The COVID-19 virus affected people and communities indiscriminately in all parts of the world, with particularly strong impact on most vulnerable communities, especially those already suffering from the humanitarian consequences of conflicts, social-economic problems or disasters.
The pressure on existing health systems is also limiting access to essential health services including to non-communicable disease treatment, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and routine immunisation services.
INTERSOS is particularly worried about the pandemic impact on the harrowing humanitarian situation in most protracted humanitarian crises and has just released a report: Protection response under the restrictions of COVID-19, which describes INTERSOS experience with protection response in the context of COVID-19 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Yemen. Millions of people living in such crises, in the majority of cases forcibly displaced by conflicts, poverty or lack of human rights, already suffering from violence, stigma, discrimination and unequal access to basic services, continue to be exposed to a variety of severe protection hazards, and lack of access to basic life-saving commodities, including food, water, shelter and clothing.
Some of the observed protection impacts on the affected populations as a result of COVID-19 restrictions include restrictions of freedom of movement; increased negative coping mechanisms, including reduced food consumption, increasing debts, forced recruitments and/or forced labour, and early marriages; increased psychological trauma, stress and anxiety; rising social exclusion, isolation, stigmatisation, discrimination, racism and xenophobia, especially for individuals and communities that are often marginalised, such as LGBTQI+; increase in child abuse, including sexual and other forms of physical and emotional violence; as well as gender based violence, especially on women with a range of abuses occurring (as victims are often stuck in confinement with their perpetrators) including marital rapes, physical and emotional violence, with many reporting sale or exchange of sex as a coping mechanism. Certain groups such as older people and persons with disabilities are facing a disproportionate impact of the pandemic, with their access to services further hampered.
INTERSOS provides holistic response that incorporates restoring of dignity, enhancing well-being, as well as prevention and response of abuse, violence and exploitation. In line with this, prior to the pandemic, despite the myriad of operating challenges, including insecurity, access challenges, bureaucratic impediments, to mention a few – most of pre-COVID-19 protection work was conducted face-to-face, in specially created safe environments, respecting privacy of those we are assisting, focused on individual case management, psycho-social assistance, awareness raising, protection monitoring, and where possible, legal assistance.
Despite direct human contact remains ideal when aiding traumatised individuals and communities, due to considerable additional risks brought about by limitations imposed by lockdowns, the continuation of these services remains absolutely essential, albeit using remote approaches.
The main recommendations from the report include:
- Protection programming should be scaled up and fully integrated as a central component into COVID-19 response efforts, linking it to other existing and emerging needs. Donors are urged to continue supporting both the ongoing non-COVID related humanitarian response needs, as well as the pandemic-created additional needs.
- Protection monitoring remains an essential activity, both to understand protection risks and issues affecting the populations, and the evolving multi-sectoral humanitarian needs, that can inform adapted response strategies.
- COVID-19 has also highlighted the essential need to adapt livelihoods activities to meet the present demands, such as production of protective masks, with the resulting economic benefits important both for the individuals and for the communities who may have better access to masks and other items required to protect themselves from contracting the virus.