The specific needs and rights of marginalized women affected by conflict must be integral to COVID-19 prevention, response and recovery. In line with our Agenda for Action, Women for Women International is calling for an approach to COVID-19 that:
- Is nuanced and does not treat ‘women’ as a single, homogenous group;
- Is coordinated, holistic and puts gender at its core, while ensuring that emergency responses do not distract or divert funding, resources and attention away from the existing challenges that women affected by conflict already face;
- Actively and meaningfully engages women and women’s rights organizations as experts and partners, both during and beyond this emergency, at all levels of decision-making - from the household and community to the national and international levels;
- Prioritizes violence prevention and recovery, acknowledging the increased risk of violence that women affected by conflict face (particularly intimate partner violence) during times of crisis; and
- Recognizes COVID-19 as an economic crisis, as well as a health and humanitarian one, and considers women’s immediate and longer-term economic rights and needs.
Read our briefing, “Unseen, Unheard” that calls on global leaders and policy makers to ensure that women affected by conflict are not, once again, left behind.
