GBV/SEA AND CHILD PROTECTION IMPLEMENTATION PLAN- SNSOP
This GBV Action Plan has been developed to accompany the implementation of the SNSOP and ensure that the project does not have any negative impacts or further promotes GBV, SEA or the abuse of children. It presents operational activities as well as recommendations for GBV, SEA and child protection risk mitigation measures that build on existing mechanisms in South Sudan. The Action Plan provides general procedures for grievances related to such abuse in project areas. It is based on existing protection, prevention and mitigation strategies and measures developed by MAFS and other IPs as well as measures by other key actors in South Sudan, as coordinated through the GBV sub-cluster group.
The Action Plan will be updated following a further community consultation that will assess specific community needs as well as the current GBV/SEA and child protective referral pathways that service providers make available in the project-affected communities.
CLASSIFICATION OF GBV/SEA
GBV: According to the World Bank Guidance Note on GBV in civil works, ‘GBV is an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed gender differences.’ It can therefore occur in a variety of different ways, including through the infliction of physical, mental, and sexual harm, or suffering threats of such acts, as well as coercion and other deprivations of liberty, such as early or forced marriage, economic abuse or denial of resources, services and opportunities, trafficking and abduction for exploitation, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) perpetrated by a former or current partner. Most importantly, the World Bank applies ‘GBV’ as an umbrella term that includes SEA.
The Guidance Note defines four key areas of GBV risks:
- SEA – exploitation of a vulnerable position, use of differential power for sexual purpose; actual or threatened sexual physical intrusion.
- Workplace sexual harassment – unwanted sexual advances; requests for sexual favours, sexual physical contact.
- Human trafficking – sexual slavery coerced transactional sex, illegal transnational movement of people.
- Non-SEA: Physical assault, psychological or physical abuse, denial of resources, opportunities, or services, IPV.
SEA: The United Nations apply the term SEA regarding staff conduct. The United Nations Protocol on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse involving implementing partners defines SEA as ‘Sexual exploitation is any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another’, and ‘sexual abuse means the actual or 5 threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions’. For the SNSOP project, the broader definition of GBV will be applied to ensure that a broader set of acts are covered.
Violence against Children: The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines violence against children as: ‘All forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse…’. Child labor, however, is treated by UNICEF as a context of heightened risk of violence rather than violence itself. The SNSOP sub-components and activities do not rely on major civil works, and the anticipated social impacts are mainly positive and are not expected to have irreversible social impacts related to, community health and safety and cultural heritage. The potential adverse risks and impacts include gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA).