There is no doubt that in times of crisis, gender-based violence increases. We are currently in the 16 days of recognizing that effect right now and trying to work toward eliminating it. It is happening.
The one area that is overlooked or not being looked at enough is women, peace and security. Basically, conflict to conflict enforces violence against women in conflict settings. I think this pandemic is increasing it. You can see it here. Just two days ago in northeast Nigeria the same thing happened again. The media is not covering it. It's not really in the news as much as the pandemic itself and so it is forgotten.
One way to deal with this is to maybe partner with women political leaders here on the continent, especially on the continent of Africa, to advance this issue of women, peace and security. The African First Ladies Peace Mission, which is a very credible organization of first ladies in Africa, is one such organization that leverages real political power to make changes. You need sustained, constant political leverage in order to make that change on gender-based violence here.
Don't get me wrong. The advocacy is great and it should continue. The programs on maternal health should likely continue as well, but what we need is sustained political engagement.