A3. Companies have the benefit of extensive supply chain, sales and community reach and are uniquely positioned to be able to bring services and information to different groups throughout the value chain. NGO’s have the experience in connecting GBV-response providers and referral services, collating information and raising awareness on GBV in communities through mass media campaigns can support businesses to reach communities throughout the value chain. Local partnerships can also bring remote psycho-social support services to victims, for example through over-the-phone counselling or remotely-staffed support centres. Maintaining access to these kinds of remote reporting mechanisms and support services is a critical role that business can play in response to the crisis. https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/media/k2/attachments/Challenging-GBV-Worldwide-CARE-program-experience-2014.pdf
Marketing
Support hatred by sex as part of the new Online Harms Bill in the UK.
Use leverage against tech companies to lobby them to do better. Don’t fund complicit behaviour to OGBV
Innovation
Ensuring the introduction of technological innovation meets a high health and safety standard that is intersectional
Philanthropy
Donate to organisations working on all forms violence against women and online harms or donate to a range that cover all forms
Hi Jane, I would also be interested to read the Vodafone toolkit, as I am looking for ways to support women workers in global supply chains (garment factories, tea estates in developing countries). While we work with global brands that are likely to already have policies in place, we also work directly with suppliers (factories, estates) that are less likely to have policies to support women who are facing domestic violence. The issue is even more pressing since the suppliers themselves are under extreme financial pressure today, so supporting their workers with IPV prevention might be the least of their concerns. Thank you!
A3.
Civil society organisations like ActionAid, with experience in violence against women prevention and response programmes across a multitude of contexts, can be excellent partners in helping to reduce GBV in supply chains. Talk to us! I can connect you with the experts.
Look to women’s rights organisations and civil society in the global south for expertise and innovation. For instance African women’s rights organisations have worked for a long time with the starting point that many people have no access to the internet or smartphones – so they make use of radio to reach women and men in remote areas, spreading important information about women’s human rights, public health, and challenging damaging social norms. They also make use of text message services where survivors can contact professional support via a free text – these are ever more important during a time when a woman doesn’t have a quiet corner away from her abuser to make a call.
There is evidence that women’s organisations and movements are already responding to increased rates of violence in innovative, context-appropriate ways. For example, Chinese women’s organisations and activists have developed innovative ways of raising awareness and providing support to survivors (setting up survivor support networks, publishing online manuals on how to protect against domestic violence, creating posters reminding bystanders to speak out against violence, etc).
Think about how your business model can support women experiencing violence – for instance in France women are using code words to report abuse in pharmacies (pharmacies are some of the few retail outlets still open ).
those of us with consumer reach and in FMCG can also look at how we can:
- donate products and essentials to those who need them
- activate our networks. Awareness is crucial, so activating our consumer groups to care and exert pressure will help to keep the focus on supporting vital front-line services.
In the first of our ‘DV@Work Covid-19 Briefings’ ‘Briefing 1: What can employers and companies do to address domestic violence during the Covid-19 crisis’ (by Jane Pillinger, Ludo McFerron and Barb MacQuarrie) we give guidance about immediate steps that employers can take to address their ‘duty of care’ to their employees. Guidance is also given for governments and also for working together collaboratively.
IMMEDIATE STEPS FOR EMPLOYERS
a) Communicate, stay in touch and build trust with employees during this difficult time
· Communicate information and resources to all employees about the heightened risk of domestic violence due to confinement.
· Give clear guidance of what workers can expect guaranteeing confidential, non-judgmental support, non-retaliation for disclosing domestic violence and job security.
· Publicise an up-to-date list of domestic violence support services that survivors can access for online and telephone support, counselling, legal assistance and where necessary as a last resort safe housing.
· Where existing workplace or company policies, procedures and collective agreements on domestic violence are in place, refocus these so that they are relevant to confinement in the lockdown.
· Ensure that managers and team leaders receive guidance on how to support survivors of domestic violence, for example, through online management meetings, training and webinars.
· Consider holding a dedicated online meeting or webinar on the issue, and invite other companies.
b) Find new ways to provide support to employees working from home, ‘think outside the box’
· Have regular contact with employees in online team meetings and one-to-one calls, checking in on team members and identifying any potential signs of domestic violence.
· Respond immediately to requests for support in a non-judgmental manner and aim to build trust.
· Allocate resources for security measures in the home, counselling, legal advice or financial assistance.
· Support employees to gain legal and police protection, including where necessary the exclusive use of the family home (e.g. provide your evidence of pre-existing domestic violence and its impacts at the workplace, phone records of abusive phone calls or other evidence).
· Large companies - or a network of companies and employers - could work together to introduce a domestic violence help-line for confidential advice and emergency assistance for their employees (through telephone, text or social media).
c) Adapt and/or introduce security plans to work/home settings
· Where workplace security plans are already in place, adapt these to the new home/work context.
· Introduce new security measures such as a code word or phrase that can trigger a management intervention to find a safe way to discuss strategies to ensure their safety or to trigger a line manager or team leader to call the police.
· Ensure that company-established website access has a password with extra security that cannot be accessed by a perpetrator.
· Work with police or domestic violence experts to carry out an immediate risk assessment and safety plan if an employee discloses.
Good points Alice on companies maintaining supplier commitments! We’ve also been thinking about the scale-up and adaptation of technology and apps to provide remote solutions and services which could be adapted to connect survivors with information and referrals to respond to GBV. For example, CARE’s Chat! app, developed in partnership with GSK in Cambodia provides garment factory workers with remote interactive services and information to increase access and use of contraception, awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and access to safe abortion. Chat! has doubled the use of modern contraception among its users and tripled women’s confidence to negotiate safe sex and refuse sex with partners. https://www.care-cambodia.org/chat/c20ox
In our second briefing (in preparation), we address some of the longer term measures that companies and governments can address to ensure that we use this crisis as an opportunity for longer-term systems change.
IN THE LONGER TERM
The Covid-19 crisis has revealed the need for longer-term systems change. We need to rethink what we are doing. In the longer-term, we need to be take bold actions to plan new and more effective measures through workplace policies and training, building of awareness and trust, ensuring that new measures are introduced to enable survivors and their children to stay safely in their homes and recognizing that coercive control and psychological abuse are also dangerous forms of domestic violence.
LONGER TERM ACTIONS FOR EMPLOYERS
- · Have effective policies and procedures in place to address the work-related effects of domestic violence, whether working from home or not.
- · Implement evidence-based and rigorous risk assessments and safety plans in partnership with domestic violence organisations so that risks can be addressed comprehensively and safely in all workplace settings.
- · Concentrate on building trust with workers so that they feel safe to disclose domestic violence and take up support.
- · Provide training for managers, team leaders and workers about the workplace policy and how to recognise and respond to workplace warning signs of domestic violence.
- · Ensure that Employee Assistant Programmes (EAP) advisors are effectively trained and briefed to provide tailored non-judgmental guidance and help and to make referrals and where appropriate, work with domestic violence resources and experts.
- · If this is a new issue for a company or employer, refer to existing guidance on developing effective workplace policies and procedures.
- · Work in partnership with domestic violence specialists, workers and trade unions.
If women are more economically vulnerable they are more vulnerable to GBV that is the number one rule we should all remember during this crisis
I would echo the need for innovation and there are ways in which this current crisis can help us think outside the box, be innovative and do things differently. Here are some points about working together from: ‘Briefing 1: What can employers and companies do to address domestic violence during the Covid-19 crisis.’
WORKING TOGETHER…
· Provide financial or other in-kind support to specialist services such as online counselling, legal support and safe housing to help with the increased numbers reporting and seeking help.
· Support efforts to keep victims/survivors and their children in their own homes and don’t let the Covid-19 crisis be a reason for taking them out of their homes.
· Support new government/judicial responses to this effect, and recognize that coercive control without physical violence is also domestic violence, and that this can seriously affect survivors work and productivity during lockdowns.
· Establish joint protocols with first-responders from the police, healthcare sector and domestic violence organisations to respond to domestic violence, for example, in drawing up safety plans that apply to employees new work arrangements from home.
· Cooperate and collaborate with other companies, business and employers’ organisations, workers and trade unions, NGOs, advocates and specialist domestic violence organisations to raise awareness and find new safe ways to help survivors.
· Engage in social dialogue between employers and workers to ensure that policies and collective bargaining agreements are in place to extend the ‘duty of care’ during the Covid-19 crisis.
· Lobby governments to ratify ILO Convention 190 and ensure that governments and employers take seriously their ‘duty of care’ for workers affected by domestic violence, whether they are public or private places of work.
At ActionAid we have a network of mental health first aiders, staff who have volunteered to undergo training and then act as dedicated points of contact for staff, outside of management/HR, that staff can contact with concerns. There are of course some limitations to this and it shouldn’t be the only approach, but it supports other existing signposting and HR systems, and at ActionAid has been a really important part of our approach to wellbeing.
This can also be done with GBV setting up reference people who are trained in the organization to then refer women.
Wow, all your input, thoughts, insights and resource links are invaluable.
In the final few minutes - would people mind sharing the one key takeaway or action they would like others to think about or do?
Chat! sounds so promising Verity. A useful model to replicate during C-19 with regard to GBV??
agreed Natalie, business has the unique position through extensive value chain reach to activate suppliers, sales and community networks
Hi Katie, UNDP works supporting private sector to promote gender equality including eradicate GBV fro more than 10 years with our programme UNDP Gender Equality Seal. So, we know there are many ways companies can respond to the COVID-19 crisis in relation to GBV in their marketplaces and communities:
-They can partner with social organizations through their CSR portfolios to address GBV in the communities they operate. They can support women’s organizations, support programmes for GBV victims, fund campaigns, fund social services, etc.
-Companies can share data on GBV cases recorded from their employees (respecting laws on data sharing) to inform public policy responses
-Companies in retail services such as pharmacies, supermarkets, food stores, etc. can put in place safe reporting mechanisms with safe coded systems. For instance, in pharmacies when women ask for a color coded product – such as a violet facemask – that could be a signal of a case of domestic violence and the pharmacist could collect the information to refer the case to public authorities.
-Companies in the delivery service sector could also act as potential channels for reporting GBV cases. With specialized training these delivery persons could signal potential cases and refer information on the potential victim to public authorities when for example they ask a question and receive and an answer that activates a potential red code situation such as “Did you order a red [any type of item]?”
-Companies in digital industries can create solutions to address GBV cases integrating AI, machine learning and other digital solutions such as mapping solutions, reporting Apps, web services, etc.
-They can create or join forces with public campaigns for the prevention of domestic violence or intimate partner violence, reaching their employees and customers through their own communication channels (SMS, social media, website, other channels). For instance, mobile providers or social media partners that have a wide outreach can help to “spread the word”.
By working together we can raise the profile of this issue which quite literally hides behind closed doors.
A3. In addition to maintaining supplier commitments, partnership can support business to recognise and harness its strengths to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. At CARE we are partnering with business in three key areas:
* Strategic partnership programming: COVID-19 is impacting global supply chains in a way which is likely to change the way we do business for months, perhaps years to come. CARE is rapidly adapting existing programmes and establishing new initiatives with partners within their core business to address the gendered impacts of COVID-19 strategically and sustainably.
* Philanthropic giving: CARE is working with partners to fundraise to our central Emergency Response Fund which is supporting CARE’s response to COVID-19 around the world. Business can engage staff, customers and shareholders in fundraising efforts to commit much-needed funding to CARE’s GBV and gender-focused response.
* Advice and advocacy: CARE is an expert in humanitarian response and business partnerships. We are working with our partners to explore and respond to the gendered impacts of COVID-19, offering bespoke analysis, tools and community understanding.
Remember the online aspect to gender based violence. What is often forgotten is the online element to domestic violence and an increasing online element of violence more generally - i.e. online stalking, the sharing of non-consensual photography as an act of harm and surveillance. So we can make confident inferences that such a pandemic like COVID-19 will exacerbate Violence Against Women (VAW) in ways we know about and in new ways.
Many Tech platforms are not yet designed and developed on a safety by design basis but rather one for profit so issues like gender based violence, hate speech and manipulation of data and surveillance are often missed. Joan Donovan from Shorenstein Center has termed this Socio technical vulnerability. At Glitch we say as we have increased tech facilitate support we have also increased tech facilitated violence.
Glitch team is happy to help : info@fixtheglitch.org
We need to work together so that the post pandemic society will make real headway on this issue.
Also we need to have GbV declared a public health crisis.
Post pandemic since all attention has to focus now on pandemic response.