Quarantines, stay-home measures and movement restrictions related to COVID-19 have brought potential victims and potential perpetrators together under the confines of the home setting, increasing girls’ close and constant exposure to abuse and violence.
Plan International and African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) are calling for urgent interventions to address spiralling rates of violence against girls and women in Africa as COVID-19 intensifies and lockdowns continue.
The agencies have today joined forces to launch the report – Under Siege: Impact of COVID-19 on Girls in Africa - that assesses the special vulnerabilities and risk factors faced by children, especially girls, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa and makes recommendations on how to effectively influence preparedness for, response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries ease restrictions on lockdown.
The report captures the voices and experiences from the lived realities of girls and the perspectives of government officials, parliamentarians, NGO executives and child protection officers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Uganda. Under Siege: Impact of COVID-19 on Girls in Africa is released today to mark the World Humanitarian Day.
According to 2020 estimates, Africa counts about 308,768,000 girls under 18, the majority of whom are school-going children, hence currently staying at home in the midst of lockdowns across the continent. These girls are experiencing heightened anxiety engendered by circumstances surrounding quarantine and confinement that have emboldened perpetrators’ predisposition to abuse their positions of power, trust and authority over others under lockdown with them. Under those circumstances, young women and girls would be fearful to go to a hospital to seek healthcare or sexual and reproductive services. Even in emergency situations, they do so at the real risk of assaults, unreasonable quarantines, or arbitrary detention for lockdown, movement restriction and curfew violations.
“My fear with this virus [COVID-19] is that women will really suffer. We will suffer over food. Men will abuse us. Because if I don’t have food and a boy has food, if I ask him for help, he will ask me for sex before he gives me some. This is the suffering I am talking about.” said Janet 14, Liberia.
The pandemic has also thrown millions of families – up to 29 million – further into extreme poverty and affected access to social services. Health systems have diverted attention from immunisation programs, sexual and reproductive services and high prevalence conditions such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB. Schools have been disrupted, which are not only the only safe space for many girls in Africa, but also the only source of a decent meal for hundreds of thousands. More than 120 million school-going girls are currently at home and many of them fear that they may not be able to go back to school.
“I pray the government finds a solution to this disease as soon as possible, so girls like me can go back to school. My dream of becoming a doctor should not be broken, please.” Said Halima, a 16-year-old girl from Niger.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all girls regardless of their age, social or economic background. But, its effect on girls who have already been victims of marginalisation, exclusion and discrimination has been disproportionately severe and more likely to have long-lasting and irreversible impacts. Girls with disabilities, girl domestic workers, girls living and/or working on the street and in urban slums, girls in institutional care, and in detention centres and refugee and stateless girls have especially been more severely affected.
Girls with disabilities contacted in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda complained that the media messages around COVID-19 are not generally packaged in a manner that is accessible to the disability community. With hotels and shops closed and streets empty, girls living and/ or working on the street who normally rely on food handouts from hotels and restaurants and on street trade are struggling for survival.
About 56% of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa is concentrated in overcrowded and poorly serviced slum dwellings and only 34% of the households have access to basic hand washing facilities, raising serious concerns in the context of COVID-19.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is the single most important challenge facing African children today,” says Dr Joan Nyanyuki, ACPF Executive Director. “It is life-threating, economically and socially devastating and with a potentially painful aftermath that calls for proactive, concerted measures”. Similar sentiments were raised by Sam Norgah, the Director for Plan International AU Liaison Office. According to him, the impact of COVID-19 on girls is very devastating and will require coordinated and holistic approaches that recognise and place gender at the center of our responses
COUNTRY REALITIES
- Child Helpline Uganda received a total of 718 calls related to girls from 10 April to 14 June 2020. About 73% of these calls were related to abuse against girls. Mothers account for the largest percentage of people who reported the abuse followed by non-related adults, including neighbours.
- The Kenya National Council on Administration of Justice, reported a significant spike in sexual offences in many parts of the country. Sexual offences such as rape and defilement have constituted more than 35% of all reported cases.
- The Gender-Based Violence Command Centre in South Africa recorded a sharp increase in cases of up to 10,660 reported through phone calls during the lockdown from 27 March to 16 April and about 1503 calls through unstructured supplementary services data and 616 through SMS. In one single day, on 16 April, the Centre received reports of 674 cases.
- In Ethiopia, data from few hospitals in Addis Ababa, showed that, between mid-March and mid-May 2020, within the space of less than two months, more than 100 girls have been raped, some of them by close family members.
- In Zimbabwe, there have been reports of an increase in cases of young girls forced into transactional sex in return for cash, food, or even sanitary products.
- In Somalia, there has been a 50% increase in calls to helplines/ hotlines across the country.
- In Niger, 499 gender-based violence cases were reported in Niamey between January and April 2020 (86 in January to 212 in April), which points out to a worrying increase as a result of COVID-19. Also of concern is the increase in cases of forced marriage.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Plan International and ACPF hope that the findings and recommendations from the report will drive a continental discourse among the AU, Member States, development agencies and donors on their COVID-19 response by drawing on the findings and recommendations from the report. Some of the recommendations include;
- Adopting a rights and gender-responsive approach to COVID-19 control measures.
- Recognising girls’ voice and agency by consulting and taking into account girls and young women’s views in the response and recovery to COVID-19
- Alleviating poverty and providing economic support including through cash transfers and in-kind support.
- Ensuring access to basic and sexual and reproductive health services
- Making gender-disaggregated data available
ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR EDITORS
- This rapid assessment covered as many countries in Africa as data is available, with selected country case studies, analysing the gender dimensions of COVID-19, with a thematic focus on the impact of the pandemic on girls across an array of issues, including abuse, exploitation, exclusion from basic services, hunger and poverty.
- The assessment relied both on primary and secondary data.
- In addition to the virtual interviews, an online questionnaire was administered, and written responses received.
- The assessment was also enriched by secondary sources and documents, including documents and guidelines issued by global, regional and national bodies and their organs; reports by child focused agencies and relevant international and African organizations such as AU, ACERWC, CDC, Plan International, Save the Children International, UNESCO, UNICEF and WHO, among others; media and webinar reports; and relevant literature from academia.
- Download a copy of Under Siege: Impact of COVID-19 on Girls in Africa
- Please visit the launch website at http://girls.
africanchildforum.org for more information. Read French version here.