Prevention and Response to GBV in conflict-related emergencies

Dear Suzanne,

Your question -copied below- is indeed a very relevant one. The report from CARE's Strategic Impact Inquiry on Women's Empowerment ("The Courage to Change") has raised many challenges in our quest to be accountable for impact on the drivers of gender inequity -which we firmly belief to be at the heart of GBV- and led to deep questioning of our assumptions about the changes (short and long term) we are seeking and the ways in which we measure change. Please keep us informed of your research and do not hesitate to contact us for further details (or if you want a copy of the report): cano@careinternational.org. Thank you.

Dear Suzanne,

Great question. In fact, we are well-served in this area of work to look at the possible opportunities presented by the social upheaval that often attends conflict or disaster to promote changes in attitudes, beliefs and practices. We can often witness women engaged in different types of work, with opportunities for such things as literacy education and livelihood programs, as well as in positions of greater (comparative) power in the context of displacement when feeding the family and ensuring access to healthcare are prioritized.

In Liberia, I had the privilege of launching a program in communities of newly-returned populations (with high levels of women and children who had been associated with the fighting forces). Given the significant transportation challenges and recognition that both our behavior-change interventions and direct survivor support programs could not conform to a 9-5 schedule, we placed two social workers - one male and one female - in the communities that we were supporting. Not only were these social workers able to implement program components and be available to receive cases at any time of the day or night, they were also able to model a new way of interacting with equal respect and equal support.

At UNFPA, our staff and partners are present in a country before, during and after the crisis. We work principally with civil society and government actors to ensure national ownership of all initiatives. In this way, global standards of addressing GBV in humanitarian contexts (e.g. the IASC GBV Guidelines and related tools) can be readily filtered through women's groups and others to ensure populations of concern for addressing GBV can readily identify with the aid that is available to them. In this way, humanitarian aid that seeks to prevent new incidents of GBV and provide comprehensive care for survivors does not merely live in the realm of quick aid, but becomes a part and parcel of good programming, transcending the emergency or post-emergency periods.

I hope this helps address your question Suzanne. Best of luck with your research and do let us know how it's going.

Erin Kenny

Dear Erin,
Many thanks for your helpful response.
Certainly a key factor for successful work for attitude and behaviour change is presence in the country pre- during and post emergency intervention and good relationships with local NGOs and community groups as well as other civil society actors and government. And as your example of Liberia shows, the building of real relationships with individuals and groups through having dedicated workers in the settlements, camps or communities. I would very much like to know more about this work - the Liberia experience - and indeed other initiatives of UNFPA, as I know that you have been at the forefront of work on GBV.

Is the experience written up? Or could we have a further dialogue on email and/or skype? I am very keen to share findings of the research as it goes along, and maintain a dialogue with colleagues who are interested in it.

I will be doing some field research in Sri Lanka and Pakistan in September, where the VAW campaign is active in conflicted areas, and will hopefully have input from others working on the campaign in the DRC.