26 Jun, 2025

Across humanitarian settings, the consequences of recent funding cuts are reverberating through every cluster — from health to food security, education to shelter. Yet among the most severely impacted are gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services. According to OCHA1 , GBV is now globally the second mostaffected humanitarian cluster by funding reductions. The first is the health cluster- who as providers of Clinical Management of Rape, are critical to GBV response services. As a result, life-saving services are closing across crisis-affected regions, particularly in the Arab States, leaving millions of women and girls without protection, care, or recourse. This is not just a funding challenge. It is a fundamental protection crisis. The erosion of GBV services undermines humanitarian effectiveness, reverses progress on gender equality and signals an unacceptable retreat from our shared commitments to principled, accountable response, as enshrined in international human...

26 Jun, 2025

Around the world, efforts to advance gender equality and combat gender-based violence (GBV) are facing intensified resistance. A global wave of rising conservatism, backlash against women’s rights, and shrinking civic space is threatening decades of hard-won progress. This trend is not confined to any one region—it is unfolding across continents, in both conflictaffected and stable settings alike. The Arab States region has not been spared. Across the region, the discourse surrounding GBV and gender equality is increasingly constrained. Political instability, growing conservatism, and further restrictions on civil society have placed significant pressure on women’s rights organizations, activists, and service providers. These challenges undermine both policy advocacy and the delivery of life-saving services to GBV survivors. Yet despite these obstacles, organizations, agencies, and advocates continue to adapt and persevere—developing contextspecific, resilient, and often innovative str...

03 Jul, 2025

This learning brief aims to give a concise, user-friendly summary of key considerations for ensuring that integrated service points – such as community centers and One-Stop Centers (OSCs) – are safe and supportive for women and girls at risk of or exposed to gender-based violence (GBV). The brief begins with a review of what an integrated service delivery model entails. It then considers some of the foundational principles and approaches to providing integrated services and support and concludes with a summary list of key considerations for working with women and girls through integrated modalities.

03 Jul, 2025

This annotated bibliography looks at the existing resources available for understanding and responding to the kidnapping / abduction of women and girls in West and Central Africa, specifically relating to the Burkina Faso context. Literature and resources were reviewed to gather information on: - The types of kidnap / abduction that women and girls face - What can be learned about potential avenues for GBV risk mitigation relating to abduction - What lessons have been learned about how to prevent abduction of women and girls and / or support victims of abduction on their return.

03 Jul, 2025

This evidence digest examines available documentation on three main issues: 1) whether and how targeted school-based GBV prevention and response initiatives can reduce boys’ perpetration of violence, in the present and into adulthood; 2) whether and how targeted school-based GBV prevention and response initiatives can decrease exposure to violence for girls, both in the short and long term; and 3) any evidence of improvements in educational outcomes for children who participate in school-based GBV prevention and response programs. The research is presented in the form of an annotated bibliography that is organized in three main sections according to these topics. Each section begins with an overall summary of the findings for the specific topic, followed by the bibliographic entries presented alphabetically by author. The bibliography comprises the results of a preliminary online desk review of research published globally over the past 15 years, with particular attention to case stu...

03 Jul, 2025

This annotated bibliography provides an overview of resources relating to children born of rape, by building on a previous GBV AoR Helpdesk resource list on caring for children born of rape (2018) - and accompanying drop box repository of documents, which sought to identify examples of strategies, practical tools, etc. related to caring for children born out of rape. This bibliography compiles an updated list of resources given the literature on this subject has expanded since the previous publication. This report is structured according to resource type with sub-focus on country specific resources and evidence where these were identified.

09 Apr, 2024

This guidance note offers an introduction to how disasters are likely to increase as a result of climate change and the disproprotionate effect they have on women, particularly in terms of increasing their vulnerability to GBV. It highlights lessons from disasters in Asia and Pacific region on how to improve GBV preparedness, response and recovery.