What are the revised IASC GBV Guidelines?
The revised Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action: Reducing risk, promoting resilience and aiding recovery aim to assist humanitarian actors and communities affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, and other humanitarian emergencies to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate essential actions for the prevention and mitigation of GBV across all sectors of humanitarian response.
What is the overall goal of the revised GBV Guidelines?
The overall goal of the revised GBV Guidelines is to support humanitarian stakeholders in fulfilling their responsibility to protect all those affected by crises, by:
- Reducing risk of GBV by implementing GBV prevention and mitigation strategies from pre-emergency to recovery stages of humanitarian action;
- Promoting resilience by strengthening national and community-based systems that prevent and mitigate GBV, and by enabling survivors and those at risk of GBV to access specialized care and support; and
- Aiding recovery of communities and societies by supporting local and national capacity to create lasting solutions to the problem of GBV.
Why were the GBV Guidelines revised?
The original IASC Guidelines for Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings, drafted in 2005, have been revised to increase their practical relevance and reach to all humanitarian actors. The revised GBV Guidelines reflect changes in the humanitarian architecture and the important agreements on humanitarian coordination, leadership, accountability, and partnership within the Transformative Agenda that have occurred since 2005. The revised Guidelines also incorporate the many lessons learned from the nearly 10-year implementation of the previous GBV Guidelines, including strategies and tools to assist humanitarian actors in meeting their protection responsibilities to affected populations and to improve the quality and effectiveness of GBV-related interventions. A set of recommended indicators per thematic area has been added to track activities through the program cycle. The revised Guidelines are not meant to increase the workload of humanitarian actors, but rather to assist them to make their current programming more effective.
Who is the audience for the revised GBV Guidelines?
All national and international actors responding to an emer- gency have a duty to protect those affected by the crisis, in- cluding protection from GBV. The revised GBV Guidelines will be essential for all humanitarian response sectors and oper- ations to facilitate joint action on mainstreaming GBV preven- tion and risk reduction in humanitarian action. The Guidelines are an operational tool that reinforces the commitment of the IASC Principals to ensuring the Centrality of Protection in Hu- manitarian Action, as well as the role of Humanitarian Coordi- nators, Humanitarian Country Teams and Clusters, and donors to implement this commitment in all aspects of humanitarian action. The Guidelines also reinforce responsibilities outlined in key guidance documents such as the Sphere Handbook, the IASC Gender Equality Policy Statement, and the Women, Peace and Security thematic agenda of the United Nations Security Council. The Guidelines are primarily targeted to non-GBV specialists — that is, agencies and individuals who work in areas of humanitarian response other than GBV and do not have specific expertise in GBV prevention and response programming, but can nevertheless undertake activities that significantly reduce the risk of GBV for affected populations.
Listen to a podcast episode about lessons learned in rolling out the GBV Guidelines
