Lindsay Stark, associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a one-year $290,017 grant from UNICEF to assess gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to COVID-19, programming for gender-based violence in emergencies (GBViE) has expanded in its efforts to provide innovative solutions to women and girls, including technology-centered service provision. Such programs require evaluation to identify their effectiveness and refine their implementation.
Since 2019, UNICEF and Washington University have worked in partnership to examine GBViE programming and mechanisms to improve advocacy efforts. The partnership aims to specifically address how COVID-19 is impacting women and girls and how GBViE programming can support humanitarian response efforts.
The next phase of the project aims to examine such innovative approaches through five program objectives. They are:
- identify the costs of inaction related to intimate partner violence in at least one emergency setting
- examine COVID-19’s effects on women and girls, including around closure of safe spaces
- examine ongoing and potential innovative GBViE programming relevant to COVID
- determine the feasibility to conduct remote program evaluations
- create research designs to evaluate GBViE programming during COVID
