Background

Violence in specific contexts, including workplaces, is a major problem. It is also acknowledged that violence against health care workers (VHCW) tends to remain invisible in comparison to other forms of violence.1
In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), VHCW has been reported from several countries, acknowledging its endemic dimension, the negative impact on health care workers (HCW) and services, a high level of tolerance to non-physical violence and absence of policies to deal with violence, contributing to the underreporting of the problem and its neglect in health workforce planning.2,3
However, gender aspects of violence have not been properly addressed, remaining the question as to what extent VHCW should be interpreted as gender-based violence (GBV), a global public health problem with a significant prevalence in developing countries.4,5
This letter revisits data reported previously in this Journal that describe the typology and the perceived impact of VHCW at the health services of the City of Lichinga in Mozambique during 2019.3 In this letter we attempt to understand if our results on VHCW in Niassa can be considered as an example of GBV.
This was driven by the 2019 Centenary Conference of the International Labour Organization which adopted a Convention, accompanying Recommendations and a Declaration, to address, among other issues, violence and harassment in the workplace. These documents acknowledged that GBV and harassment disproportionately affect women and girls, and recognize “that an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach, which tackles underlying causes and risk factors, including gender stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations, is essential to ending violence and harassment in the world of work” (https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C190).