Addressing Gender-Based Violence: 16 Days of Activism

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign from 25 November to 10 December 2021 that is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

Gender-based violence affects more than 1 in 3 women over the course of a lifetime. Violence against women and girls has a significant toll on not just their wellbeing, but also on their families across generations and societies more broadly. In some countries, violence against women is estimated to cost countries up to 3.7% of their GDP, which is expected to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries around the world are working to contain the spread and impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus). A growing body of evidence indicates that gender gaps and gender-based violence has increased during the pandemic and that gains in women's and girls' accumulation of human capital, economic empowerment and voice and agency, built over the past decades, could be reversed. Therefore, the World Bank Group is stepping up its support to countries in addressing the immediate health crisis and its corresponding social and economic impacts.

Below is a list of content on the scourge of Gender-Based Violence from around the World Bank Group, and what various regions and sectors are doing to eliminate it.