Administrative Response to Consequences of COVID-19 Emergency Responses: Observations and Implications From Gender-Based Violence in Argentina

Abstract

Many governments across the globe enacted mandatory stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the many consequences of these governmental protection orders is to confine potential perpetrators and victims of gender-based violence in close proximity thereby reducing the opportunity for survivors to report abuse and get assistance. In this essay, we describe the multilevel governmental response in Argentina to address gender-based violence during the first month of mandatory stay-at-home order amid the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. National and provincial governments enacted innovative and coordinated responses to gender-based violence that targeted systemic causes of gender-based violence, ensured continuity of existing services, and generated new communication strategies to allow nonverbal reporting during the pandemic. The Argentinean example suggests that governmental organizations should consider the gendered effects of government responses to emergencies and respond through a multilevel and cross-sectoral response to protect groups disproportionately affected by the crisis and resulting policy.