Gender-based violence trends and triggers during public health emergencies in Africa: the case of COVID-19 and beyond

Abstract

Public health emergencies have had significant socio-economic impacts on the global populations, with the impacts more pronounced on vulnerable members of the societies. COVID-19, as one of the deadliest public health emergencies to affect humanity in recent times, had significant impacts on women and young girls. The stringent COVID-19 containment measures which were necessary to prevent the spread of the contagion had unintended consequences on women and young girls, as evinced by the birth of the shadow pandemic—gender-based violence. This paper explored the scourge of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent. The paper sought to document the extent of gender-based violence during the pandemic, as well as to explore the contributory factors to the rise in gender-based violence cases during the pandemic. The paper was based on secondary data that were collected from journal articles, policy reports, non-governmental organisations reports and online news articles. The paper reveals that most African countries witnessed a rise in gender-based violence during the lockdown periods, with the gender-based violence manifesting through domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and other forms of physical violence. The confinement of victims in the same environment with potential abusers, challenges of reporting gender-based violence, delays and disregard in pronouncing gender-based violence response services as essential services, incapacitation of the criminal justice system during the lockdown, and the patriarchal nature of most African societies were revealed as the main contributory factors to gender-based violence during COVID-19. To effectively deal with gender-based violence during public health emergencies, governments need to consider gender-based violence response as an essential service and allocate dedicated resources towards fighting gender-based violence. There should also be multi-stakeholder public awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging victims to report gender-based violence and to change the toxic patriarchal practices that give rise to gender-based violence.