Ms Abby Ryan:

I agree with Deputy Clarke on the mass movement of people and how to ensure GBV services are there. The short answer – it is not very simple – is that in an emergency context, GBV services have to be seen as essential life-saving services from the very beginning. Protection clusters and GBV subclusters through the humanitarian architecture need to be activated from the start. We know that when there is a mass movement of people, conflict or any kind of emergency situation, the levels of GBV will rise. As Ms Van Lieshout said, we do not need the data to know that is the case. We hear it all the time. In short, those things need to be there from the very start.

That means they need to be funded. In 2019, the International Rescue Committee brought out a report which looked over the previous three years. That is all it could look at because we have only had aggregated data on GBV services since 2016. It looked at how much funding there had been for GBV services between 2016 and 2018 in emergencies and in humanitarian calls.

Some 0.12% went to GBV services, which was a third of what was requested. That is not to say that funding is the only answer, but there is a need to triple the amount of funding given to GBV services in emergency settings. Another stark finding from that report was about the need to increase levels of GBV expertise. In some cases, people are literally not available to work on these programmes. There are two sides to that and some big needs are becoming evident. My colleagues will speak about ensuring and embedding peace so that it is not fragile and lost. That has happened in many countries, where this has rolled back.