Gender-based violence

Plan defines gender-based violence (GBV) as an umbrella term for any act perpetrated against a person's will that is based on socially ascribed (i.e., gender) differences between men and women. It includes acts that inflict mental or sexual harm or suffering, the threat of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty. These acts may occur in public or in private.

Violence against girls and violence against women intersect on many levels. There are many common risk factors, social and gender norms that justify violence permeate both forms of violence and usually occur in the family itself.

For Plan, violence against girls and women by an intimate partner or husband is the most common of all forms of gender-based violence. As they get older, girls are at greater risk of sexual violence. Other forms of violence against girls include Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Union (CEFMU), sexual abuse, trafficking and smuggling for sexual exploitation, and sexual harassment.