Improving access to comprehensive GBV services for IDPs, returnees, and vulnerable host populations in Baquba, Al-Hatra, and Al-Baaj districts in Diyala and Ninewa Governorates GBV persists, impeding women’s and girls’ human rights, health, and safety with nearly 1.3 million Iraqis at risk of GBV. The proposed consortium of CARE, NCA, and VERA will allow the partners to work together to respond to and prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in Ninewa and Diyala, which have been identified as the governorates with the highest risks and major gaps in GBV prevention and response services. To address the GBV issues as well as the gaps in Ninewa and Diyala, CARE will work with VERA to address the needs in the Baquba district of Diyala governorate, targeting Beni-Saad and Buhriz sub-districts In contrast, NCA will work in the Al-Hamra and Al-Baaj districts of the Ninewa governorate, covering Markas Al-Hatra, Al-Qahtania, and Markaz Al-Baaj sub-districts. 

The project aims to address GBV humanitarian consequences of the 2014 - 2017 crisis, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring a localized approach to the problems identified through consultations with local communities, humanitarian actors, and local gatekeepers during a GBV needs assessment as well as the Humanitarian Needs Overview (2021) for Iraq. The project will provide lifesaving GBV interventions on both the response and prevention dimensions in Ninewa and Diyala to 13900 vulnerable out-of-camp IDPs, returnees, and crisis-affected host community members, through a consortium approach allowing consolidation of synergies among three partners. INGOs and local/national NGOs bring resources, expertise, and skills together to serve the vulnerable communities through different activities which will allow survivors to access a wide array of services: 1) comprehensive and age-appropriate GBV case management, 2) provision of dignity kits, 3) legal assistance/counseling for GBV survivors, 4) cash-for-protection, 5) structured psychosocial support, 6) income-generation support for vulnerable women and girls, 7) GBV awareness-raising and sensitization, safe referral to multi-sector services, 8) capacity building engagements with local actors to enable a sustainable protective environment for women and girls. Activities related to income-generation and mainstreaming gender will be explicitly implemented by CARE in both Ninewa and Diyala, ensuring complementarity and sharing of resources among consortium members. 

Direct beneficiaries of the project will be mainly women and girls with and without disabilities. At the same time, men and boys will also be engaged through awareness-raising activities and capacity-building initiatives. Access to services will be ensured to People with disabilities with an estimated 15% quota of all activities, and their access will be tracked through sex, age and disability disaggregated data collection tools. The Washington group set of questions for disability will be used to define and collect data on disability. Additionally, the static WGSS will be designed to be accessible for people with disabilities. Lastly, the alliance with men and boys will be important to create a supportive environment that ensures the prevention of GBV, promotes community buy-in and spreads positive social norms against GBV. 
 
The project feeds into the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies global initiative that OCHA, Global Protection Cluster, UNFPA, and CARE partner to and will build upon CARE's experience with its field implementation in Iraq with women-led organizations.

The consortium targets 19320 beneficiaries in the two governorates. NCA targets reaching 13000 beneficiaries in Ninewa (5200 in Al Hatra and 7800 in Ba’aj districts) while VERA will reach 6100 returnees in Baquba district. CARE will support a total of 200 women in both Ninewa and Diyala governorates (45 in Al Hatra, 67 in Ba’aj, and 88 in Baquba).