The syndemic of COVID-19 and gender-based violence in humanitarian settings: leveraging lessons from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Stark, Lindsay; Meinhart, Melissa; Vahedi, Luissa; Carter, Simone; Roesch, Elisabeth; Moncrieff, Isabel Scott; Palaku, Philomene Mwanze; Rossi, Flore; Poulton, Catherine

doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004194

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…First, using a Boolean search strategy we searched by title, abstract, keywords and Medical Subject Headings according to the following three domains: VAWG, evaluation and RDC ( table 1 ). The research team collaborated to develop the search strategy, drawing on their collective expertise from previously published systematic reviews in areas related to VAWG 17 20–22 and the search strategy was executed by LV, who received previous training regarding systematic reviews. The database search was conducted in February of 2021 and optimised for Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Global Health APA PsycInfo and Scopus.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As stay-at-home orders during COVID-19 have increased the proximity of abusers to their victims, there is a corresponding risk that research-related disclosures of violence will be overheard, triggering violence. 12 13 Further, researchers collecting data during the pandemic must navigate all of these issues alongside recognition of the heightened risk of violence for women that accompanies pandemic control policies more generally, [14][15][16][17] and the potential reduced available services for referrals.…”

Section: What Do the New Findings Imply?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Remote evaluations of violence against women and girls interventions: a rapid scoping review of tools, ethics and safety

et al. 2021

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Although programmes and policies targeting violence against women and girls (VAWG) have increased in the past decade, there is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions. To expand this evidence base, researchers increasingly employ remote data collection (RDC)—including online surveys, mobile applications and telephone interviews—in their evaluations. Although RDC allows for evaluations without in-person interactions—which are restricted during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic— information about these methods is necessary to understand their potential usefulness and limitations. This scoping review examines remote evaluations of VAWG interventions to describe the landscape of RDC methods, reflect on safety and ethical considerations, and offer best practices for RDC in VAWG research. Fourteen studies met eligibility criteria, with seven, five, and two studies employing telephone interviews, online surveys, and mobile applications, respectively. Studies commonly stated that participants were asked to use a safe email or device, but the method for verifying such safety was rarely specified. Best practices around safety included creating a ‘quick escape’ button for online data collection to use when another individual was present, explaining to participants how to erase browsing history and application purchases, and asking participants to specify a safe time for researchers to call. Only eight studies established referral pathways for respondents as per best practice. None of the eligible studies took place in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) or humanitarian settings, likely reflecting the additional challenges to using RDC methods in lower resource settings. Findings were used to create a best practice checklist for programme evaluators and Institutional Review Boards using RDC for VAWG interventions. The authors found that opportunities exist for researchers to safely and effectively use RDC methodologies to gather VAWG data, but that further study is needed to gauge the feasibility of these methods in LMICs and humanitarian settings.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Do the New Findings Imply?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote evaluations of violence against women and girls interventions: a rapid scoping review of tools, ethics and safety

et al. 2021

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“…Similarly, reports from China, the United States of America, and several European countries have also shown an increase in IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 12 – 16 ]. Thus, although pandemic response measures are essential, they do not adequately integrate gender protections to address morbidity and mortality from GBV (i.e., there is a lack of gender-sensitive pandemic control measures) [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…South Africa’s legacy of multiple inequalities may also arguably generate a setting ripe for the pandemic restrictions to exacerbate IPV. Thus, managing the relationship between COVID-19 and IPV, requires a careful response to the context and the intersectionalities that magnify the harmful impact of the pandemic restrictions among women in South Africa [ 17 ]. The primary lockdown requirement is confinement to the home, which minimizes opportunities for women to report violence and leave abusers [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

Dekel

Abrahams

2021

PLoS ONE

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Background In April 2020, the United Nations predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a ‘calamitous’ impact on the lives of women. This was based on concerns about an upsurge in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) arising from increased opportunities for relational conflict due to forced co-existence and therefore additional time spent with abusive partners. Aim Research has shown an increase in IPV during times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented circumstances and stress, and opportunities to do research to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on IPV experiences were limited. Thus, the present study aimed to understand women’s experiences of being in and leaving an abusive relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa’s lockdown period. Results Findings reveal that the public health measures implemented by the South African Government to curb the spread of the virus, may have placed vulnerable groups at increased risk of violence. Specifically, lockdown likely magnified the risk for escalation of abuse in families already experiencing IPV prior to COVID-19. The study highlights an IPV and COVID-19 relationship, showing that the gender insensitive pandemic control measures, such as stay at home orders and travel restrictions, likely placed women at risk of increased abuse. Given the recurrency of COVID-19 epidemic waves, attention must be given to gender disparities or many South African women may experience worse outcomes. Conclusion This study reminds us that being ordered to stay at home is not always the safest option for women and thus, in a country with one of the highest levels of GBV, it becomes imperative to ensure that IPV safeguards are integrated into COVID-19 measures. It also becomes evident that COVID-19 requires enhanced ways of responding by paying attention to gender disparities.

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“…Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted minority groups, including racial minorities (Yancy 2020) and religious minorities (Mukherjee 2020), among others. Covid-19 is also syndemic with gender-based violence (GBV), although few measures have been taken to situate GBV responses within the broader response to Covid-19 (ARISE 2020;Stark et al 2020). Thus, as Covid-19 is syndemic, the virus interacts with an array of non-communicable diseases (Horton 2020), and these conditions cluster within social groups that face greater structural inequalities, further driving the syndemic (Singer et al 2017;Mendenhall 2017).…”

Section: Exacerbating the Syndemic: Social Difference Synergistic Vulnerabilities And Inequalities During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Taylor¹,

McCarthy²

2021

IDS Bulletin

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Institute of Development Studies (IDS) delivers world-class research, learning, and teaching that transforms the knowledge, action, and leadership needed for more equitable and sustainable development globally. The IDS Bulletin is an open access, peer-review journal exploring emerging international development challenges. It is published in four issues per year and is the flagship publication of IDS. The IDS Bulletin aims to transform development knowledge through its unique thematic issues developed by global learning partnerships that bridge academic, practice, and policy discourse.

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The syndemic of COVID-19 and gender-based violence in humanitarian settings: leveraging lessons from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Cited by 28 publications

References 8 publications

Remote evaluations of violence against women and girls interventions: a rapid scoping review of tools, ethics and safety

Remote evaluations of violence against women and girls interventions: a rapid scoping review of tools, ethics and safety

‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

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