Increased Gender Based Violence during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Zimbabwean Case Study

Abstract

The brief addresses the increase of GBV in the wake of COVID-19. Outlining the possible triggers of violence under COVID-19 lockdowns, the brief argues that emergence situations affect social relations, worsen gender inequalities that already exist between men and women as well as violence perpetrated against women and girls .The brief stresses the need by the Zimbabwean government to come up with strategies and measures so that rampant cases of gender based violence may be kept at bay in future health pandemics through identifying and developing needs based solutions, where women and girls are at the center of responses to the crisis. The brief also targets researchers and practitioners to help inform further evidence generation and policy action within the broader intersectional gender- and feminist-informed pandemic response. The brief concludes by making recommendations on how the Zimbabwean government can prepare for future health pandemics. Under current lockdown conditions, desk review, social, media reports analysis; observation and telephone interviews with key selected informants were used.