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Add to Preferred SourcesAround the world, as governments implement lockdowns and movement restrictions, women’s centres and safe spaces are closing their doors, even as evidence mounts that gender-based violence may be increasing.
Countries are also seeing their reproductive health services being curbed as resources are diverted to the pandemic response. Where reproductive health care remains available, movement restrictions and fears of the virus are keeping women from seeking care.
Communities afflicted by humanitarian crises are particularly imperilled by these conditions. Many are already struggling with poverty and limited access to health services. Infection-control measures are even harder to implement in densely packed settlements with limited water and sanitation resources.
These challenges are greatly exacerbated for women who are pregnant, require family planning supplies or need protection from violence.
In Jordan, where nearly 400 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, a curfew has been imposed to slow transmission of the virus.
That has been an added hardship in Azraq Camp, where an average of seven people are crowded into each “caravan”, or prefabricated shelter. Shop owners are struggling to import essential food items and commodities, and livelihood options are scant with people sheltering at home. Families are facing increasingly difficult choices as they try to put food on their tables.
The camp’s safe spaces for women and girls, run by the International Rescue Committee with support from UNFPA, have been closed.
In humanitarian situations, women’s vulnerability to violence and exploitation escalates. And even before the pandemic, hundreds of women and girls in humanitarian and fragile settings died each day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Now, as health systems and protection services are stressed by the pandemic, conditions for women are poised to worsen.
UNFPA has urgently called for funding to the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, with a requirement of $120 million for UNFPA to ensure the health and safety of women and girls affected by humanitarian crises. In addition, UNFPA has appealed for $67.5 million to support COVID-19 preparedness efforts through March and April.
UNFPA has urgently called for funding to the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, with a requirement of $120 million for UNFPA to ensure the health and safety of women and girls affected by humanitarian crises. In addition, UNFPA has appealed for $67.5 million to support COVID-19 preparedness efforts through March and April.
Original source: UNFPA
Published on 16 April 2020