How Can Projects

Address Gender
Equality, Social
Inclusion, Gender-based
Violence &
Safeguarding During &
Post- COVID-19?

Webinar
28 April 2020

195 participants from

26 countries
 • Webinar is being recorded
• We want it to be participatory
• Introduce yourselves in the chat box
• Based on recent research, we will be discussing
• How individuals of different genders and identity

Agenda groups have been, or might be, affected by the

corona virus, social distancing, and stay at home
orders
• Based on new FHI 360 guidance
• What can our project teams do to address gender
equality, social inclusion, GBV and safeguarding
during and post-CoVID-19?
How has COVID-19 and measures to address
the pandemic affected different genders and
identity groups?
Gender-based Violence increasing “exponentially”

• Public health crises expose and exacerbate existing inequalities and unequal power dynamics,
putting women, girls, and people of diverse gender identities at increased risk of violence
• Women, men, children, LGBTQ+ individuals are trapped in homes with their abusers. Anyone can
be a victim of violence; anyone can be an abuser
• Crowded homes, substance abuse, loss of income, deteriorating mental health, and limited access
to services exacerbate conditions
• Helplines globally are registering an increase in calls for help with violence, domestic violence
shelters are closing b/c of increased capacity
• Gender-based abuse in digital spaces is also increasing
Don't Nag Your
Husband During
Lockdown,
Malaysia’s Ministry
of Gender Advises
Women
 Economic impacts facing women and girls

• Full or partial lockdown measures affect 81% of world’s workforce (ILO)

• 70% of women’s employment in Global South is in informal labor without protections (UN)

• Women are 70% of health work force (i.e. nurses, midwives, community health workers) (WHO)

• Women spend 4.1 hrs/day on unpaid care & domestic work compared to men’s 1.7 hrs (UN)

• Women make up almost half of the agricultural labor force in SS Africa and E/SE Asia (FAO)

• 327 million fewer women than men have smartphone and can access mobile internet (OECD)
 • Women, girls, & transgender youth face barriers to
accessing sexual & reproductive health, incl.
maternal health care, and GBV-related services
because hospitals, health facilities and doctors are
Reproductive limiting non-essential services during the pandemic
• During and after disease outbreaks, the risk of
health impacts child marriage and early pregnancy increases
• Transactional sex and sexual exploitation will also
likely increase
 As of 10 April, 1.57 billion
or 90% of enrolled learners
from pre-primary to
tertiary are out of school,
incl. 763 million girls
Inequities in access to
digital technologies by
rural, minority, & low
socio-economic groups has
been spotlighted

Impacts of Responsibilities of Adolescent girls & boys

educational domestic & care work

may prevent girls from
returning to school
may be more likely to turn
to criminal or illicit
behaviors
disruptions

Adolescent girls face

Boys risk disengaging
increased risk of early &
from education due to
forced marriage & early
economic hardships
pregnancy while not in
caused by COVID-19
school
 • In some countries, 60% of the diagnoses & 70% of
deaths are men
• The factors are gendered
• Men are more likely to smoke, be exposed to
Impact on men second-hand smoke, and drink alcohol
and boys • Greater number of co-morbidities such as heart
disease, diabetes and effects of long-term
smoking
• Men are more likely to work in jobs with poor
environmental conditions
 People with disabilities may be at greater
risk of contracting COVID-19 because of:

• Barriers to implementing basic hygiene measures, such as hand-

washing (e.g. handbasins or sinks may be physically inaccessible, or

People with a person may have physical difficulty rubbing their hands together
thoroughly)

disabilities • Difficulty in enacting social distancing because of additional support

needs or because they are institutionalized
• The need to touch things to obtain information from the
environment or for physical support
• Barriers to accessing public health information
• Barriers to accessing healthcare
• Serious disruptions to the services they rely on
Impacts on ethnic & racial minority and low-
income groups
• Rising racial/ethnic and socio-economic inequality in U.S. means lower access to quality health
care & reduced chances of surviving virus

• Almost 1/3 of infections in U.S. have affected black Americans, though they represent 13% of the
U.S. population
• African Americans make up 32% of pop. of Louisiana, but 70% of deaths;
• 15% of pop. of Illinois but 42% of the deaths;
• 30% of pop. in Chicago, but 72% of deaths;
• 6.7% of pop. in Wisconsin, but 36% of deaths

• Black Americans are more likely than whites to be poor, work in essential jobs (bus drivers,
grocery store clerks, people who work in food-related services)
Impacts on ethnic & racial minority and low-
income groups cont.
• People who live in impoverished neighborhoods have less access to health care, experience poorer
health, have co-morbidities, and enjoy less access to nutritious food

• Black and Hispanic workers are much less likely to be able to work from home

• The Native American nation of the Navajo live on a reservation in the Southwestern part of the
US, which is the third hardest hit area in the US. Some parts of the reservation do not have
running water and have little access to quality health care.
 How can projects address gender,
inclusion and safeguarding during and
post-COVID-19?
Recommended Action #1:

Gather information to improve project team’s

understanding of how violence is directly impacting
program participants in your communities and the
availability of services to assist victims and survivors
of violence and exploitation
Remarks by Ester Sumbana, Gender & Youth
Advisor, Alcançar, Mozambique

• We need first to understand the context, the social norms & the situation, what is going on, so that we
can address responding to the specific needs
• How do the laws protect the victims of violence or sexual exploitation or abuse?
• In Mozambique, we do have some free hotlines from the Ministry of Health, where you can access
psychological support for free.
• A barrier or a challenge to implement this action is, can we do a quality gender analysis?
• Perhaps we won’t be able to do direct interviews because of social distancing so we can do some calls
• If we are able to move, then we can go there, and we can respect social distancing. We can do this so
we can take into account the reality that we will find in the field.
Recommended Action #2:

Develop strategies and plans to help address an

increase in domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and
other abuse among program participants. Consider
interventions to support violence prevention,
mitigation, and response in the short (6 months – 1
year) and medium term (project duration)
Andrea Bertone

• This action is really a sort of a second step after you collect the qualitative data from the GESI analysis
• We hope that you will take the data and develop a strategy and a plan to address an increase in domestic
violence or sexual exploitation that you might be seeing in the, in the communities where you are
implementing your project.
• The international community, especially our donors USAID, DFID, UNICEF and several other international
and bilateral donors are now paying a great deal of attention to safeguarding and what projects are doing to
prevent mitigate and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse among program participants or trafficking in
Persons, which is very much related to the sexual exploitation and abuse or child safeguarding
• We hope that you will work with local partners, especially women's organizations, disabled persons
organizations to collaborate with them on addressing the possible increase in violence in our communities
and creating a list of needs and priorities and then communicating that and setting up the right response
mechanisms within the Community.
Recommended Action #3:

Equip your project team to respond

appropriately when approached by an
individual for assistance and to support
individuals in need of services
Remarks by Dominica Dhakwa, Project
Director, DREAMS, Zimbabwe
Why is this action important?
• Critical to implement evidence-based actions
• FHI 360 Project staff are often part of the GBV first responders
• Addressing staff’s own biases critical especially in the context of
GBV
• Need to observe the Do no Harm Principles at all times-telehealth
service provision
• Parents have an opportunity to spend more time with their
children during such emergencies, imparting parenting skills
remains
What are the challenges to implementation?
• Staff may have safety concerns
• If project was not previous addressing GBV issues, staff may feel
ill-prepared to undertake action # 3
• Staff own conscious and unconscious biases
• Parents perceptions and priorities
• Limited access to virtual platforms by women and girls
How can the DREAMS Project Implement this action?
• Select a team within staff to become GBV first responders
• Capacitate staff to appropriately respond to individuals
seeking help
• Make it compulsory to undertake the Unconscious Bias: Four
Tips to Avoid Snap Judgments course on FHI 360 Learns
and the WHO LIVES (Listen, Inquire, Validate, Enhance
safety and Support)training
• Establish proportion of beneficiaries with mobile phones
• Collaboratively develop IEC materials and messaging with
communities
• Package messages for sharing via virtual platforms, consider
roadshows
• Establish a virtual platform of service providers and frontline
staff to support timely identification and linkage to post GBV
services
Recommended Action #4

Create new ways to engage program

participants in the planning and
implementation of programs, including
activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Remarks by Dunia Chiwala, Technical
Advisor, EPiC, Malawi
• Most of the GBV response work that we do under the epic project involves active participation of various
community members. So this is very important because already, you would be building up all the support that
we need for community outreach activities building up support for the community leaders who play an active
role in actual mobilization and actual implementation of the outreach week for our target groups.
• I think the major challenge would be actual mobilization and which builds up to access and uptake of services.
It's quite difficult to mobilize people access services like HTC testing.
• What we provide the are part of the essential services and these would still be available. So even though we are
trying to put that across, but we still we still see that there's a little fear out there.
• This is a very big challenge in terms of implementation and the crucial access to services that we provide.
• So what we have currently done is to develop clinical guidance that will help the clinical staff better understand
how best they can continue provision of services.
• We encourage our clients to consider safety issues and to follow up with their phones if they have them.
Recommended Action #5:

Update referral pathways to reflect changes

in available medical care, psychosocial
support, legal, and emergency shelter/housing
for victims and survivors of violence,
exploitation, and abuse
 Remarks by Lilian Esemere, Gender Technical
Officer, Afya Uzazi, Kenya
Why this action is important
• Strengthen National and County gender machineries and joint response towards
GBV during COVID-19 situation. You will be able to identify gaps in the current
SGBV response and address them appropriately.
• Targeted Response and a Shared Roles and Responsibilities: To increase attention to
specific gender issues & be able to prioritize key responses based on identified
available resources, capacities, and skills set within the referral networks.
• Leverage on existing resources: Mobilize available resources, and garner support
from all existing SGBV implementing partners including government agencies.
• To increase reach to all sections of affected populations, hence an increased response,
and support people in demand for the services.
• A network increases access to needed services, decision making, information flow,
enhanced monitoring and reporting, and feedback mechanism.
• Ownership, Acceptability, and Increased Accountability enables the program to
conform to all standards, protocols, guidelines, and policies. The approach is
contextualized and implemented in an ethically and culturally appropriate manner.
• Guaranteed continued response and promotes access to services.
What are the challenges to implementation
• Time constraints
• Integration of activities in line with COVID- 19 specific activities
• Harmonizing mixed skills and capacities across networks to a focus on a common
agenda within a short period.
• Competing priorities in line with other COVID-19 response
• Restrictions and guidelines around the COVID-19 protection and prevention
measures
• To get focused funds for the activities and responsibilities to be undertaken
• Aligning the response measures with local diversity and varied cultural, political,
economic and social aspects.
• Reporting.
How you might do it for your project
• Mapping: Develop an updated partner tracking and monitoring tool and disseminate
• Coordination Mechanism: Organize and engage the SGBV clusters, working groups, and relevant
sub/committees on different roles and responsibilities. Use WhatsApp
• Education and Capacity building: CMEs, online programms, one on one session, small group activities,
• Activity tracking and Reporting: Develop a template that consolidates agency activities, indicators, and reports.
• Public Awareness Campaign and Sensitization: Develop information packages and messages to reach to the
wider populations on necessary response measures and available support services. Use social media platforms to
widely publicize the agenda and advocate for preventive and promotive measures (Radio shows, Twitter chats,
Live facebook forums,)
• Hold community engagement platforms:
• Monitor and Supervise service delivery centers and partner activity: Support government agency and other
known institutions to provide support.
Recommended Action #6:

Include violence prevention and response activities

in annual work plans as current funding permits.
In any new funding requests (for COVID-19
response or new activities), include violence
prevention and response activities
Remarks by Nilufar Rakhmanova, Chief of
Party, EQHA, Cambodia
• I think that because we are receiving new funding on COVID-19 it gives us an opportunity to integrate violence prevention and response.

• And why is this important, because we know that currently we have that a dangerous increase in family violence.

• And the same time decrease in services available to survivors to seek help is a challenge.

• Before the corona virus, we used to do the trainings to address GBV and family violence in the health sector that were designed in person.

• We would train Ministry of Health, or Ministry of women representatives or the healthcare providers using the face to face training platform

• Now we have had to move in a very accelerated way to a virtual platform and it requires cultural shift, it's a new way of learning and it requires technological
shift for healthcare settings or the Ministry of Health, or others with the video conferencing equipment.

• Speed is an issue and the and all these changes are a challenge. Another challenge I see is that right now, the Ministry of Health and the donor are very
consumed with the immediate reaction to the COVID-19 infection with the training on infection control and equipment equipping the healthcare workers with
the personal protective equipment with the healthcare response.

• We are going to install the video conferencing equipment in a number of hospitals that are designated to treat COVID-19 in Cambodia and I think that we can
integrate training in this platform,

• I see an amazing collaboration among partners here are multiple platforms that are bringing together partners international NGOs, where they're discussing
what can we do together to respond to COVID-19. So I think that this is also an opportunity for us to raise the issue extensively across other NGOs and see how
we can address this together and not just as a project.
Recommended Action #7:

Explore innovative ways to help people stay

connected and to decrease isolation
Remarks by Asma Ayari, GESI Advisor, Ma3an,
Tunisia
• We are already in the process of shifting to online Internet activities, but that necessitates that people have access to wifi to support
services in Tunis and that is not the case.
• Calls to domestic violence health centers is twice as high as before the crisis started

• This is a culture that doesn't necessarily support victims of violence, so these calls indicate that the gravity of the problem Access to
digital equipment is not always equitable in our society and so women and youth and the most vulnerable don't usually have access to
these supports.
• We might lack the facilitation skills to navigate sensitive conversations, we need training for our partners and training for staff as strict
social norms lead to scrutiny by other family members on the use of digital platform platforms. There will be a lack of privacy that
could jeopardize conversations or create risks for the people we are trying to serve.
• How could our project implement this action. We want to transfer the knowledge and recommendation to our partners and leverage the
existing relationship we have with them to educate them that they can work within their organizations right now for the well being and
safety of the communities where they work.
• There are several studies that showcase the correlation between radicalization, vulnerability and GBV. We also plan on coaching our
staff to adopt these practices of alternative communications
• Tunis has initiated something about a specific hotline for abuse and psychosocial support for women.

• It's not very effective because they don't have the enough human resources on it, but it is a step.
Recommended Action #8:

Disaggregate data related to the COVID-19

outbreak by sex, age, and disability
Remarks by Kim Dixon, Senior Technical
Advisor for Safeguarding, GESI Hub
• I encourage the collection in disaggregation of data by gender identity, where it's possible and safe to do so.
• I think one of the things that's most important to highlight for this action is that sometimes we assume about asking
these questions is that they're not very sensitive questions, but I think that for a lot of the people that we work with,
especially when during our remote interactions by phone, people may not feel safe or comfortable and answering
questions about their disability or gender identity especially in remote communications where they may not have
privacy. So just to keep that in mind, I think, is where we're having these remote conversations with our program
participants. But in order for us to be able to tailor our interventions, because we're moving so fast and making
adaptations to everything that we do. It's really important to collect this data.
• The document with these recommendations is our first iteration of this and if it gets meant to be fairly broad and I think
we're talking about making having a second iteration that does a little bit of a deeper dive into maybe some of the
unique considerations for the different populations that we serve. So, for example, key populations.
GESI Resources

• Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Hub Connect Page

• https://connect.fhi360.org/departments/operations-management/gen
der-equality-and-social-inclusion-gesi
• Safeguarding Connect Page
• https://connect.fhi360.org/departments/human-resources/safeguardi
ng
Selected GESI & Covid-19 Resources

• Policy Brief on Covid-19 Impacts on Women. UN Women.

• A Practical Approach to Prevent, Address and Document
Domestic Violence under COVID-19. MenEngage Alliance.
• The COVID-19 Outbreak and Gender: Key Advocacy Points
from Asia & the Pacific. Gender in Humanitarian Action.
• Disability considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak. World
Health Organization.
Thank you

• Andrea Bertone, Director, GESI Hub

• Elise Young, Senior Technical Advisor, GESI Hub
• Ester Sumbana, Gender & Youth Advisor, Alcancar project, Mozambique
• Dunia Chiwala, Technical Advisor, EPiC, Malawi
• Dominica Dhakwa, Project Director, DREAMS Zimbabwe
• Lilian Esemere, Gender Technical Officer, Afya Uzazi, Kenya
• Nilufar Rakhmanova, Chief of Party, Cambodia EQHA
• Asma Ayari, GESI Advisor, Ma3an Program, Tunisia
• Kim Dixon, Senior Technical Advisor for Safeguarding, GESI Hub