Supporting survivors of gender-based violence during humanitarian emergencies

Around the world today, prolonged and intense conflicts are driving an alarming rise in violence against women and girls. Mass displacement along with breakdowns of law and order, economic and food insecurity and disruptions in services increase risks of all forms of gender-based violence, especially sexual and intimate partner violence. In several conflicts, sexual violence is also targeted at women and girls as a tactic of terrorizing and humiliating the opposing side.

Gender-based violence can have profound, long-lasting physical and mental health impacts and timely access to health services is essential - making comprehensive, survivor-centred care critical. Health workers are often the first - and sometimes the only - point of contact for survivors. Yet, during humanitarian emergencies, damaged infrastructure, limited mobility, experience of stigma and lack of trained health workers often make it extremely difficult to access support.

For the 16 Days of Activism, WHO's campaign focus on humanitarian emergencies calls for urgent action to help survivors and invest in prevention.

Training health workers

Together with partners, WHO works to strengthen the response to gender-based violence in emergencies by supporting health workers, through training and tools, to deliver high-quality, compassionate care to those affected. In the last six years, over 10 000 health workers received training covering clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence using WHO's Clinical Management of Rape and Intimate Partner Violence Survivors protocol for humanitarian settings.

Following one such training, a midwife from Afghanistan commented, "I have been working as a midwife for seven years, but I didn't know much about gender-based violence before. Now I feel more prepared when survivors come to the clinic to seek help."

Hard-to-reach populations

In northeast Nigeria mobile health teams play a vital role in delivering care to remote and hard-to-reach communities, many of which are populations displaced by the ongoing conflict. These teams address wide-ranging health needs, from disease prevention to gender-based violence response. Over 150 of the mobile team staff received training on providing first-line support to survivors.

Health worker discusses gender-based violence with displaced women in Nigeria. ©Ben Teller Media

A 37-year-old woman, a survivor of sexual abuse, shared how care from the mobile team transformed her life. "I was living in fear and could not tell anyone. I thought they would not believe me," she said. "But the health worker's support helped me inform my husband, who believed me because he, too, had been educated by the health officers."

Training not only equipped the mobile health teams to provide better survivor-centred care, it also boosted community outreach.

"There was a lot of sensitization and awareness raising by the mobile health team staff in the communities after being trained," recalled a mobile health team coordinator. "We are getting more cases reported by displaced women and girls."

Mental health essential

A psychologist working at a mental health clinic in Hasan Sham camp described the transformative impact following the training: "I did not know what services we needed to provide to survivors… Now we understand cases better. We better understand the problems and the suffering of the survivors, which means we can help them more effectively."

Training also broadens frontline workers' understanding. "Not all gender-based violence problems have a physical basis only, it's possible there is psychological or verbal assault or control," a nurse in Mosul explained. "We started to address all of these things after receiving training."

Making an impact

Since 2018, WHO has supported work in 29 humanitarian emergencies to improve access to and provision of quality healthcare for survivors. The urgency is significant. In 2023, a record 339 million people needed humanitarian assistance globally, while an estimated 32 million women and girls of reproductive age live in emergency situations.

A newly published web platform features five case studies highlighting key achievements and ongoing needs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh (Cox's Bazaar), Colombia, Nigeria (BAY States) and Ukraine. These case studies show that a useful health response to gender-based violence in humanitarian settings is possible with the right investment and political will to support the needs of women and girls.

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