Addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), through building on the work completed in 2015 and 2016, will continue to be a key priority for 2017. The Burundian emergency response in 2015 and the opening of the camp site in Nduta in October 2015, placed great strain on the inter-agency partners to provide increased quality multi-sectoral response services with limited resources. The continuous assessment of the situation of SGBV in the camps as well as the 2016 participatory assessment confirmed that SGBV is a key issue and a concern in the community. Increased risk factors of SGBV in the camps have been identified in particular around the collection of firewood and water, moving in the dark and accessing latrines without lighting.
The Burundian community is reporting SGBV incidents at a rate of 1.6 percent of the current population per month in Nyarugusu, with cases occurring before, during and after the flight, in the camps. In Nduta and Mtendeli, which were opened in January 2016, the number of reported SGBV cases is constantly growing, reflecting the efficiency of enhanced and systematic screening, outreach and awareness-raising activities. These trends are expected to continue in 2017 and are also anticipated for the Karago camp that is planned to be opening in the second quarter of 2016.
During the participatory assessment it was found that women and girls continue to underreport SGBV incidences. Continued work in the community to build trust and to be able to provide timely response and continued follow-up as part of enhanced case management, will remain a key focus, as also the provision of multisectoral response services, including enhanced case management. In 2017, 2,400 refugees will receive assistance.
Continued training and enhancement of clinical staff, providing support to improve access to justice through the provision of mobile courts or better access to existing courts as well as the standardization of informal mediation processes will be a priority. Assistance gap regarding provision of safe shelter due to lack of sufficient number of places, in particular for male survivors, will be addressed in 2016 and further tackled in 2017. Psychosocial counselling will continue to be a priority for 2017. Furthermore, the operation will focus on finding a solution to provide alternative fuel sources to the population, to overcome a key protection risk for women and girls.
Increased work on quality prevention activities, including with the communities, in particular engaging men, boys and the youth, will continue to be a priority as will the increased provision of psychosocial support (PSS) on issues such as depression and trauma, which proved to be a key contributing factor to acts of SGBV among the newly arrived population. Specific and focused campaigns will be rolled out targeting issues raised in the assessments and developed in consultation with the community.
Coordination of SGBV response will be enhanced and, following the implementation of the revised inter-agency standard operating procedures (SOPs) of SGBV prevention and response in 2016, the inter-agency protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) protocol, including an effective complaint mechanism and community-based working groups on SGBV will be established. These measures will be expanded to cover all camp sites, including Nyarugusu, Nduta, Mtendeli, Karago and new camp sites established in 2016.
2017