Crisis Response Teams: A Peer-Led Model to Combatting Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence Against Sex Workers in Africa

North Star Alliance East Africa (“North Star”) is a not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to provide essential health services for marginalized (and often criminalized), at-risk, underserved populations along busy transport corridors in sub-Saharan Africa. The innovation is a sex-worker led Crisis Response Teams (CRTs) to combat sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against sex workers, whose vulnerability has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CRTs are informed by five good practice interventions – sex worker community-led rapid response and prevention, police sensitization, litigation, data gathering, and community-based systems.