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Political institutions were not prepared for how much gender-based violence was both triggered and exacerbated by the lockdown restrictions and subsequent lifting of restrictions. While some efforts were made to address gender-based violence in the early pandemic policy responses, it is seldom mentioned in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) and policies that were subsequently drawn up. Instead, addressing gender-based violence should be a key concern when developing crisis management plans (including prevention, contingency plans, and recovery measures). Policymakers should learn from the COVID-19 crisis in order to design more effective responses to gender-based violence during crisis periods.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance of a European-level response to crises, for which the development of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) was an important, yet insufficient, first step. In order to develop the capacity of European countries and the European Union to respond to future crises in ways that do not increase the existing gender+ inequalities or create new ones, there is an urgent need to develop comprehensive, inclusive, multi-actor crisis management plans that build on a gender+ intersectional approach.
The COVID-19 crisis led to the rapid and widespread adoption of telework in a multitude of sectors to curb the spread of the virus, while also allowing organisations and companies to continue their activities. This sudden imposition of telework strongly impacted the relationships of people with regards to their jobs and their work-life balance, though these effects, both positive and negative, were not experienced in equal measure across all societal groups. However, while telework can, for instance, reinforce existing gender care and labour gaps, it can also serve as a catalyst for narrowing these gaps.
Emerging global and national data show increases in gender-based violence and increases in the reported number of cases of gender-based violence against women and LGBTQI persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESISTIRÉ analysis shows that a majority of countries failed to address issues of gender-based violence in their COVID-19 policy response and while civil society organisations managed to react in some instances, the pandemic also put pressure and circumscribed their range of activities.
