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Gender-based violence and the nexus: Global lessons from the Syria crisis response for financing, policy and practice, March 2020

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Executive summary

This report aims to contribute to discussions of how the international response to genderbased violence (GBV) in crisis settings can be strengthened through greater alignment and coordination between humanitarian and development funding, policy and delivery mechanisms. It explores how humanitarian and development actors each approach GBV – looking at GBV policy, financing and coordination from both perspectives – as well as the areas of connectivity. The report looks in depth at the regional response to the Syria refugee crisis as an example in which the international response has sought to strengthen the linkages between humanitarian and development approaches and where addressing GBV has been a priority. Here are the key findings of the report.

Neither humanitarian nor development approaches to GBV are fully equipped to address the complex challenges of GBV prevention and response in crisis settings. Although humanitarian policy recognises the need for a holistic approach to GBV prevention, risk mitigation and response, in the context of limited resources, humanitarian agencies prioritise immediate needs such as health and case management services for survivors of rape and sexual violence. Efforts to move toward more holistic, long-term approaches are hindered by humanitarian funding, planning cycles and systems that are poorly suited to this. Development assistance can potentially address a wider range of GBV issues within the context of longer term efforts to empower women, but its focus on GBV is often limited or absent in crisis situations.

Both the level and quality of funding to address GBV in crisis settings is insufficient to address needs and fill gaps in response. GBV is underfunded within humanitarian response, and despite increases in multi-year funding, especially to UN agencies, international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) still lack access to flexible, multi-year funding required for longer term, adaptive programming to address GBV. Although GBV is a growing area of development assistance, this is not being channelled at a sufficient scale to crisis contexts. Many new nexus financing mechanisms do not adequately integrate gender equality in general, and they don’t for GBV in particular. Finally, there continue to be challenges with reliably tracking development and humanitarian finance to GBV in crisis settings, impeding efforts to hold donors accountable to commitments.

The transition from humanitarian delivery of GBV services, dominated by UN agencies and international NGOs, to a development approach is not as simple as shifting to government-led delivery. Although working with the public sector to improve the quality of GBV services across sectors including health, education, law enforcement and justice is crucial, the gap in trust in public services to address women’s protection concerns is massive in many contexts. The prevention and response to GBV requires a strong and ongoing role for non-state actors, especially women-led organisations, in both the short and long term. Furthermore, women’s safe spaces that have offered a model for GBV prevention and response in humanitarian contexts continue to be relevant and should be adapted to development contexts.

In the context of the Syria crisis response, the main focus of efforts to work at the nexus has been for humanitarian action to shift towards a longer term, developmental approach to GBV – not for new humanitarian–development partnerships to be formed. This has been enabled by factors including the increase in multi-year funding, strong partnerships with national women-led organisations, facilitated by progress with localisation, and the capacity of national institutions. Crisis response plans in Jordan and Lebanon have provided entry points to strengthen GBV services for both refugees and host populations; however, if this is to be sustained, more work is needed to strengthen national ownership and shift away from dependence on humanitarian finance. Development finance for GBV is not being mobilised at the scale required to meet this need.

The report makes a number of recommendations for strengthening responses to GBV in crisis by enhancing nexus approaches.

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