Africa is currently exacerbating socio-economic issues, with women bearing the largest burden of caring for their families while also seeking to lead communities in prevention and adaptation. Gender-based inequality is extensive in the region. Women are at a higher risk for exposure to infection due to the fact that they are often the primary caregivers in the family and constitute most of frontline healthcare responders. Women and girls are at increased risk of violence during the COVID-19 period. Further, women are more likely to lose income as many are in the informal sector.

UNFPA aims to achieve three world-changing results by 2030, the deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. These are: Ending unmet need for family planning, ending gender-based violence including harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage, and ending all preventable maternal deaths. COVID-19 pandemic could critically undermine progress made towards achieving these goals.

Disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse. This needs to be considered, given the different impacts surrounding detection and access to treatment for women and men. Women represent 70 percent of the health and social sector workforce globally and special attention should be given to how their work environment may expose them to discrimination, as well as thinking about their sexual and reproductive health and psychosocial needs as frontline health workers.

There is a marked lack of research on the implications of public health emergencies on different groups, especially women and girls. Less than 1 percent of published research papers on the 2014–16 West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak and the 2016 Zika outbreak focused on the gender dimensions of the emergencies. Research on the gender implications of previous health emergencies is even more scarce. CARE’s analysis shows that COVID-19 outbreaks in development or humanitarian contexts could disproportionately affect women and girls in a number of ways, including adverse effects on their education, food security and nutrition, health, livelihoods, and protection. Even after the outbreak has been contained, women and girls may continue to suffer from ill-effects for years to come.

This paper sets out the particular vulnerabilities for adolescent girls and provides practical guidance on how to provide girls with targeted support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gendered impacts of infectious disease outbreaks and their propensity to increase Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have been well-documented in each of the most recent major epidemics - including Zika, SARS and Ebola. Early evidence indicates that COVID-19 is no different in this respect, with GBV providers and community groups reporting a sharp increase in reported incidents of Intimate Partner Violence. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable. Studies of past disease outbreaks and other humanitarian crisis have shown that without targeted intervention, COVID-19 will heighten pre-existing risks of GBV against girls, stymie their social, economic and educational development and threaten their sexual reproductive health. This paper looks to set out the particular vulnerabilities for adolescent girls and provides practical guidance on how to provide girls with targeted support during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.