1. Introduction
1.1 The aim of this paper is to set out the views of Eurostep member agencies on current practice in humanitarian responses, and recommendations for future policy priorities. The paper has been put together in preparation for the meeting of the Development Council in May 1996, at which the issue of gender and emergencies is to be debated.
1.2 The overall view of the Eurostep agencies is that, while some emergency responses carried out by the international community have achieved improvements in responsiveness, targeting and social awareness, the majority of emergency responses ignore the special needs of women, miss opportunities to strengthen their position (and sometimes weaken it), ignore women's own resources and characteristics, and disregard the long-term social rehabilitation needs of the communities they serve. The structure of the emergency response profession, which the European Community has helped to shape, needs to be reformed in order to encourage longer-term thinking and to ensure that the emergency responses are geared to the differentiated needs of the affected populations, in order to strengthen long-term recovery .
1.3 The term 'emergency situations' here includes situations where natural or other disaster threatens the capacity of a community to withstand crisis, leading to large-scale loss - or impending loss - of life and livelihoods. The incidence and gravity of emergency situations has been swelled since the end of the cold war by the increasing frequency of man-made crises brought on by armed conflict, as well as the increasingly destructive impact of wars on civilians. Since conflict emergencies currently make up the greatest part of emergency relief requirements, inevitably much of the discussion concerns conflict-related situations and the international response to them. Women's role in conflict prevention and peace-building is too broad an issue to be addressed fully in this paper although reference is made to it.
1.4 The capacity of human societies to withstand disasters is determined primarily not by the type or severity of the disaster itself, but by the internal strengths and weaknesses of the society. Those who seek to understand these internal factors must clearly take into account distinctions between different sections of the population, and most particularly distinctions of gender. Social and cultural differences between men and women affect the way crises impact on them. Although other distinctions such as those based on material wealth, age, occupation or ethnicity are also important, gender cuts across these and has important light to shed on them. Gender differences may be an important factor in determining not only the effectiveness of immediate relief measures, but also the community's capacity to rebuild itself in the long term after the crisis is over.
2. Background
2.1 Until recently, little attention was paid to the impacts of war and other forms of disaster on women. Over the last 2-3 years, however, NGOs have carried out research and policy initiatives, and the UN system has begun policy development and training in some related areas.
2.2 The issue of women and armed conflict was one of the main subject areas of the UN Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995. Among the main concerns reflected in the Platform for Action are: rape as a war crime and other forms of abuses of women's human rights, military expenditure and the proliferation of anti-personnel mines, women's roles in conflict resolution and peace-building, and the withholding of food and medicines as a military strategy.
2.3 The Council of the European Community recognised gender and emergencies as one of three main areas of further consideration in its 1995 Resolution on integrating gender issues in development co-operation. The Resolution provides a basis of commitment on which effective policies on emergency operations can be built.
3. Policy Considerations
3.1 From these various initiatives, three general areas of concern have emerged in relation to the subject of gender and emergencies: women's immediate needs in emergency situations and the adequacy of the response to them; the problem of women's subordination, which is fundamental to the question of how women's needs are voiced and responded to; and the importance of maintaining a long-term perspective in which women are perceived as crucial actors in the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction, a perspective which must inform emergency responses just as firmly as immediate survival needs do.
3.2 Women's immediate needs
3.21 Firstly, women have specific needs in emergency situations, arising out of their gender roles and out of the changes to these that result from rapid and tumultuous change. These immediate, specific needs are for physical safety and freedom from violence, for economic opportunities, for physical, psychological and reproductive health, and for the welfare of their children and families.
3.22 Women's physical safety is often under threat, especially in situations of lawlessness where they may be targets of personal attack and rape, or if armed conflict is taking place near where people are living, or near markets or farming areas.
'Up to fifty mothers a week are being killed in cross-fire or by land-mines. The mothers have gone out to the country to get food and have been either killed or blown up by mines.' (Aid agency worker in Angola quoted in The Observer) 'In this part of Rwanda the massacres were very fierce. Most of the men were either killed or fled. The perpetrators were not so interested in killing women so they just attacked them with machetes as they fled, and left them injured. That is why there are so many disabled women in this area. They are mostly heads of households so they can't feed their families unless other women come and help them.' (Aid worker in Bugasera, Rwanda)
3.23 The absence of men (who may have been killed, imprisoned, gone away to fight, or left to seek a livelihood elsewhere) gives rise to a preponderance of women, children and the elderly. Upwards of 50% of households may be without adult male support, the proportion being higher among the most impoverished sections of the population. UNHCR estimates that world-wide, 80% of refugee and displaced populations are women and children.
'Formerly, the women were confined to such activities as water delivery, occasional farming, limited business involvement, looking after the children, food handling. Now, with this circumstance, they have to assume full household management, including securing income for survival, maintaining livestock, etc. The market is overwhelmed by women, selling bits of sugar, salt, tea leaves, maize, beans, eggs and meat.' (Report from Sablaale, Somalia)
3.24 Reports from Cambodia, Somalia and Angola, amongst others, indicate that deaths and injuries from landmines are high among women. Women disabled as a result can often expect to receive little support; artificial limb services tend to focus primarily on war veterans. Disabled women will have difficulty executing routine household tasks, and may suffer social stigma as a result. They may well be repudiated by their husbands.
3.25 Women's health needs in emergencies are extensive and complex. On the one hand, the continuing needs of women and children for gynaecological and paediatric care may not be met if services have broken down. On the other, women have particular needs generated by emergency situations, such as rape counselling, psychological support and contraceptive services.
'All complained of headaches; some had them permanently. Other symptoms the women cited were worry, premature ageing, inability to concentrate, inexplicable aches and pains, fainting and temporary paralysis.... "The kind of pain we have, you can not really explain. We do not feel well. We ask God, if life is so bad then why have you created us? ... You can stand hunger and thirst, but losing people, that you can't stand."' (Samaha from Afghanistan, quoted by Fiona McLachlan in Focus on gender, 1/2, Oxfam) '...The reasons for increased birth rates (in refugee communities) may include: increased sexual activity through boredom, itself caused by enforced unemployment and the lack of other work or leisure opportunity; lack of contraceptives that may have been available prior to migration; rape; provision of sexual favours in return for protection, essential food or money; social pressure to replace community members killed in flight or fighting.' (Sara Davidson, in Refugee Participation Network Issue 20)
3.26 In many societies, one of women's most vital roles is that of provider of food for the family. In emergencies they encounter great limitations in the exercise of this role as food stocks diminish or become cut off by insecurity. When warring protagonists use food as a weapon, deliberately destroying or cutting off access to food stocks, fields and businesses, it is principally women who must develop alternative strategies. When women take on the role of sole provider and protector for their families, a new set of needs arises. Family labour power is limited unless there are other adults who can help with substantial tasks (in agriculture, for example, or in marketing or house construction). Women alone lack the political linkages and social status (and sometimes the right language) required to obtain rations, travel papers and credit.
3.3 Addressing women's subordinate position
3.31 Secondly, women occupy a subordinate position in society, which makes them targets for physical attacks and abuse, blocks avenues for acquiring necessary skills, and limits their access to resources and power structures. Women's efforts to provide sustenance and protection for their families often go unsupported, because in almost all societies it is men who control the major productive resources and decisions about their use and distribution. Women tend to lack strategic assets such as land, animals, or other forms of wealth, as well as less tangible resources such as education and literacy, information, organisations and support networks. Relief goods distributed as part of emergency projects are among these major resources which women may find difficulty in getting independent access to. Women are poorly represented in relief committees or in local or national political structures and decision-making bodies, and equally within NGOs and other relief providing agencies.
In northern Mali, a combination of drought, war and recession has led to a male exodus in the last few years. Here a group of women family-heads, who had taken up market gardening as a means of gaining an income, found great difficulties in acquiring good land (women have no rights to own land in that area) and were constantly frustrated by the authorities over access to seeds and equipment. During the famine in Somalia, elders' committees saw protection of the vulnerable as their responsibility. They were willing to ensure that poor and women-headed families received the right food rations. But the elders, all of whom are men, did not accept the idea of allowing women onto the committees which controlled relief distribution, or that relief items should be distributed on a per head, rather than a per family, basis. In Rwandese refugee camps in Tanzania, commune leaders effectively control the distribution of food and other relief goods since they supply the distribution lists. They often control the 'mafia' system whereby rations are stolen from people coming away from distribution centres and then resold in the huge and bustling market. (Source: ACORD)
In most cases, Oxfam distributed directly to women, on the basis of experience of what makes effective and equitable distribution, recognising women's authority over food and household management, and the need to protect female-headed households and women in polygamous societies. Giving food aid to women was widely recognised as the most effective way to ensure a fair distribution to all those in need.
Oxfam advocated the active participation of refugee, displaced and pastorals women in distribution committees, and actively recruited women monitors to ensure a gender balance among monitors. The success of these measures in empowering women was not easy to quantify, and the extent to which women were represented depended on the nature of local decision-making and cultural norms. It was, for example, difficult for women monitors to be mobile enough to follow up distribution to pastoralists. However, in a context of rapidly changing social norms, it is clear that for men, seeing women take responsibility in the community makes a powerful impact, and taking such action offers women the potential to develop their own organising skills. (from Links newsletter, Oxfam, February 1996)
3.32 Women's reproductive role makes them less mobile, and they are often singled out for physical attack and rape. In war, militias may be encouraged to rape women of the opposing side in large numbers, as a strategy of humiliation. Women in refugee and displaced communities have particular protection needs since their insecure position and unfamiliarity with the local society encourages the host community to target them for abuse. Even within their own community, women's subordinate position may be emphasised during times of stress, especially when the community is responding to what it perceives as an external threat to its own identity and integrity. The increased tendency towards religious fundamentalism and stricter controls over women's behaviour, movements and reproductive functions, may be attributed to this identity crisis. Women's rights may be the first casualty of disasters and emergencies.
3.4 Gender and reconstruction
3.41 Thirdly, supporting women in times of rapid or catastrophic change helps to lay the foundations of rehabilitation and reconstruction. International assistance rarely meets more than a fraction of total emergency needs - some investigators assess it at 10% at best. Survival depends as much on people's own capacity to generate income as on agency handouts. In practice, this often means women's capacity, and an increasing number of affected communities are in effect being sustained by the efforts of women.
3.42 Changes are likely to take place in the division of labour, with distinctions between men's and women's roles becoming less rigid, and with women taking over more and more responsibilities which were previously reserved for men. When the disaster is over, men may find difficulty in readjusting to domestic or civilian roles, which in turn may lead to further social disintegration. The example of northern Uganda is a case in point. Testimonies suggest that men have found it hard to develop useful economic and social roles in cases where women had become self-reliant during the war. International agencies active in the area have begun to develop a role as facilitators of discussion at community level on how gender relations can be redefined in such a way as to maximise the potential and aspirations of both women and men. The establishment of mutually accepted gender roles which enable both women and men to play their full part in rebuilding their society is a legitimate goal for international emergency responses.
'While I tried to work hard, my husband was very lazy and completely lacked development initiatives. When I tried to advise him about what we could do collectively in order to be able to afford school fees, he would tell me I was trying to dominate him. I then started struggling alone to support my children. (After the fighting stopped), since the man continued with his irresponsible life, I found there was no point in keeping him, so we separated.' 'Most women have become widows. The men who survived the wars are not being of any use to their wives either - most of them have become drunkards. The biggest problem for women in the past was dependency on their husbands... Women have found strength working in groups. Now we are carrying out many collective activities - digging, different ways of generating income and constant discussions and meeting among ourselves... Things don't come on a silver plate from nowhere' (Rose and Olga, from Uganda, quoted in Arms to fight, arms to protect Panos)
3.43 Disasters bring about fundamental changes in gender balances, changes which may become permanent with potentially both positive and negative impacts. High proportions of male deaths and absences will lead to demographic imbalance, radical changes in marriage patterns and in the quality of marital relations. Women may gain confidence from knowing that they have coped, and declare that they will not return to their previous subordinate positions, but equally well they may find a life of loveless and childless independence before them. Women may be obliged to enter into polygamous or unsanctioned unions which do not provide adequate protection or support.
'Conflict has led to an imbalance in the ratio of women to men in Cambodia, which is causing a decrease in the value of women. Single, divorced, or separated women and widows do not only lose out economically but are looked down upon and are sometimes open to ridicule in Cambodian society. In the last decade, many single or widowed women have not been able to find a husband because of the shortage of men. They have been faced with the dilemma of either becoming the second or third wife of a man or of remaining alone.' (Pok Panhavichetr, in Development in conflict; the gender dimension Oxfam/ACORD) 'I really think it's time the government removed the prohibition on polygamy. There are so many single and widowed women in Rwanda now, it would be a terrible shame if they couldn't get married'. (Male aid worker in Rwanda) 'During the war, the whole community depended on us women. Of course we need men, but we won't go back to the way things were. Then, women were completely under the thumb of men, and it was unacceptable for a woman to divorce her husband. Nowadays, if a man won't pull his weight at home we will just tell him to go.' (Women in Sablaale, Somalia)
3.44 Women's role in reconstruction relates also to their roles as parents and educators of children, and as such having a powerful influence over the attitudes taken up by future generations. Women often have important roles as story-tellers or poets, encouraging or discouraging their male kin from taking revenge, pursuing compensation or unjust settlements. Women have a vested interested in making peace since carrying out their normal duties requires them to maintain relations with opposing sides, e.g. by crossing front lines to access markets, by keeping their marriages together if they are on opposing 'sides' to their husbands (many Somali women's lives have been torn apart in cases where they belong to a clan opposing that to which their husbands - and also their children - belong). Women also see the effect of war on other women - the raped girls, the destitute mothers, the mourning parents - and develop their own ways of protesting at the continuation of hostilities. Wars and other crises encourage women to organise, in order to protect each other and promote women's interests, and to promote the cessation of violence. Thus offering support to women's organisations is a strategy for rendering intervention more effective, for empowering women, and, ultimately, for promoting the recovery of the whole community.
3.45 The impact that disasters may have on women and men, as well as the strengths and resources they bring to bear, their contributions and their potential, are vital factors in the design of emergency responses and must not be undermined by these. Yet these cannot be gauged by outsiders on the basis of guesswork or brief impressions. They are particularly difficult to judge in the case of women, since women are occupied in the domestic sphere where they are not easy to communicate with. Those who wish to intervene in emergency situations must take particular steps to ensure that women's perspectives are incorporated into their planning, and that women's contribution and responsibilities are fully acknowledged and supported. If they do not, they run the risk of failing to make adequate provision for women, of marginalising and disempowering women more than ever, and of suppressing a huge resource of talent and energy which is essential for the eventual recovery of the community.
4. Strengths and Weaknesses of Current Practice
4.1 In the last five years or so, some emergency support agencies have made progress in introducing gender-positive policies and procedures. As examples we could cite Oxfam UK/I, among the non-governmental agencies, and UNHCR as a multilateral with an important role in the field of supporting displaced populations. Oxfam UK/I's gender policy covers all areas of the agency's work, including emergencies, and clear guidelines on gender and on emergencies is included in the highly influential Oxfam handbook of development and relief. Oxfam UK/I has made significant developments in the field of gender training, including for emergencies. UNHCR has adopted a policy at the highest level which aims to bring women's concerns into the 'mainstream' of the organisation, and has designed further policies concerning the protection of refugee women and on dealing with sexual violence. UNHCR has also designed and initiated training in 'People-Oriented Planning', a gender-sensitive framework for social analysis and needs assessment to be used in refugee situations.
'Any intervention, emergency, mid- or long-term, will have a different impact on men, women and children. protection and assistance programmes or projects which mainstream or integrate refugee women are based on an explicit recognition of this fact. In activities which mainstream refugee women, action is taken to enable refugee women to participate and make a positive contribution. 'Planning for such projects includes more than women's social role as daughter/wife/mother. It highlights a woman's economic role as income-earner for herself and her family, producer and/or manager of food, provider of fuel and water, and her religious, cultural and political activities. These roles, and even more importantly, the change in these roles created by the refugee situation are frequently overlooked by planners. Consequently, interventions which do not take these factors into consideration may be inappropriate to women, tend to isolate them from mainstream project activities, further reinforce their dependency, and force them into unaccustomed social or economic roles'. (From: UNHCR Policy on refugee women)
4.2 Reproductive health and psychological support are two areas where advances have been made, at least in some specific countries. Some of this has been in response to the publicity attached to rape used as a weapon of war in Bosnia and other high-profile conflicts. In general, the international community has tried to go beyond simplistic equations of rape with sexual misdemeanour, towards recognising rape as the exercise of power and humiliation over an opponent.
'Perpetrators of sexual violence are often motivated by a desire for power and domination. Given these motivating forces, rape is common in situations of armed conflict and internal strife. An act of forced sexual behaviour can be life-threatening. Like other forms of torture, it is often meant to hurt, control and humiliate, violating a person's innermost physical and mental integrity.' (From: Sexual violence against refugees: guidelines on prevention and response UNHCR)
4.3 UNFPA has recently adopted an emergencies policy and is establishing a co-ordination office in Geneva dealing with reproductive health issues in emergency situations. WHO is developing a manual on refugee mental health which includes sections on sexual violence and on women's psychological needs. Both gender issues and psychological support are beginning to enter into the language of relief work for the first time.
4.4 Non-governmental agencies, promoting participatory approaches to project design and implementation, have adopted innovatory practice in some cases. Key to this development has been the notion of 'listening to women' - i.e. finding the time to identify ways of communicating with women, whose role in many situations may appear 'invisible' to outsiders, in order to establish their concerns and priorities. Experience has shown that listening to women, and involving them in project design and implementation, has positive results for the whole community and for the project.
'The men among these refugees could not find any employment and tended to sit idle, while the women took upon themselves the main burden of finding sustenance for their families....On the basis of the women's request, CAA agreed to provide more agricultural assistance to the families in the project area... As a result of the cultivation during the first year, many families were able to earn rupees 1500-2000 after providing for their domestic consumption. On account of this success, the programme was extended to include another 700 families. The families also provided the services of agricultural extension officers. They also provided training in functional literacy, health education, and the basics of financial management.' (Nalini Kasynathan, Focus on gender 1/1, Oxfam)
4.5 Some NGO projects have taken into account the structural disadvantages women face and used emergency activities to promote positive gender balance. Ensuring that inputs such as seeds, tools and household equipment are distributed to women rather than men is one such strategy. In others, NGOs have established women's committees as channels of communication with women, guiding the implementation of the agency's projects and encouraging women to develop new forms of organisation.
'The discussion started by considering the crops the women grew at home and the crops they could grow in the camp...(they) were actively involved in choosing which seeds they wanted - and these differed from those originally planned - and how they wanted the land allocated. Then they discussed the tools they needed, and it was discovered that the first distribution of hoes had been made only to male household heads...These discussions led to the setting up of a women's committee which worked with the woman staff member on the seed and land distribution. During the course of the discussions and distributions, the woman project officer learned a great deal about the survival strategies of these refugee women, knowledge which will be useful in planning viable economic activities for the women in future.' (Tina Wallace, in Focus on gender 1/1, Oxfam)
4.6 These experiences provide 'good practice' examples from which positive lessons can be derived. However, advances are patchy, mainly at the policy level, and are only occasionally reflected in practice on the ground. Widespread gender sensitisation of emergency cadres has been frequently urged, but the huge task this represents has barely begun. There is still a long way to go, both in understanding the needs and in taking practical, effective action. It is still generally the case that women's specific needs are not met, that little attempt is made to consult women, that women's strengths, resources and responsibilities are ignored, that the fundamental problem of women's subordinate position in society is rarely addressed (on the grounds that it is not 'urgent' enough), that the failure to do all these things may risk setting women back, and that the contributions that women will make to future reconstruction are not validated.
4.7 There has been a widespread failure to adjust the provision of basic relief supplies to women's needs. Specific groups such as pregnant and nursing mothers have special needs which planners ignore, instead making allocations on a per head basis. Examples exist where only men are allowed to collect relief supplies from distribution points.
'The health and nutritional level of the refugees was high owing to impressive UNHCR logistics and inter-agency co-ordination. Yet there was one group of people who were under noticeable stress, and this was mothers of small children, many of whom were weak and, in the case of nursing mothers, not producing milk. The women said they were not receiving enough food, because their rations were often stolen from them. In any case, the food they were being offered was not suitable for nursing mothers, as it was unfamiliar and unpalatable. The psychological effect on nursing mothers of unfamiliar foods and foods regarded as unsuitable for their condition is important. In the early stages of the emergency, the main food distributed was maize grains, which took 12 hours of boiling. Blankets were being given out at the rate of one per adult, so that a man and wife with one child would receive two, while a single mother with ten children (and they were not uncommon) would have only one.' (Source: ACORD)
'Most of the women do not give birth in the camp hospitals... we learned that this is because Rwandan women prefer the squatting position, and in the hospital not only must they lie down but their family members are not allowed to be present' (Women's Commission for Refugee Women, quoted by Bridget Walker in Refugee Participation Network Issue 20)
4.8 Aid agencies which perceive women's needs as lying primarily in the areas of reproductive health, for example, or income-generating support (even if their effectiveness on these scores are inadequate) often fail to acknowledge that women's real and expressed needs are holistic and multi-faceted, and that they face multiple constraints in meeting these needs. Community leaders (usually men) cannot be representative of all sectors of the population; male household heads will not automatically filter the benefits of relief distribution through to all members of the family. Basing emergency projects on these assumptions may result in women being positively disempowered as a result.
'Women are seldom involved in decisions about the design and implementation of relief programmes, and this 'gender-blindness' on the part of aid workers can profoundly distort the way in which aid responses are formulated. Even where NGOs and relief workers do make a point of trying to consult women, this is frequently done in somewhat instrumentalist terms: women are seen as important principally as a means to ensure that specific interventions are not a complete failure - for example, to check that the proposed latrine arrangements will not be offensive to them - or as transmitters of information to and about children. They are rarely seen as people with their own rights, needs and perspectives; much less as agents either of social stability, or of change. If women's perspectives on the emergency are to be systematically incorporated into the processes by which programmes are designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated, so that their needs are met and their capacities strengthened, aid workers must make conscious and sensitive efforts to enable women to communicate their ideas.' (From: Oxfam Handbook of Development and Relief)
4.9 Few aid agencies have developed a focused response to the problem of rape in conflict situations - those few assistance programmes which offer help to survivors are often modelled on rape crisis centres in the West, which may be inappropriate in other communities. Aid agencies have not been alert to this problem, and have devoted little effort to overcoming it.
4.10 The assumption that displaced or disaster-affected communities are 'rescued' by humanitarian aid undermines people's coping strategies, their resources and resourcefulness, and their capacity to organise for mutual support. This is particularly problematic for women, whom aid agencies look upon as vulnerable victims. Emergency relief agencies assume that people's survival depends entirely on the speed of the international response, and that there is no time to carry out in-depth research or participative planning. Yet the fact is that most immediate survival needs in a disaster are met by the affected people themselves from their own resources. Moreover, measures can be taken to increase preparedness and find rapid ways into dialogue with the affected communities.
4.11 Most emergency programmes have failed to identify women's changing economic role as a major factor in enabling communities to survive and rebuild. Similarly, they have not taken on board the importance of gender balance in rebuilding communities, or the role of women's organisations in promoting this balance in the new context. Violent change and catastrophe may be traumatic in its effects, but it is a means whereby old and dysfunctional relationships can be set aside and new ones brought in, in which all members of the community are enabled to maximise their potential. Aid agencies should be able to help communities thrown into this sort of bewildering change to come to terms with it and make the necessary adjustments: indeed, it is just as important a survival task as the provision of food or shelter.
In summary, in spite of some positive developments, emergency aid provision still has a number of major weaknesses in practice:
5. What has to Change?
5.1 General recommendations
5.11 One recommendation is fundamental, and applies to aid agencies, donors, and policy makers equally. This is to reaffirm that certain basic principles of humanitarian aid should apply in all emergency operations. These principles include:
5.12 Crucial to the viewpoint of those who seek to provide such humanitarian aid should be an understanding of the influence of gender differences and inequalities, and the resultant range of coping mechanisms available for individuals and communities. All interventions in crisis situations are likely to have an impact on gender relations. A gender perspective in the planning and design of relief programmes is, therefore, vital to improving the effectiveness of emergency responses.
5.13 All these factors are key to all international interventions, whether classified as relief, rehabilitation or development. In fact, the distinction between these three is an unhelpful one: instead, policy-makers and practitioners alike should seek to break down barriers between these and seek to incorporate the strengths of each approach into all their work.
5.2 Recommendations for NGOs
5.21 Humanitarian aid providers should invest in preparedness strategies, including increasing their capacity to understand the social impact of disasters, being aware of the differential impact of disasters on men and women, and putting rapid consultation with the community - and especially with women - at the forefront of the their planning frameworks. Agencies should be aware that such consultation with women is likely to challenge their approach, with the identification of gender-specific needs which may not have been provided for previously. Improving the participation of women, not only to meet such gender-specific needs will involve enhancing women's skills and organisational capacities and redressing gender inequalities in access to resources and power.
5.22 Agencies should invest in their staff, including both policy and decision-making staff and their 'front line' staff (those who implement projects on the ground), providing them with training, monitoring and management support to enable them to respond effectively to the real needs of women in affected communities, for instance, through needs assessment to identify gender-based vulnerabilities and responses. They should place greater reliance on the knowledge and insights of local staff and local consultants and seek ways of rapidly building this local knowledge into the planning of emergency projects.
5.23 Aid providers should set aside 'blueprint' emergency programmes in favour of taking time to plan, research and consult involving the intended beneficiaries. They should invest in the development of rapid and participatory methods of research, needs assessment and planning. This will enable them to increase the relevance of their activities and their effectiveness in strengthening communities' ability to withstand future shocks.
5.24 The uptake of gender policy in emergency work is a long term project and can only begin with what is feasible, given the organisational context. Thus, whilst setting aside attempts to implement inflexible sets of guidelines, a more realistic approach may be to establish minimum level practices, which it would be unacceptable for agencies to overlook and without which women would be negatively affected. Such minimum levels should include:
5.25 Agencies should develop gender policies and translate these into practice by ensuring that strategies which strengthen gender equality are incorporated into all aspects of work, and by providing training to upgrade staff skills of gender planning, analysis, fieldwork, and monitoring.
5.3 Recommendations for donor agencies and policy-making bodies
5.31 Donor agencies should use their grant conditionalities and their reporting criteria as instruments to ensure that value is placed on quality and on developmental approaches, rather than exclusively on quantitative targets and the satisfaction of immediate needs. In particular, the Commission has a role to play in integrating gender analysis into the guidelines on assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation which it lays down for emergency aid recipients. ECHO is well placed to take a leading role in developing such an approach.
5.32 The Commission's funding arrangements at present divide development from rehabilitation and from relief, contributing towards the separation of these 'professions' and the lack of integration of concepts between them. This has the effect of perpetuating the short-termism with which emergency agencies view their task. Different departments need to be better integrated in terms of policy consistency and standard-setting.
5.33 Donor and policy-making bodies should develop gender policies and strategies within their own structures in order to improve their capacity to monitor operations on the ground, and to ensure compliance. An analysis of the programme cycle would contribute to identifying gender-positive systems to incorporate at all stages. The establishment of systematic institutional analysis would highlight strategic points of intervention, incentives and barriers to the implementation of gender policy. Overcoming obstacles to implementation requires financial and other resources to be made available for training and research both internally and within operational agencies. A systematic institutional analysis may address such issues as:
5.34 Women's human rights in emergency situation, and in conflict emergencies in particular, need to be placed at the forefront of the humanitarian agenda. This can be strengthened by tightening international legal instruments governing the prosecution of war crimes as well as by ensuring that humanitarian aid agencies give the issue the priority it requires in terms of policy elaboration, training and resource allocation.
5.35 Support needs to be provided to humanitarian agencies not just in developing gender strategies but also in developing a range of policies, skills and procedures which create an enabling environment for good gender practice. This includes supporting agencies in building local capacity and organisational development, supporting research which strengthens agencies' capacity to develop dialogue with women in emergency situations, designing appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems for forward-looking emergency projects, and improving preparedness strategies.
5.36 The Commission is well placed to gather relevant policies from international non-governmental and multilateral agencies, and ensure that these are followed within its own structures and partner organisations. Foremost among these are the UNHCR's policy on refugee women, guidelines on the protection of refugee women, guidelines on prevention and response on sexual violence against refugees, and the People-Oriented Planning (POP) framework. The Commission has considerable capacity to influence the evolution of practice in this field, and to ensure that good policies are strengthened, supported, and replicated across the spectrum of international organisations.
Notes