Dear Colleagues,
We hope that this email finds you safe, healthy, and well. On top of the challenge of maintaining your personal well-being, and that of your families, we know many of you are now intensively working on responding to COVID-19 and adapting your ongoing programs. We wanted to let you know that, while the Results-Based Protection Team at InterAction is unable to travel to provide direct in-country support, our commitment to NGOs to achieve protection outcomes is still our utmost priority.
In the spirit of results-based methods, we are working to adapt to the current context to include new working modalities. This will include online platforms for peer exchange, webinars and e-learning, as well as some tools and materials to support you in applying results-based approaches, including in the context in the current COVID-19 crisis. We are also exploring ways to maintain our support to NGO field level analysis and program strategies through remote engagement and support, including coaching as needed.
We know that this time is filled with a lot of uncertainty, priorities are shifting daily, and new pressures are emerging in response to the spread of COVID-19 across the globe. We want you to know that we are here to support you as you navigate these changes in your own locations, especially where people continue to be exposed to ongoing violence, coercion, and deliberate deprivation and as new threats and vulnerabilities emerge as a consequence of COVID-19.
We are already starting to hear of increased risks of intimate partner violence and child abuse as well as various forms of violence against and deprivation of displaced populations, migrants, and refugees, including forced relocation and/or restriction of movement. Continuous context-specific analysis, especially with communities already in crisis due to conflict or other forms of community violence, will be especially critical to identify and monitor new patterns of protection risks that may emerge. As we adapt our protection strategies to these challenges, it will be more important than ever to engage actors across a range of sectors and disciplines and work in a highly flexible and iterative manner.
While we unfortunately had to postpone the annual RBP Roundtable that was to take place in Amman, Jordan in early March, we have decided to transform this event into a virtual roundtable and hold many of the planned sessions as on-line webinars, virtual groups, and remote discussion sessions. We expect to provide more information in the coming weeks with a calendar invite to invite you to save the date. Many of our originally planned sessions focused on how to prevent violence, coercion, and deliberate deprivation in humanitarian crises, including sharing good practice related to analysis for decision-making, strategies for reducing risk, access as a protection issue, and measuring risk reduction. We believe these discussions will offer useful insight as we all navigate the global COVID-19 crisis.
Finally, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if we can support you as you continue to address protection concerns in your work and adapt to new challenges. During this time of isolation for many of us, the relationships we have built, and the new ones we continue to make, are essential even if there is physical distance between us. Let us continue to nurture them, engage with each other, offering our support to one another, and strengthening a community working to achieve protection for people at risk.
Stay safe and well,
Jessica, Lea, Keri, and Katryna