Attachments
Background Information
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a horrifying reality for many of those affected by conflict and crises, particularly women and girls. The Northeast Nigeria crisis affects 3 Nigerian States often referred to as the BAY (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe) States, with Borno as the epicentre. In 2019, 7.1 million people comprising 2.3 million girls, 1.9 million boys, 1.6 million women and 1.3 million men, were in need of humanitarian assistance in Northeast Nigeria as a result of a crisis that is now about reaching the eleventh year.
The Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies (Call to Action) is a global multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2013 with one simple goal: to ensure that every humanitarian response, from the very start, provides safe and comprehensive services for GBV survivors and mitigates the risks of GBV.
Members of the Call to Action are States and donors, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), made up of International NGOs (INGOs) and National NGOs/Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). They have committed to take collective action to address GBV, to be mutually supportive in this lifesaving work, and to hold one another accountable for action. The Call to Action Road Map 2016-2020 developed at the global level, provides the global operational framework for these efforts. UNFPA is a founding partner of the Call to Action and the GBV Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR), led by UNFPA is also a member.
The global leadership of the Call to Action is rotational having commenced in 2013 with the United Kingdom and Sweden at the fore. The United States later led the global initiative, while, Sweden supported the development of the global road map and at the time of implementing the Nigeria pilot road map in 2018, the European Union (through DG ECHO) was the lead of the CtA initiative at the global level and funded the pilot road map initiative implemented through the GBV AoR and UNFPA. The Government of Canada is the current global lead of the Call to Action, having taken over from the EU in December 2018. With the funding support from ECHO, UNFPA recruited two positions dedicated to supporting the Call to Action initiative in Northeast Nigeria (Regional GBV Advisor and M&E Specialist) at the official commencement of the pilot road map Implementation in June 2018.
A key value of the Call to Action is that partners agree to hold one another accountable and also be mutually supportive of what each partner does. There is currently a total of 44 Call to Action partners in Nigeria who signed up to the various action areas of the Northeast Nigeria Road Map. At the global level, there are 82 partners engaged on the initiative.