Gender and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in emergencies: a cluster in itself?

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is one of the main challenges that civilians, especially women and girls, have to face in humanitarian contexts. Intimate partners violence, sexual violence, including rape, forced and child marriage, trafficking, forced pregnancy, are triggered, exacerbated and even used as a weapon of war during crises and conflicts. While SGBV is underreported, horrendous sexual violations and the devastating impacts they have on victims and their communities as a whole, remind us of the urgent need for a stronger commitment, both political and financial, to prevent and protect people, in particular women and girls, from SGBV. To which extent are we ready to scale-up our approach to SGBV in emergency contexts? What about considering Gender, including SGBV, as a humanitarian cluster in itself with a dedicated budget line in humanitarian funds? Based on the Spanish experience, this talk will aim at relaunching the debate on the need to scale-up commitments of the International community, and in particular of the European Union, to address Gender inequality and tackle SGBV in humanitarian contexts. Plan International’s interventions in Sahel and Sudan will serve as a basis for discussion.