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“ 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

Luissa Vahedi, Ilana Seff, Deidi Olaya Rodriguez, Samantha McNelly, Ana Isabel Interiano Perez, Dorcas Erskine, Catherine Poulton and Lindsay Stark (lindsaystark@wustl.edu)
Additional contact information
Luissa Vahedi: Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
Ilana Seff: Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
Deidi Olaya Rodriguez: Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
Samantha McNelly: Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
Ana Isabel Interiano Perez: UNICEF Guatemala, 13 Calle 8-44, Cdad. de Guatemala 01010, Guatemala
Dorcas Erskine: UNICEF Headquarters, United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Catherine Poulton: UNICEF Headquarters, United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Lindsay Stark: Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-15

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: Guatemala; gender-based violence; GBV prevention and response; gender mainstreaming; COVID-19; LMIC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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