The term “shadow pandemic” arose along with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic globally, referring to the parallel increase of gender-based violence (GBV) as a result of lockdowns, preventive measures and economic hardships in almost every nation worldwide, including Ethiopia, with one of the highest rates of GBV in the world. With limited physical access to essential services and support, information and communication(ICT) services became an important factor to rely on. Based on interviews with four Ethiopian organisations working with women’s health and rights, this study investigates how ICT services were implemented to support victims of GBV during COVID-19 in Ethiopia, including the facilitators and barriers to using these services for women seeking support and information. The study finds that all four organisations either created new or scaled up existing ICT services during COVID-19. The ICT services provided by the organisations were mainly telephone helplines, while interactive voice response services and mobile chat applications were also provided as channels for support. The identified facilitators and barriers to using these ICT services were related to accessibility and technology, language and cultural traditions, and anonymity and security. While the use of ICT services for victims of GBV seems to be a functioning option for many when the access to in-person support is limited, barriers such as the lack and disruption of networks and telephones still pose a significant challenge for women in rural areas to use the support systems provided by the organisations. A postcolonial feminist approach to the findings highlights the need for a contextualisation of the services and the need to move away from simplistic assumptions that access to services automatically leads to active use and empowerment, and the need to work with an intersectional lens and multiple layers of analysis when battling sensitive issues like GBV in areas where harmful practices are part of longstanding cultural traditions, to ensure access and active use for groups in different contexts and areas throughout the country.

This report was the result of a study conducted in Stockholm County in Sweden. This study aimed to gain further understanding of how social workers working with domestic violence issues perceived how the COVID-19 pandemic affected women who are victims of domestic violence in Sweden. Three social workers working with victims of domestic violence were interviewed using semi structured questions. The sample consisted of two respondents from social services and one respondent from a women'sshelter. Their clients are women from the age of 18 and above with different cultural backgrounds. The results generated from the interview were analysed using feminist theory and earlier research conducted on domestic violence. Though domestic violence against women has been a social problem before the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings revealed the different factors that led to more cases of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic such as economic dependency on the perpetrator, depression,alcohol abuse, and social isolation due to the partial lockdown. These factors cause the women (victims) to be more vulnerable to the crime perpetrated by their partners, and due to partial lockdown and the stay-at-home order by the government to combat the spread of COVID-19 virus in Sweden, the social workers believed that the women (the victims) were stuck with their perpetrators and unable to come out to seek the help needed and this made their situation more vulnerable resulting to long life effects like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD), suicidal thoughts and even death.