Creative Ways to Combat Gender-Based Violence

There isn’t a single quick fix to ending gender-based violence, and addressing its root causes can take time. Listening and believing survivors, discussing gender roles early on, making services for survivors essential services, funding women’s organizations, and gathering more data on the issue are all places to start, according to UN Women.

While there is not a simple, short-term solution to ending gender-based violence, governments and organizations around the world are using innovative initiatives to help survivors and women and girls at risk. With travel limited during the pandemic and survivors isolated from help or support, apps, cash transfers, women-run services, and more have offered assistance.

Read more about efforts to help gender-based violence survivors in countries around the world below.

1. Women-Run Services Gender-based violence often goes unreported or underreported because of the shame survivors experience and the fear that their perpetrators will retaliate, or law enforcement will not believe them. When survivors feel that they will be taken seriously and heard, they are more likely to report incidents of abuse.
2. Cash Transfers Economic stress is known to lead to more incidents of domestic violence within households. When women and girls are not financially independent they are also more likely to stay in unsafe situations.
3. Code Words at Pharmacies  When women and girls are trapped at home with their abusers, signaling for help can put them at risk of retribution if it becomes obvious that they’re asking for help.
4. Mobile Apps Perpetrators of domestic violence often attempt to control their victims’ contact with the outside world, but mobile apps that connect women with help can serve as lifelines for many survivors.
5. Free Hotel Rooms When survivors of domestic violence live with their abusers, be it an intimate partner or family member, having nowhere to go to seek refuge can be a major barrier to seeking help.