Overview

Efforts to prevent violence against women and girls in conflict-affected settings must be mainstreamed throughout all relevant humanitarian clusters/sectors in order to be effective. Areas such as shelter planning, food distribution, water and sanitation, non-food items, health, education, and early recovery present important opportunities – when planned properly and with the full participation of women and girls – to address safety risks and ensure the security of women and girls.

The basic GBV-related responsibilities of sectoral actors are outlined in the IASC GBV Guidelines for Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings (2005). The GBV Area of Responsibility expanded upon these recommendations by creating 13 tip sheets, designed to be shared with relevant clusters/sectors and their partners at the onset of an emergency. See additional information for the following areas:

In addition to the information provided in the tip sheets, further work has been done on mainstreaming prevention efforts into several key areas of humanitarian response. The information below highlights some of the key points in this additional guidance.