Protecting women and girls

As the global COVID-19 pandemic spreads, women and girls face heightened risks of domestic violence due to the lockdown. Shuttered economies mean little-to-no income for vulnerable families, particularly households led by women. Medical services for women—including sexual, maternal, and reproductive healthcare—are under severe strain.

COVID-19 exacerbates the challenges women and girls—including refugees in Bangladesh, asylum seekers in Greece, internally displaced people in Syria and South Sudan, Venezuelans across Latin America and forcibly displaced women and girls in other areas of the world—already face in displacement. Therefore, governments, humanitarian actors, donors, and community leaders should take part in the global pandemic response programmes to protect displaced women and girls in whatever ways that are possible.