Geneva, Switzerland | November 6, 2023
Key Documents
On 6 November 2023, the Call to Action, led by Germany, and the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) convened the High-Level Roundtable “From Commitments to Action: Practical Steps on Prioritizing GBV Prevention and Response in Emergencies and Addressing Funding Gaps“ at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN in New York.
Attended by IASC Principals, donors and Call to Action partners, especially from Women-Led Organizations, the Roundtable was convened as a follow-up to the High-Level Roundtable in 2021 to take stock of progress achieved since and to formulate new, ambitious commitments to address the chronic GBV funding shortfalls and persistent barriers of local Women-Led Organizations’ in accessing funding.
ERC Martin Griffiths opened the Roundtable and issued a resolute and ambitious appeal for the IASC system to ramp up efforts and strategic foresight to better prioritize and fund GBV prevention and response. Ms. Susanne Baumann, German State Secretary, emphasized that ensuring GBV funding to enable concrete progress is a core priority for the German Government but stressed that GBV is still not widely prioritized from the outset of emergencies. Ms. Lisa Doughten, Director of OCHA’s Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division delivered closing remarks on the ERC’s behalf, underscoring once more the urgency of the crisis that is violence against women and girls, and calling on participants to implement the ambitious commitments made today.
In their remarks speakers from International Organizations and Women-Led Organizations called on all IASC members to put GBV risk mitigation and response at the top of the system’s priority list and to reduce barriers, which continue to persist for Women-Led Organizations in accessing funding despite them being frontline responders in GBV emergencies.
IASC Principals, Member States, Call to Action Funding Task Team co-chairs and local Women-Led Organizations made key commitments and recommendations to achieve GBV financing prioritization. The full “Summary, Commitments and Action Points” can be found here.
As next steps, IASC Principals will discuss at their next bi-annual meeting progress made on participants’ commitments and action points from the High-Level Roundtable.