Child marriage is a global issue. It is fuelled by gender inequality, poverty, social norms and insecurity, and has devastating consequences all over the world.
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Resources to help during COVID-19: Gender-based violence
Photo: Priscilla Mora Flores/Colectivo Nómada/Girls Not Brides
We know that girls and women – particularly amongst the poorest and socially marginalised groups – will likely be most affected by the pandemic. We need to work together as a partnership to make sure that girls at risk of child marriage and married girls don’t get left behind.
That’s why we’re compiling regular roundups of resources that may be useful to Girls Not Brides member organisations at this difficult time. These are linked in this series of blogs, and can also be found in our Resource Centre.
This week, we focus on COVID-19 and its impact on gender-based violence (GBV) in different settings. Some of the resources we have listed can be used by organisations delivering GBV case management. Others will support non-GBV specialist organisations in including and mainstreaming gender and GBV preventive measures into their work during the response and recovery phases of the pandemic.
This brief highlights the main impacts and challenges of COVID-19 for women and girls around the world. It outlines priority measures that should accompany both immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts. It includes sections on economic impacts, health impacts, unpaid care work, GBV, impacts in humanitarian and fragile settings and human rights.
This brief shares ideas on how to reach those affected by GBV who do not have easy access to phone-based support. It sets out alternative non-phone, low/no tech options and provides ideas for linking these “alert systems” with remote GBV support providers.
This brief offers guidance for non-GBV specialist actors who are working in humanitarian contexts to identify COVID-19 and GBV-specific risks in their sectors, and to take actions to mitigate those risks. It covers multiple sectors including: camp coordination and management, child protection, education, food security, health, livelihoods, nutrition, protection, shelter, WASH, and risk communications and community engagement.
This brief offers guidance for organisations working with communities to ensure that addressing GBV is included in their communications and strategies around COVID-19. It provides ideas on effective communication for community engagement (including guidance on aspects such as gender, local culture and language) and the impact of the pandemic on GBV, GBV services, social stigma, and mental health.
This brief contains recommendations and best practices for setting up and managing quarantine centres, in order to mitigate the risks of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). It also includes recommendations on providing effective and prompt responses to SGBV in quarantine centres, which could help support advocacy actions at both the national and local levels.
In the time it has taken to read this article 30 girls under the age of 18 have been married
Each year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18