From Global Coordination to Local Strategies: A Practical Approach to Prevent, Address, and Document Domestic Violence under COVID-19 [Toolkit and Briefing Paper]

"All communities need to be included in solutions for addressing domestic violence and the spread of COVID-19. Only by working together can we achieve sustainable peace and ensure the protection of rights for all people."

While important for public health, measures to control the spread of coronavirus, such as shelter-at-home policies, can create more danger for those vulnerable to domestic violence. In response, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General called for a global "ceasefire" on domestic violence, which has been deemed "an epidemic within an epidemic". Feminist organisations contend that, to have meaning, the Secretary General's call must be coupled with action at the local level - where domestic violence actually occurs. Because the crisis demands an intersectional approach, a group of women's organisations that work in collaboration with local organisations globally on intersecting issues formed a coalition on this issue (see Publishers, below). Together, they analysed successful international interventions - featured in this toolkit and briefing paper - which may be used as inspiration by women's groups working on the frontlines to address domestic violence risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The toolkit features a compilation of recommended programmatic changes or inputs that draw from feminist and women's rights grassroots organisations' experiences and actions in settings of conflict or disaster around the globe. These activities can be adopted to prevent, address, and document domestic violence in various contexts in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. In carrying out these activities, local and national organisations can use a variety of forms of communication in order to reach the widest audience and ensure accessibility, even in social distancing environments. For example:

• Bluetooth sharing: Peer-to-peer sharing of audio messages via Bluetooth technology, a capability that almost all mobile phones across the world have, is a tool grassroots organisations can use to share public service announcements (PSAs), podcasts, and other short messages across communities without the use of an internet connection. This method of viral mobile-to-mobile message transfers could be adopted on a larger scale to communicate about domestic violence and COVID-19, even in low-literacy contexts.
• National and community radio and television: Feminist groups can provide tailored messaging, talk show content, or PSAs for local and national radio and television audiences, providing sign language interpretation to reach deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.
• Social media: Feminist groups can utilise online platforms as a space for key domestic violence prevention messages. They can also provide some supportive services through social networking websites such as Facebook and mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, or Viber. (In some places, governments monitor certain social media platforms, and it may be important to consider what information you share on them.)
• Community engagement: This may include spreading messages via word of mouth or loudspeaker, as well as group activities that can be performed at a safe distance.
• Printed outreach materials: Organisations can distribute literature, such as flyers, brochures, or comic strips, or hang posters where community members frequent, like food markets. Printed materials should take a range of formats, including Braille and large print, and use simple language and pictures where possible.

Following an introduction and definitions and acronyms, including examples of domestic violence, the toolkit features the main components outlined below. Within each, sections such as "Why it works", "How it helps", and "Example" provide concrete guidance, and radio/TV scripts, social media graphics, pop quizzes, and text boxes with bullet-point lists (e.g., how to build trust with domestic violence survivors) are featured throughout.

Recommendations for Preventing, Addressing, and Documenting Domestic Violence

• Preventing Domestic Violence
  • Engage community leaders to promote zero-tolerance for domestic violence.
  • Produce or sponsor online and shareable podcast programming for youth and young couples that teaches positive and healthy relationship skills.
  • Build men's and boys' capacity to act as allies within families and the community, and publicise their positive practices and views.
  • Integrate domestic violence prevention messaging into COVID-19 prevention materials for healthcare providers, journalists and media, and humanitarian aid and outreach workers in war-torn countries.
• Addressing Domestic Violence
  • Redirect psychosocial support services through online mechanisms.
  • Provide support to those living in social isolation.
  • Organise community responses during stay-at-home orders.
• Documenting Domestic Violence
  • Create systems to track the quantity and nature of calls for help.
  • Document all forms of domestic violence to better address specific needs of marginalised persons and communities.

Programmatic Messaging to Prevent, Address, and Document Domestic Violence

• Radio and Television Messaging - Sample tip: "Do You Know" messaging can challenge preconceived ideas about domestic violence and its impacts. "Do You Know" questions can be asked of a virtual audience or asked over radio or online programmes to engage the audience, and then answered by sharing facts provided in the toolkit.
• Social Media Messaging - Sample tip: When designing graphics for social media, collaborate with influential leaders to provide quotes or to speak out themselves on their personal platforms using your resources. Influential leaders often have the power to reach significant numbers of people in a community, increasing their likelihood to engage with your social media posts and share the information with others.
• Bluetooth Messaging - Sample tips: Well-crafted messages that are 30 seconds to 3 minutes in duration can be effective, especially if they include music to open the message or in the background as a presenter is speaking. Podcasts and other short recordings should always have a concluding message that encourages listeners to "pass it on" via mobile-to-mobile transfers. Just as with other types of messaging, influential leaders can join podcasts or audio messages to increase the likelihood that the message will be shared.
• Messaging for Local Journalists - Sample tips:
  • Effective messaging begins with professional local women journalists.
  • Interviews with experts and specialists are key.
  • Consider new models of "frugal media".

Reaching Vulnerable Individuals - covers:

• Combining Domestic Violence and COVID-19 Prevention Messaging
• Making a Safety Plan for Survivors in Social Isolation
• Strategies for Men Under Pressure in Social Isolation [MenCare Switzerland/männer.chiv developed a guide that can be transformed into a poster and placed near a hand-washing station, or sent to members via electronic means such as email or Bluetooth sharing. Its talking points may help outreach workers tailor some of their messaging to men, while also providing tips to deliver via phone or other means to men seeking to change their own behaviour.]

Reaching Vulnerable Communities - covers:

• Domestic Violence Against LGBTIQ Persons - includes guidance for educational outreach on how to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ) and gender non-conforming (GNC) people trapped at home during the health crisis.
• Domestic Violence Against Persons with Disabilities - features details on disability-inclusive, anti-domestic-violence outreach.
• Domestic Violence in Marginalized Communities - offers suggestions for civil society organisations working with ethnic and racial minorities, Indigenous communities, refugees, migrants, stateless people, people in war zones, and others. In the COVID-19 context, these groups are left under-resourced and under-equipped to address and prevent both the spread of the virus and the increase in domestic violence. Organisations can work to raise awareness about the need to address these issues by specifically reaching out to these communities, by tailoring messaging to reflect certain values, by sharing messaging in languages used within marginalised groups, and by supporting local leadership from marginalised communities. Messaging can include calling on local governments to monitor and report on where COVID-19 and domestic violence responses are focused; alternatively, civil society can collect its own information about responses and expose disparities.

Key Recommendations for Governments, UN Agencies, and International Organizations

1. Integrate domestic violence prevention messaging into COVID-19 prevention materials for healthcare providers and humanitarian aid and outreach workers.
2. Fund services that are tailored to meet the needs of all persons vulnerable to domestic violence.
3. Recognise and address all forms of domestic violence.
4. Implement policies and programmes that address the root causes of domestic violence.
5. Monitor resource distribution to marginalised communities.
6. Fund local organisations responding to domestic violence, including groups adapting their programming to address rising violence in the context of COVID-19.
7. Support grassroots feminist journalists and their professional associations.
8. Incorporate a gender-based violence analysis into government and global health institutions' responses to COVID-19, including in public policy, economic, and health solutions.

The briefing paper analyses successful interventions to make key recommendations for those working on issues of gender and the COVID-19 crisis: The first part of the paper gives programmatic recommendations for local and national organisations to prevent, address, and document domestic violence; the second part sets out key recommendations for governments, UN agencies, and international organisations, in aspects of funding, policymaking, and resource distribution - amongst other things. Example: "As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds, governments and multilateral institutions should maintain transparency, live up to their obligations, encourage civil society involvement, and ensure access to national, regional and international systems of accountability."

If you are visually impaired and would prefer a copy of the briefing paper or toolkit in Word, please email advocacy@madre.org