The Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Area of Responsibility (AoR) in Myanmar, led by UNFPA, functions under the umbrella of the Protection Cluster. It brings together humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors to ensure that efforts to address GBV are coordinated, inclusive, and effective across the country. Strong collaboration with other clusters, AoRs, and working groups allows the AoR to embed GBV risk mitigation and survivor-centered response across the broader humanitarian architecture.

The AoR’s core role is to guide and support partners in preventing, mitigating, and responding to GBV in emergencies. This includes contexts of conflict, displacement, civil unrest, and natural disasters where women, girls, and other at-risk groups face heightened vulnerabilities. By prioritizing GBV in humanitarian response, the AoR helps ensure predictable programming and high-quality services that are firmly rooted in the survivor-centred principles of safety, dignity, confidentiality, and non-discrimination.

In its work, the GBV AoR draws upon global standards and frameworks to advance consistent, inclusive, and accountable GBV programming, ensuring services are accessible to women, adolescent girls, persons with disabilities, gender diverse groups, and others facing compounded risks. 

To strengthen practice and foster peer learning, the AoR convenes technical and thematic groups, including joint initiatives with the Child Protection AoR and the MHPSS Working Group, as well as collaborations on cross-cutting areas like Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). These spaces generate tools, trainings, and shared strategies that improve the overall capacity of partners and the quality of GBV services.

At the centre of its mandate, the GBV AoR emphasizes that GBV is not only a protection concern but a core humanitarian priority. By mainstreaming GBV risk reduction and reinforcing survivor-centered principles across sectors, the AoR contributes to building safer communities and advancing the long-term dignity, safety, wellbeing, and empowerment of women and girls in Myanmar.