Stop Violence in GVCs! A Critical Analysis of Interventions to Reduce Gender-based Violence

Abstract

As highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, addressing gender-based violence (GBV) has been identified not only as an essential avenue to achieve gender equality and better health but also as a way of “doing good” by multinational corporations (MNCs). While lead MNCs of global value chains (GVC) are pressed to improve social and environmental outcomes through GVCs governance, it remains a theoretical and empirical question as to the conditions under which various interventions are effective. Our study builds on the GVC social upgrading literature, status inconsistency theory, and social identity theory to examine the effects of specific initiatives to address GBV among artisanal mining communities in the D.R. of Congo by using a novel longitudinal dataset collected in 2019 and 2020. Our results show that interventions that incorporate educational components of GBV-related knowledge and promote social inclusion are more likely to reduce GBV in the furthest reaches of a GVC when local institutions are weak. However, these positive influences of these interventions diminished during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings shed new light on the theoretical implications of GVC performance and practical guidance for project and policy design to combat GBV.