On April 11th 2020 fourteen Libyan NGOs working on women’s rights issues from various perspective co-signed an open letter led by Jusoor, Haaki and Tamazight Women Movement addressed to the presidential council to give gender-sensitive recommendations to their COVID-19 Crisis Committee and to urge them to adopt these recommendations in their policies and national action plans in fighting the pandemic.

The recommendations highlighted the urgency to address the needs of women and girls who are most affected by the lockdown: internally displaced, low income, widows, inmates, migrants, refugees, stateless and those who are the sole providers for their families.

Services needed to tackle those needs are:

• Food support to women living in a rural area with no access to markets
• Psycho-social support.
• Effective dissemination of information regarding preventive measures.
• Provide a hotline for women in police departments to respond to domestic violence and abuse complaints.
• Protect vulnerable women in Libya by dedicating financial aids and programs to support them economically to counter the economic effect of COVID-19.
• Apply pre-emptive measures as set by WHO and human rights organizations