The Condition of the Girl Child worldwide

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This year’s “indifesa” Dossier cannot help but address the global consequences of the pandemic. With almost all countries imposing lockdowns of varying intensities, schools and health centres have closed, workshops, seminars or awareness sessions have been impossible to organise, and millions of girls and young women confined to isolation. Nowadays, there is already a worrying rise in abuse, forced marriages, school dropouts, cyberbullying, online sexual violence and female genital mutilation. This report offers a significant…

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Impact of COVID-19 on violence against women and girls through the lens of civil society and women’s organizations

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CSOs are reporting an alarming increase in violence against women and girls as a direct result of social isolation measures, across all five regions that the UNTF EVAW operates in, and this is occurring in multiple forms. In addition, there are multiple pathways through which risk factors for VAW/G have exacerbated, and will increase the likelihood of violence, and CSOs have drawn our attention to the compounded effect of these pathways because none of the…

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Building Forward: Creating a More Equitable, Gender-Just, Inclusive, and Sustainable World

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The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have undoubtedly been, and continue to be, terrible for individuals, communities, and countries. Yet the crisis provides the world with a unique opportunity, an opportunity to build forward rather than back. The purpose of this report is to highlight how best this can be done, via a holistic approach to economic, environmental and humanitarian policies, and by putting women and girls at the centre of recovery and reform. Through…

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The Global Girlhood Report 2020: How COVID-19 is putting progress in peril

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2020 was supposed to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for women and girls. The year when governments, businesses, organisations and individuals who believe in equal treatment for all people were going to develop a five-year plan for how to work together to accelerate progress for gender equality, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Then COVID-19 struck. Now, 2020 risks being a year of irreversible setbacks and lost progress…

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Impacts of COVID-19 on female genital cutting

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From March 2020, early in the global COVID-19 crisis, reports began to emerge from our partners and allies that they were witnessing elevated rates of female genital cutting (FGC). In Kenya, a country making positive progress in ending the practice through political leadership, a national and county-level governance structure and civil society action, we were hearing consistent reports of girls being subjected to FGC, or fleeing their homes for fear of being cut, from various…

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Strengthening gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) during the implementation of social protection responses to COVID-19

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Social protection –and cash transfers in particular – have been widely used as a policy response to COVID-19. The aim of this document is to highlight the key gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) considerations to be considered in the implementation of social protection, with a specific focus on cash transfers, in response to COVID-19. It provides guidance on how to ensure that the delivery of programmes aregender-sensitive, equitable, inclusive, and where possible, transformative. This…

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COVID-19 and the rise of intimate partner violence

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Stay-at-home policies have been implemented worldwide to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, there is a growing concern that such policies could increase violence against women. We find evidence in support of this critical concern. We focus on Peru, a country that imposed a strict nationwide lockdown starting in mid-March and where nearly 60% of women already experienced violence before COVID-19. Using administrative data on phone calls to the helpline for domestic violence…

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COVID-19 and the impact on civil society organisations working to end violence against women and girls

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This brief is intended to inform United Nations Member States, United Nations organizations, policymakers, donors and all other partners working on preventing and ending violence against women and girls (VAW/G) about the urgent need to address surging rates of violence in the context of COVID-19. The brief provides a second assessment, following a baseline assessment in March 2020, and is intended to highlight the immediate need for resources to support women and girl survivors.  …

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COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker Fact Sheets

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The COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker monitors policy measures enacted by governments worldwide to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and highlights responses that have integrated a gender lens. It includes national measures that are directly addressing women’s economic and social security, including unpaid care work, the labour market and violence against women. The tracker is coordinated by UNDP with substantive leadership and technical contributions from UN Women. Co-created by both entities, it includes over 2,500 measures…

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COVID-19 and Violence against Women and Children: A Second Research Round Up

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COVID-19 has raised the profile of violence against women and children (VAW/C) within the global discourse. Nine months after the emergence of COVID-19, global stakeholders continue to advocate for increased funding and action to mitigate against the risk of violence on vulnerable populations and support survivors. How much have we learned from research since the beginning of the crisis? In June, we summarized 17 rigorous research studies across disciplines and methodologies that had been published…

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