"At the Root of COVID Grew a More Complicated Situation": A Qualitative Analysis of the Guatemalan Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response System during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 19(17)2022 Sep 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2010036
ABSTRACT
A growing body of literature has documented an increased risk of gender-based violence (GBV) within the context of COVID-19 and service providers' reduced capacity to address this vulnerability. Less examined are the system-level impacts of the pandemic on the GBV sector in low- and middle-income countries. Drawing on the perspectives of 18 service providers working across various GBV-related sectors in Guatemala, we explored how the Guatemalan GBV prevention and response system operated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight that the pandemic reinforced survivors' existing adversities (inadequate transportation access, food insecurity, digital divides), which subsequently reduced access to reporting, justice, and support. Consequently, the GBV prevention and response system had to absorb the responsibility of securing survivors' essential social determinants of health, further limiting already inflexible budgets. The pandemic also imposed new challenges, such as service gridlocks, that negatively affected survivors' system navigation and impaired service providers' abilities to efficiently receive reports and mobilize harm reduction and prevention programming. The findings underscore the systemic challenges faced by GBV service providers and the need to incorporate gender mainstreaming across public service sectors-namely, transportation and information/communication-to improve lifesaving GBV service delivery for Guatemalan survivors, particularly survivors in rural/remote regions.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Gender-Based Violence
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Central America
/
Guatemala
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph191710998
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