GCRF_NF123: COVID-19, social distancing and violence against women in Brazil (BRAVE)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Centre for Health Economics
Abstract
Domestic violence against women (DVAW) is a major issue in Brazil. It tends to disproportionally affect women of disadvantaged backgrounds, putting them at a higher risk of poverty and potentially increasing gender-based inequities. Commentators have linked social distancing measures introduced in Brazil to address the spread of COVID-19 to significant increases in DVAW cases, with similar reports in other countries. COVID-19 cases in Brazil are forecast to keep increasing, likely leading to further social distancing measures in the near future, making our research urgent to understand how policies can better protect vulnerable women and reduce the broader impacts of these measures to society.
BRAVE seeks to understand how social distancing measures affect DVAW and assess the resulting societal costs of such effect. To this end, we will analyse information on DVAW and its link to social distancing adherence, poverty and the financial cost of DVAW to victims and society, focusing on Brazilian cities. We will also examine how public policies aimed at mitigating the negative consequences of social distancing influence DVAW, and how these policies could be refined to better address DVAW. We will work closely with both the local academic community and representatives of public and other organisations, to offer guidance to improve public policies for DVAW victims in the pandemic context, for Brazil and potentially other countries.
BRAVE seeks to understand how social distancing measures affect DVAW and assess the resulting societal costs of such effect. To this end, we will analyse information on DVAW and its link to social distancing adherence, poverty and the financial cost of DVAW to victims and society, focusing on Brazilian cities. We will also examine how public policies aimed at mitigating the negative consequences of social distancing influence DVAW, and how these policies could be refined to better address DVAW. We will work closely with both the local academic community and representatives of public and other organisations, to offer guidance to improve public policies for DVAW victims in the pandemic context, for Brazil and potentially other countries.
| Description | Our review of the most rigorous literature focusing on violence against women (VAW) amid the pandemic in low- and middle-income countries has found mixed evidence about the VAW effects of stay-at-home measures, although increases in VAW have been more frequently observed where stay-at-home measures were stricter. Important reasons for the mixed evidence found in the literature seem to be the different types of violence analysed (physical, sexual, psychological, or economic) and the difficulties associated with the reporting of these types of VAW. The main methodological challenges faced by this literature relate to data availability and the reliability of the methods employed to separate the effects of social isolation on VAW, from those VAW effects associated with the income and emotional shocks induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovative methods and data can help improve our understanding of the unintended VAW consequences of movement restrictions, including its key pathways, so as to reliably inform the design of better policy responses to this major social and public health challenge. From our analyses about the impact of social distancing measures on femicides in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, we found that higher social isolation in the State municipalities after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the probability of femicides in these municipalities. We find that such probability almost doubled in the period of increased social distancing in the State. The rise in the probability of femicides across municipalities was largely driven by violence that took place at the victim's home. Our evidence also indicates that the provision of emergency financial aid to poorer families during the pandemic has contributed to mitigate the exacerbation of VAW. |
| Exploitation Route | An overall recommendation arising from our research, which is of particular relevance for policymaking amid the pandemic context, is that gender with particular focus on VAW should be mainstreamed in any response to COVID-19 and for post-COVID recovery measures. It should be further noted that many of the policy responses, lessons and recommendations that seem useful to mitigate deleterious VAW impacts relate to the improvement of services and responses that could have impacts in the medium and longer term to improve women's safety if sustained. In addition, the way forward toward effectively addressing VAW requires a strong focus on prevention, including short-term measures that ease domestic financial pressures as a potential source of intrafamily conflict (e.g. emergency financial aid to mitigate the economic consequences of social distancing interventions), and medium to long-term approaches that also tackle the systemic economic and social inequalities as underlying components of VAW risks. |
| Sectors | Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Project findings have informed the development of two policy briefing notes in partnership with the World Bank, which were launched by this multilateral organisation in early 2023 to support the design of policies related to gender-based violence, particularly in low- and middle-income settings. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | NIHR Global Health Research Unit: Health Financing for UHC in Challenging Times - Leaving No-One Behind |
| Amount | £6,980,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2022 |
| End | 07/2027 |
| Description | British Embassy in Brazil |
| Organisation | British Embassy in Brazil |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Knowledge exchange about aims and insights from our BRAVE project's research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Assistance with disseminating the project, including through social media posts about the project which were disseminated through the British Embassy in Brazil's channels, ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of violence against Women (25th November). |
| Impact | Social media posts on the British embassy's Twitter and Facebook channels disseminating our research project. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | World Bank - Paula Tavares |
| Organisation | World Bank Group |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Knowledge exchange about research gaps, methods and data that will inform the partner's policy activities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Knowledge exchange about research gaps and data that is informing our research. Participation as panel discussant in organised session proposal for an international conference. Co-development of two policy briefing outputs published by the World Bank. Participation in meetings. |
| Impact | So far this collaboration has led to two joint policy briefing notes published by the World Bank, containing summaries of our project findings. These are listed in the Publications section. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | #OngoingGBVchallenge Twitter Chat 31st March 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The Latin American Program at the Wilson Center and the World Bank organized an online Twitter Chat Event on March 31st, from 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET around International Women's Month with the aim of increasing awareness of and drawing attention to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on GBV. The event was informed by results from the BRAVE project. The Twitter Chat engaged partners, relevant organizations and the public in a discussion on the issue with GBV specialists from the World Bank, Wilson Center, UN Women, PAHO, Global Women's Institute, UN Spotlight Initiative, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, University of North Carolina, SVRI, UNAM, among others through a series of questions on Twitter using the Hashtag #OngoingGBVchallenge. We also created this website for the event with very preliminary information, but this hasn't been updated after the event yet; it will be updated in due course with post-event info. https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2022/03/30/the-incidence-of-gender-based-violence-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean The event was held completely online via Twitter and all the engagement can be recovered through the hashtag: #OngoingGBVChallenge (Twitter). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2022/03/30/the-incidence-of-gender-based-violence-in-latin-ameri... |
| Description | Abrint presentation - Dolores 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The Brazilian academic team's lead investigator presented the BRAVE project and its preliminary results at a special event to celebrate Women's International Day, organised by the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunication Service Providers (Abrint) in March 2021. there was interaction with the online audience through a Q&A session afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | EconomistAs podcast: Economic empowerment of women 5th September 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Members of the BRAVE research team are part of the Brazilian Women in Economics (BWE) / EconomistAs group in Brazil - a research group that aims to study the various dimensions of the gender gap in Brazil. The group's podcast and Twitter account has been a channel for discussions on violence against women, amongst other topics. One episode was hosted by members of the BRAVE project team, with the project's partner (Paula Tavares - The World Bank) as the interviewee. All podcasts are available online (in Portuguese), and shared via BWE social media (@bwe_EconomistAs). The episode with our project partner had 352 views (as of March 2022) and it is online: https://anchor.fm/laura-k8/episodes/Paula-Tavares-empoderamento-econmico-da-mulher-e16uh7p In this episode of the economists podcast, we talk to Paula Tavares, about the economic empowerment of women, the pandemic and the impact on women with children, initiatives that different countries have adopted to combat violence against women during the pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://anchor.fm/laura-k8/episodes/Paula-Tavares-empoderamento-econmico-da-mulher-e16uh7p |
| Description | SBE Brazil presentation 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 42nd Meeting of the Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria Thursday, December 10 2020: Special Session FIPE EconomistAs: "COVID-19 and Domestic Violence in Brazil and Chile". Chair: José Raimundo Carvalho (Universidade Federal do Ceará) >> Maria Dolores Montoya-Diaz (Universidade de São Paulo) and Rodrigo Moreno-Serra (University of York): "COVID-19, Social Distancing and Violence Against Women in Brazil" >> Francisco Pino (Universidad de Chile): "Impacts of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence, Crime and Male and Female Time Use and Labour Supply: Evidence from Rolling Quarantines in Chile" Team members presented the BRAVE project and preliminary analytical results during a special session of the annual online meeting of the Brazilian Society for Econometrics, which was organised by the international overseas academic partner (University of Sao Paulo). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | iHEA 2021 Congress: Organised Session 12th July 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On 12th July 2021, members of the BRAVE research team led an organised session at the 2021 International Health Economics Association (iHEA) Congress. The session was titled 'The Health Economics of a Shadow Pandemic: COVID-19 and Gender-Based Violence in Latin America'. The session presented and discussed empirical work about how COVID-19 social distancing measures affect violence against women and the economic costs of such effects, focusing on selected Latin American countries - which included Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Researchers shared findings from the BRAVE project, and an open debate with the audience followed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.healtheconomics.org/resource/resmgr/2021_virtual_conference/program_pdf_s/... |