During a pandemic, lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions on movement are deemed necessary preventative health measures that can save millions of lives. For women and girls, they can also be sources of increased risk of violence and death.

This resouce is a companion to UNFPA's second edition of Reporting on Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Settings: A Journalist's Handbook.

UNFPA aims to achieve three world-changing results by 2030, the deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. These are: Ending unmet need for family planning, ending gender-based violence including harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage, and ending all preventable maternal deaths. COVID-19 pandemic could critically undermine progress made towards achieving these goals.

UNFPA is working with governments and partners to avoid or minimize shortages of contraceptives and life-saving maternal health medicines―all in close coordination. Together, we are working to prioritize supply requests, orders, shipments, production schedules and other operational aspects of procurement. We aim to ensure product availability in countries.