Gender Working Group Projects

• EVIDENCE-BASED MEASURES OF EMPOWERMENT FOR RESEARCH ON GENDER EQUALITY (EMERGE)

  Contact: emerge@ucsd.edu; Anita Raj: anitaraj@health.ucsd.edu

  Institution: Center on Gender Equity and Health, UCSD

  Website: http://emerge.ucsd.edu/covid-19/

  Description: The EMERGE platform has hand-selected, adapted, and developed evidence-based measures for surveys on COVID-19 and Gender. We have survey modules on a number of topics including agency, social support, partner violence, digital connectivity and migration. We are working in partnership with other organizations to use/adapt these measures to further understand their utility and findings in the field.

  Twitter: @GEH_UCSD

• HOW IS THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK AFFECTING THE DAILY LIVES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN INDONESIA?

  Contact: Nuzulul Putri, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia, nuzululkusuma@fkm.unair.ac.id 

  Description: This study analyzed how the coronavirus outbreak affects the daily lives of university students. We strive to identify what is the impact of the Pandemics and policies related to this pandemic on the development of university students both as academicians and human beings.

• RESPONSE STRATEGIES FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES: A RAPID EVIDENCE ASSESSMENT AND SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

  Contact: Alexa Yakubovich, University of Toronto, alexa.yakubovich@utoronto.ca

  Institutions: Technical University of Munich, University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University, St Michael’s Hospital

  Website: https://osf.io/8hkfd/

  Description: Reviewing evaluative evidence on gender-based interventions implemented in response to previous public health emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic.

• EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS DURING THE GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

  Contact: Eliane Lakam 

  Institution: Georgetown University

  Website: https://giwps.georgetown.edu/at-the-intersection-of-vulnerabilities-women-and-girls-experiencing-homelessness-during-the-global-coronavirus-pandemic/ 

  Twitter: @ElianeLakam

• GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOURS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

  Contact: Dr Naomi Pfitzner, Associate Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor Jacqui True

  Website: https://www.monash.edu/arts/gender-and-family-violence/research-projects/covid-19-and-gender-based-violence 

  Description: This research will help us to understand women’s experiences of violence and help-seeking under the COVID-19 restrictions as well as the impact on health and social care workers who provide support during this time. We will share the results widely to help governments and other organisations understand what women experiencing violence need now and to prepare for the future.

  Twitter: @MonashGFV

• COVID-19 IN GAZA: COMMUNITY PRACTICES IN REFUGEE CAMPS

  Contact: Caitlin Procter, European University Institute, caitlin.procter@eui.eu (lead researcher)

  Institutions: University of Bath/European University Institute/UNRWA

  Website: https://www.elrha.org/project/covid-19-in-gaza-community-practices-in-refugee-camps/

  Twitter: @ELRHA

• KUKAA SALAMA (STAYING SAFE): A PRE-POST TRIAL OF A WHATSAPP SOCIAL GROUP FOR INCREASING COVID-19 PREVENTION PRACTICES WITH URBAN REFUGEE AND DISPLACED YOUTH IN KAMPALA, UGANDA

  Contact: Carmen Logie, University of Toronto, carmen.logie@utoronto.ca 

  Website: https://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/decisions/p/project_details.html?applId=430197&lang=en 

  Description: We address knowledge gaps regarding COVID-19 prevention in humanitarian contexts. We focus on urban refugee/displaced youth in Uganda, where 1.4 million refugees are hosted-Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest refugee hosting nation and the 3rd largest globally. We will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a WhatsApp social group intervention in increasing COVID-19 prevention practices (hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing) among an existing CIHR Project Grant cohort of urban refugee/displaced youth aged 16-24 living in informal settlements in Kampala. 
  Twitter: @carmenlogie

• GENDERING THE UK’S SOCIAL POLICY RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS

  Contact: Rose Cook, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, King’s College London, rose.cook@kcl.ac.uk 

  Description: This project provides a comprehensive assessment of whether the UK’s social policy response to COVID-19 is gender-sensitive, gender-blind or gender-neutral in its design, access and impacts. We will gather information on global social policy responses and how gender-sensitive they are, compiling this in a Policy Tracker to enable learning from other countries and broaden the scope of existing comparisons focusing on global public health and fiscal responses. The project will further examine the extent to which different demographic groups and household types have accessed government support, and examine the relationship between different countries’ policy packages and longer term gender inequalities.

• PREGNANCY RESEARCH ETHICS FOR VACCINES, EPIDEMICS & NEW TECHNOLOGIES (PREVENT)

  Institution: Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

  Website: http://vax.pregnancyethics.org

  Description: The PREVENT Guidance provides a roadmap for the ethically responsible, socially just, and respectful inclusion of the interests of pregnant women in the development and deployment of vaccines against emerging pathogens.

  Twitter: @pregnancyethics

• COVID-19 AND GBV IN SIX COUNTRIES

  Institution: Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University

  Website: https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/academics/departments/population-family-health 

  Description: This mixed methods work examines the impact of COVID-19 public health measures on GBV service provision in six countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, United States, and Colombia).

• IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON WOMEN MIGRANT AND REFUGEES’ VULNERABILITY TO SGBV IN EUROPE AND CANADA

  Contact: Jane Freedman, Universite de Paris 8 CRESPPA-GTM (Centre de recherches sociologiques et politiques de Paris-Genre, Travail, Mobilités/Center for Sociological and Political Research of Paris-Gender, Work, Mobility)

  Description: Research on impacts of Covid-19 on refugee and migrant women in South Africa

   

• GBV RISK MITIGATION IN HUMANITARIAN CRISES DURING COVID-19

  Institutions: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, UNICEF, CARE, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

  Website: https://www.elrha.org/project/gbv-risk-mitigation-in-humanitarian-crises-during-covid-19/ 

  Description: This mixed methods research study examines GBV risk mitigation in humanitarian settings in the context of COVID-19 with a focus on how non-protection sectors are using and adapting existing GBV risk mitigation guidance and tools into COVID-19 response.

• ONGOING RESEARCH FOR A BOOK CHAPTER: “STUDYING MEN AND MASCULINITIES IN GLOBAL CRISES: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON COVID-19 ‘LOCKDOWN MASCULINITIES’ IN UGANDA”

  Contact: Mwiine Amon Ashaba, School of Women & Gender Studies, Makerere University, amonmwiine@gmail.com 

• ANALYSIS ON THE IMMEDIATE AND LONGER-TERM IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON WOMEN AND GIRLS

  Institution: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security

  Website: https://giwps.georgetown.edu/priority/covid-19/

  Description: The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security is providing expert analysis on the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls, and developing policy and program responses. Examples of our research and thought leadership can be found below. Please visit our Resource Center for a comprehensive list of academic articles, policy briefs, and reports related to WPS and COVID-19 published by GIWPS and our partners. We are also finding innovative ways to share the stories of women on the frontlines of the pandemic, highlighting their needs and their proposed solutions. We invite you to explore our new initiative, Stories from the Frontlines: Women Peacebuilders in the Pandemic: https://giwps.georgetown.edu/covid19/ 

• CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT COVID-19 WORK

  Website: https://www.cgdev.org/topics/coronavirus 

  Twitter: @CGDev

   

• RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND GENDER DISPARITIES AMONG A COVID-19 HYPERTENSIVE POPULATION (REACT)

  Contact: Pavitra Kotini-Shah, University of Illinois at Chicago.

• GENDER DIFFERENCES IN WORK-LIFE BALANCE, PRODUCTIVITY AND COPING STRATEGIES DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC

  Contact: Pavitra Kotini-Shah, University of Illinois at Chicago.

• GLOBAL NURSE MIGRATION PATHWAYS

  Contact: Margaret Walton-Roberts, Wilfrid Laurier University

  Website: https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-arts/faculty-profiles/margaret-walton-roberts/global-nurse-migration-pathways/index.html

• HARVARD GENDERSCI LAB COVID PROJECT

  Contact: genderscilab@fas.harvard.edu 

  Institution: Harvard University

  Website: https://www.genderscilab.org/blog/covid-intro
  

  Description: The GenderSci Lab’s COVID Project is pursuing multiple lines of research and outreach to address the challenge of gender/sex disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. We focus on understanding gender as an interactional variable that contributes to COVID outcomes within and between age groups, by race/ethnicity, and by comorbidities. Our current projects include hosting a comprehensive database for tracking gender/sex disparities in US state COVID cases and deaths over time, the release of a US State COVID Report Card, a Media Communication Guide, and many other ongoing projects.

• RESPONDING TO THE SHADOW PANDEMIC IN AUSTRALIA

  Institution: Monash University
  

  Description: We have led a rapid program of research since March 2020 critically examining and documenting the impact of the COVID-19 global health pandemic on women’s experiences of violence and policy and practice responses to them. Between March and July 2020, we delivered the first national evidence on how the pandemic has impacted experiences of and responses to family and domestic violence in Australia. The first stage of this research program was an anonymous survey conducted from April-May 2020: 166 Victorian practitioners supporting women experiencing violence during this period participated. The second stage of the research involved the analysis of a survey data set shared with the Monash team by the Queensland Domestic Violence Services Network (QDVSN). As well as building the evidence base on the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on women’s experiences of violence and practitioner responses to women reporting violence, the research team has been working in three other areas: informing policy, practice and community awareness of the impact of the pandemic on temporary migrants experiencing family violence; building new understandings of the impact of remote service delivery on practitioner well-being; increasing awareness of the critical role of bystanders during the period of the COVID-19 restrictions.
  Links:
  Gender-based violence and help-seeking behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic
  Violence against women during COVID-19

• GENDERED IMPACTS OF COVID 19: MAPPING THE IMPACT ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS PRACTITIONERS

  Institution: Monash University
  

  Website: https://www.monash.edu/arts/gender-peace-security/gendered-impacts-of-covid19

• NEGOTIATING HEALTH – SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS IN ELDER CARE DURING THE PANDEMIC IN THE NETHERLANDS

  Contact: Petra Verdonk, AmsterdamUMC, p.verdonk@amsterdamumc.nl

  Twitter: @petraverdonk

• DO MEN AND WOMEN “LOCKDOWN” DIFFERENTLY? AN EXAMINATION OF PANAMA’S COVID-19 SEX-SEGREGATED SOCIAL DISTANCING POLICY

  Contact: Clare Wenham, c.wenham@lse.ac.uk & Liana Woskie

  Institutions: Harvard Global Health Institute & London School of Economics

  Description: Curtailment of mobility, through policies such as state-enforced lockdowns, is a primary strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19. Through a retrospective analysis of GPS data, we present an overview of aggregate mobility in Panama following the country’s implementation of a sex-segregated social distancing policy. The paper looks at mobility trends on female- and male-mobility days, examining differences by volume of movement. We find lower visits to all location categories, including groceries and pharmacies, on female-mobility days. This work has implications for understanding COVID-19’s spillover on freedom of movement, healthcare utilization and women’s access to basic resources.

• A SCORECARD TO INFORM HEALTH POLICY: ASSESSING RISK & ENSURING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS DURING COVID-19

  Contact: Liana Woskie, lwoskie@gmail.com & Clare Wenham, c.wenham@lse.ac.uk

  Institution: London School of Economics

  Description: Prior epidemics have shown that harm resulting from sequalae can, if unchecked, overshadow the harm caused by an infectious disease itself.  We are developing a risk scorecard at the intersection of epidemic disease and reproductive health, by posing the following questions: 1.) Which metrics are most relevant for policymakers to track in order to mitigate family planning spillover? 2.) Where are “hot spots” of risk likely occurring based on historical performance? 3.) Where is risk developing in real-time as a result of increased social isolation? 

• EARLY IMPACT OF INDIA’S NATIONWIDE LOCKDOWN ON AGGREGATE POPULATION MOBILITY AND COVID-19 CASE GROWTH

  Contact: Liana Woskie, lwoskie@gmail.com

  Institution: Harvard Global Health Institute

  Description: India’s nation-wide lockdown, which commenced in March, was the largest social distancing policy in the world. We analyze the policy’s impact on mobility across all states. Using these results, we explore the relationship with COVID-19 case growth over time. We find that while the policy was effective in its initial goals, success (in terms of decreased mobility) has had implications for women’s safety and ability to access services. During this same period, for example, reports to the National Commission for Women, show a twofold increase in gender-based violence.

   

• COVID-GBV TRACKER

  Contact: info@gendersecurityproject.com

  Description: The COVID-GBV Tracker was set up to draw up a comprehensive dataset on the rising number of instances of gender-based violence across the spectrum during the lockdown in many countries in the world. The initiative is calling for organizations that have been working with survivors of gender-based violence during COVID-19 lockdowns to share data. While an important and necessary measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the lockdown has proven to serve as an enabling environment for several forms of gender-based violence to manifest: be it domestic violence, violence targeting sexual minorities, or child sexual abuse and a host of other forms. This website serves as a tracker that curates data and information documenting the rise in gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributors can choose between a short survey and a long survey. The short survey will take no more than 5 minutes to fill, the longer survey is more detailed and may take 30-45 minutes. 
  Links:
  Gender Security Project
  Short survey
  Detailed survey

   

• THE NEXUS BETWEEN THE POLITICAL-ECONOMIC FACET AS WITH COVID-19 PANDEMIC

  Contact: Nigel Mxolisi Landa, Great Zimbabwe University, nlanda@gzu.ac.zw

  Description: My project is a gender/sexuality project on the effects of covid-19 on the community members of Masvingo, Zimbabwe. The events that led to my interest in this topic were inspired by historical shift in political-economic shaping and agency of Zimbabwe’s future under covid-19. Therefore, my on-going research seeks to collate the lived realities of men and women during a dual crisis of endemic poverty and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The working research seeks to unpack the interplay of femininities and masculinities and its relationship with covid-19 and state/ government repression.
  Twitter: @nigel_landa

• GENDERED IMPACT OF COVID-19 AMONG ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT MEN AND WOMEN IN NAIROBI, KENYA   

  Contact: Michele Decker Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, mdecker@jhu.edu

• IMPACT OF SEX AND GENDER ON COVID-19 OUTCOMES: ROLE OF ACE-2, TMPRSS2, AND GENDER-SPECIFIC RISK FACTORS

  Contact: Gebhard Catherine

  Website: http://p3.snf.ch/project-196140

  Description: Gender disparities observed in COVID-19 vulnerability clearly emphasize the need to understand the impact of sex and gender on incidence and case fatality of the disease so that timely treatment in highly vulnerable demographic groups can be tailored to their specific needs. The proposed project will combine clinical data from ongoing cohort studies with experimental work in mice. This strategy allows rapid analysis of data and implementation of results. Our work will identify both, sex- and gender-related predictors of severe variants of COVID-19 and has the potential to identify effective therapeutic interventions. We aim to analyse the available clinical and epidemiological data to confirm a reduced susceptibility of women towards COVID-19. We will clarify protective mechanisms in females by assessing clinical variables and verifying cellular and molecular key pathways in a murine model of sex hormone withdrawal, where tissue samples are already available.

   

• OPERATION 50/50

  Website: https://www.womeningh.org/operation-50-50

  Description: In response to the lack of female leadership in initial COVID-19 responses, Women in Global Health launched Operation 50/50. In partnership with Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, Women in Global Health is working to change this disconnect by compiling a list of expert women who are working to strengthen global, regional, national, and local capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks.

   

• POLITICAL AND GENDER ANALYSIS OF SPEECHES MADE BY HEADS OF GOVERNMENT REGARDING COVID-19

  Contact: Sara Dada, saradada@bellsouth.net

  Organization: Women in Global Health

• GENDER NORMS AND THE CORONAVIRUS

  Contact: Emily Subden, e.subden@odi.org.uk

  Organization: ALIGN

  Website: https://www.alignplatform.org/gender-norms-and-coronavirus  

  Description: The ALIGN (advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms) team is currently analysing what leads to shifts in gender norms both during and after crises to enhance knowledge and innovation among its community. The ALIGN platform has a Covid-19 and gender norms hub which collates and categorises research and news from around the world. Categories include domestic labour, education, gender-based violence, intersectionality, masculinities, mental health, political voice and work/livelihoods.
  Twitter: @ALIGN_Gender

• DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND COVID-19 RESPONSE FUND

  Organization: The Womanity Foundation

  Website: https://womanityagainstviolence.org

  Description: Domestic Violence and Covid-19 Response Fund supports six women’s organisations that are working on prevention of domestic violence in four continents. They are doing an online fundraising campaign for these organisations.

• FEMICIDE DURING THE LOCKDOWN IN PORTUGAL: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH PREVIOUS YEARS

  Contact: Catia Pontedeira: oma.umar@sapo.pt

• COVID-19 EXPERT DATABASE

  Contact: Nat Gyenes, nat@meedan.com

  Organization: Digital Health Lab

  Website: https://learnaboutcovid19.org/ 

  Description: Our Health Expert Database team is providing fact-checking organizations and local newsrooms on-demand contextualizations of the latest science based on the topics they are communicating to their audiences. Our focus is on COVID-19 misinformation, misinformation related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, under-represented health issues, and supporting queer communities.

  Twitter: @meedan

• UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIORAL BARRIERS TO DEMAND FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SERVICES

  Contact: Maria Micaela Sviatschi, msviatschi@princeton.edu

  Website: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/6038 

  Description: With DV rates rising sharply during COVID-19, an important question from a policy perspective is arising: What can be done to help DV survivors in the era of this pandemic? There are many barriers that keep DV victims from reporting abuse or leaving relationships; in this project, we will focus on four important barriers: lack of resources and information, low self-esteem and shame, self-blame, and incorrect beliefs about what abuse looks like. We aim to test four interventions that are likely to determine pathways to aid victims of DV during the current pandemic and future mandated stay at home orders: our interventions target information constraints, belief constraints, and barriers to reporting such as victim self-blaming. We test these by creating a novel data collection protocol for online samples, validating the data collection process, and testing the effects of the intervention itself. 

   

• HELPING FAMILIES HELP THEMSELVES DURING STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS: EFFECTS OF A MOBILE PHONE INTERVENTION TO ADDRESS CHILD MALTREATMENT AND VIOLENT PARENT-CHILD INTERACTIONS

  Contact: Santiago Perez Vincent, SANTIAGOPER@iadb.org

  Website: https://www.coronavirusandtheeconomy.com/ongoing-research/helping-families-help-themselves-during-stay-home-orders-effects-mobile-phone  

  Description: Lockdown measures imposed throughout the world to contain the spread of the Covid-19 have drastically changed household dynamics. The stay-at-home orders, together with the temporary closure of schools and the change to virtual education schemes, have increased the time children are at home, generating new and higher demands on parents that can lead to stress and intrafamily conflict. We evaluate an intervention on parental stress management and positive discipline delivered via mobile phone to caregivers of children in the context of El salvador’s Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. Using an rct design, we will assess the causal impact of this intervention on stress, parent-child interaction, and attitudes towards child maltreatment and neglect. The intervention, based on material previously used for in-person programs, will be delivered in an easily scalable, and digital format. The evidence of its efficacy will provide critical insights into how to support families during and after confinement periods to reduce stress and conflict, seeking to avoid their potential lasting effects on children’s development.

• CAREMONGERING: EXPLORING COMMUNITY-BASED, CARING RESPONSES TO A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

  Contact: Amy Kipp, Project Coordinator, akipp@uoguelph.ca

  Institution: University of Guelph, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences

  Description: The purpose of this research is to explore the ways in which CareMongering, a social movement started in Canada, is operating as a community-based response to COVID-19 and the people, activities, and processes involved in this movement. The aim of this research is to examine how CareMongering functions in practice as a countermeasure to the socioeconomic and health vulnerabilities that COVID-19 has exacerbated. Future plans for this research include exploring the ways in which individuals’ subjectivities (such as gender and race) influence their lived experiences of CareMongering.

• THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE SERVICES, AUSTRALIA

  Contact: Professor Kerry Carrington (@CarringtonKL), Dr Bridget Harris (@DrBridgetHarris), Dr Laura Vitis (@Lvitis1), Associate Professor Matthew Ball (@Dr_Matt_Ball), Professor Christina Morley, Dr Jo Clarke, Dr Shane Warren

  Institution: Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology

• COVID-19 GLOBAL EDUCATION COALITION

  Institution: UNESCO 

  Website: https://globaleducationcoalition.unesco.org/home/flagships/gender-equality 

  Description: UNESCO has established a COVID-19 Global Education Coalition, with a Gender Flagship which aims to highlight and address the gender dimensions of the COVID-19 school crisis and safeguard progress made on gender equality in education in recent decades. The Flagship focuses on:
  – Understanding and addressing possible gender gaps in the engagement with, and learning outcomes from, distance learning opportunities during school closures
  – Addressing the cross-cutting health, protection, nutrition and education issues linked to disease outbreaks that negatively impact on girls’ and boys’ continuity of learning and return to school
  – Making sure that boys and girls are re-enrolled in school and education programmes after the confinement has ended and that potential learning gaps are closed
  – Building back better, strengthening education systems to be gender-transformative, more equitable and more resilient based on lessons learned from COVID-19.

• THE GENDERED IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN THE UK

  Contact: Nina Regenold, nina.regenold.19@ucl.ac.uk

  Institution: University College London

  Website: https://www.rapidresearchandevaluation.com/

  Description: Using an intersectional gender lens to analyze qualitative data on healthcare workers’ experiences during COVID-19 collected as part of a larger COVID-19 project conducted by the Rapid Research, Evaluation and Appraisal Lab (RREAL) at University College London.

  Twitter: @NinaRegenold

• BIRTH BEYOND BARS: ASSESSING CAREGIVER AND INFANT NEEDS;" INSTITUTIONS: HARVARD CENTER FOR MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH EXCELLENCE AND MOTHERHOOD BEYOND BARS

  Contact: Jenna Sherman, jsherman@hsph.harvard.edu

  Institutions: Harvard Center for Maternal and Child Health Excellence and Motherhood Beyond Bars

  Description: This study will be the first to longitudinally assess how characteristics and quality of non-maternal. 

• EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MASCULINITIES, MEN AND POST-COITAL PREGNANCY AVOIDANCE

  Contact: Joe Strong

  Website: https://www.masculinitiesproject.org/

  Description: A mixed-methods project focusing on constructions of masculinities and the relationships between these and emergency contraception and abortion [post-coital pregnancy avoidance]. The sample – men aged over 18 in Accra, Ghana – are also asked the impact on COVID on their wellbeing, work, sexualities and relationships. 

  Twitter: @JoeStrongDemog

• COVID19 AND IMPACT ON WOMEN

  Organization: Breakthrough

  Website: https://inbreakthrough.org/covid19-and-impact-on-women/

  Description: Breakthrough continues to work on domestic violence even in the middle of the lockdown. We are

  • Sharing and highlighting helpline numbers for intimate violence/domestic violence survivors
  • Highlighting ways that community members can act as responsible bystanders towards domestic violence in the middle of a lockdown
  • Coordinating and collectivising with organisations that work on domestic violence in order to assess the situation and collate demands to present to the government to strengthen the state response towards domestic violence
  • Hosting critical talks and town-halls to understand and find a solution to the rise of such cases and what can be done in the future
• TRANS PULSE CANADA COVID COHORT

  Contact: info@transpulsecanada.ca

  Organization: Trans PULSE Canada Project

  Website: https://transpulsecanada.ca

  Description: Community-based study of trans and non-binary people in Canada to characterize experiences of COVID-19; compare access to testing, care, and protections to the Canadian general population; and assess changes in mental health, substance use, and health care among Trans PULSE Canada participants since our 2019 pre-pandemic data collection.

  Twitter: @transpulseCA

• HEAR HER VOICE: COVID-19 STORIES: GIRLS' LIVES UNDER LOCKDOWN

  Contact: Isabel Quilter, isabel.quilter@girleffect.org

  Organization: Girl Effect

  Website: https://voices.girleffect.org/

  Description: TEGA is Girl Effect’s girl-operated digital research tool to uncover unique insights into girls lives by allowing girls to collect close to real-time insights into the lives of their peers. Girls aged 18-24 are empowered and trained using a bespoke mobile app to become Market Research Society (MRS) qualified researchers and TEGAs.

  TEGAs collect real-time insights into the lives of their peers and within their own communities that are instantly available for analysis – a unique approach that unlocks the open and honest conversations that occur between girls and women that might otherwise be lost or not included when collecting data in traditional ways. They conduct formative research, test content to ensure relevancy with the target audience and conduct monitoring and evaluation. TEGA integrates technology that can operate in places with poor network connection across multiple languages.

  Through the Hear Her Voice project, 25 TEGAs in 5 countries have turned the cameras on themselves. Each week, new diary entries will be added from the TEGAs reporting on their experiences living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

• COSAS DE MUJERES (A USE CASE OF GENDER DATA KIT) IN CÚCUTA AND CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA

  Contact: Julia Zulver, julia@ladysmithcollective.com

  Organization: Ladysmith

  Description: Cosas de Mujeres is an information platform that leverages Whatsapp to provide Venezuelan and Colombian women with free information about the services that prevent and respond to gender-based violence that they can access in the context of mass migration and armed conflict. It also generates anonymous gender data about women’s lived experiences of violence, which we analyse and feed back to state and international GBV-service providers. We are adapting the project to the Covid context, in which we have seen an increase in IPV and a reduction in available services during lockdown.

• COVID-19 AND WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY DATABASE

  Contact: Nikou Salamat, nikou@gnwp.org; Dinah Lakehal,  dinah@gnwp.org

  Organization: Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)

  Description: Across the world, the global COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the security of women and girls. Despite the calls for a global ceasefire, evidence shows that impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been further exacerbated in contexts of armed conflict, ongoing violence, and humanitarian emergencies. This underscores the need for gender-responsive and conflict-sensitive responses to the crisis. Such response requires reliable, evidence-based, and locally led research and analysis to provide data and policy recommendations that would inform adequate responses. Women and youth peacebuilders are at the forefront of the COVID-19 response efforts in local communities. However, while there has been a recognition of the importance of sex-disaggregated data on the COVID-19 crisis, systematic documentation of the crisis’ impact on conflict-affected women, women peacebuilders, and their contributions to response and recovery has been missing, unrecognized and unsupported.

  The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) is developing a COVID-19 and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) database and dashboard. The database will document (1) impacts of COVID-19 on women’s rights, gender equality and women-led peacebuilding in conflict-affected communities; (2) impacts of COVID-19 on peace and security situation, including ceasefires, peace processes and implementation of peace agreements; and (3) initiatives taken by women peacebuilders to address the impacts of COVID-19. The information and insights generated from the database will be made accessible and automatically translatable online through an interactive dashboard for use as a resource for advocacy by civil society; and as a reference by UN, and government policy makers and practitioners.

  Twitter: @GNWP_GNWP

• FAROL (LIGHTHOUSE, IN ENGLISH) - ACTION TOOLS AND TRAINING REFERENCE GUIDE AIMING TO SUPPORT A LIFE FREE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

  Contact: Dalia Costa, daliacosta@iscsp.ulisboa.pt

  Institution: Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (CIEG) at Social and Political Sciences High Institute (Lisbon University) 

  Description: This project seeks to develop tools and instruments for preventing, responding to and combating violence against women and domestic violence in crisis and disaster contexts; and to contribute to the improvement of state and society responses to violence against women and domestic violence.

  The main objective of FAROL is to analyse: (i) strategies, measures, actions and models of intervention that are emerging (innovative) and adapted (suitable) to a crisis situation, for 1 year (11/3/20 to 11/3/21), although the Project has 10 months; and (ii) the tools developed and empirically tested.

  In a nationwide participatory research, with 3 samples, selected by simple random sampling (i) of the Partnership formed in Portugal to support women victims of domestic violence (ii) of Municipalities with community service(s) to support domestic violence victims; and (iii) Municipalities without community service(s) to support domestic violence victims.

  The project also intends to diagnose training needs as a basis to develop a training reference guide.

   

• THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GENDER EQUALITY POLICIES AND STRATEGIES IN TOURISM ORGANISATIONS: A PRAGMATIC MULTI-PHASE, MULTI-METHOD AND MULTI-CASE APPROACH

  Contact: Jess Sanggyeong, jesssanggyeong.je@griffithuni.edu.au

  Institution: Griffith University

  Description: To date, we not only do not have a systematic list of these recommendations, but we also do not know how far the proposed recommendations have been effectively implemented in the tourism industry. This study aims to identify the effectiveness of gender equality policies and strategies in large public tourism companies, taking into consideration of major organisational actors, the internal and external environment factors.

• LOCKDOWN, GIRLS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

  Contact: Sarah Metcalfe, sarah.n.metcalfe@durham.ac.uk

  Institution: Durham University

  Websites: http://tiny.cc/MHOpenLetter http://tiny.cc/GirlsLockdownActivity

  Description: This project, led by Dr Sarah Metcalfe from Durham University, involved an online qualitative survey of 509 girls aged 10-20 in England and Scotland about their experiences of being active during lockdown; with a particular focus on how they have experienced their body. The results showed that 40% of girls had increased their physical activity during lockdown, and this 40% were also those that were least active prior to lockdown. Furthermore, many girls expressed that they had enjoyed being active for the first time and had experienced the positive physical and mental health benefits from being active. One of the key reasons identified as increasing physical activity was the role of the UK government\’s messaging about the importance of daily exercise – many girls outlined that this messaging increased the value of exercise and made it important in their lives. Following this project, I have written an open letter, signed by myself, Youth Sport Trust, Sported and Women in Sport – to Matt Hancock to appeal to the government to reintroduce daily positive messaging about physical activity.

• RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 DOMESTIC ABUSE CRISIS: DEVELOPING A RAPID POLICE EVIDENCE BASE

  Contact: Katrin Hohl, City University of London; Kelly Johnson, Durham University

  Institutions: City University of London, Durham University

  Description: The project provides a near real-time evidence base to inform the police approach to the apparent surge in domestic violence and abuse (DA) triggered by the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK.

  Police case file data from seven diverse police forces are pooled to track the impact of the pandemic on DA, analysing changes in the risk factors, frequency, nature and profile of DA reported to police. These changes are mapped closely to shifts in the restrictions imposed during lockdown, transitional phases and post lockdown, when DA calls to police are expected to spike. The proposed study is the largest and most rigorous analysis of police DA case file data conducted anywhere in the world to date.

  The statistical analysis is complemented by regular focused semi-structured phone interviews with police officers, to identify emerging challenges and best practice in the frontline response to DA. The mixed-methods study addresses urgent questions on the impact of Covid-19 on DA, which may have significant implications for the complex task of accurate police risk assessment, victim safeguarding, and criminal prosecution as the Covid-19 pandemic evolves.

  The Home Office, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), and College of Policing (CoP) are project partners and constitute direct links to critical decision-makers and provide direct routes to impact. A timely and evidence-based development of a police strategy is urgently needed to address the emerging DA crisis and its devastating, long-lasting consequences for victims and their children.

• COVID-19 IMPACT ON PREGNANT WOMEN IN ETHIOPIA: UNDERSTANDING UNMET NEEDS FOR A VULNERABLE SUB-POPULATION

  Contact: Shannon Wood, swood@jhu.edu

  Institution: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  Description: Evidence from previous epidemics and preliminary reporting from COVID-19 indicates the potential of the coronavirus pandemic to exacerbate gender inequities, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and access to support services. Pregnant women are a critical sub-population to assess and respond to IPV given health impact to mother and baby, and potential interactions with healthcare providers. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative data, this project aims to understand how COVID-19 impacts IPV and women’s resource and referral needs among a cohort of recently pregnant Ethiopian women.

• GENDER BASED DIMENSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES OF FEMALE COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS: A MULTI-COUNTRY QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION

  Contact: Ateeb Ahmad Parray, ahmad.ateeb101@gmail.com

  Website: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Gender-based-dimensions-and-perspectives-of-female-community-health-workers-A-multi-country-qualitative-exploration

  Description: This project aims to explore the gender-based dimensions of female community health workers (CHWs) and their perspectives on working in health sector. It will explore female CHWs motivation to work in health sector, their positionality, gender-based discrimination, their experiences while working in hard-t-reach areas and the challenges they face. It will also explore the acceptability of CHWs in the community and their organizational hierarchy. We will conduct phone interviews with selected CHWs from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Philippines.