ReliefWeb

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. The purpose and scope of this review is to provide an understanding of past and current policies and programme approaches for integrating gender into humanitarian interventions, including actions to prevent and respond to the incidence of sexual and gender based violence. As such, it aims to identify lessons learned and good practice from desk-based policy reviews, interviews with a range of actors, and field visits. An extensive review of selected policy approaches by UN, ICRC, some EU Member States and other donor governments was undertaken. This was reinforced by direct consultations with officials from these organisations as well as INGOs. DG ECHO staff and partners were consulted both in Brussels and in the field sites. Three field visits were carried out to draw lessons on the challenges and practices on the ground and, to the extent possible, to get insight into different types of crisis (wars and natural disasters) and different phases of emergency response (emergency, LRRD, and disaster preparedness). The sites visited were India (Delhi, Bihar and Orissa), DRC (Goma and eastern Congo), Senegal (Dakar) and Liberia (Monrovia and south east).

2. Introducing a gender dimension into humanitarian aid is predicated on the experienced differential impact of crisis on women, men, boys and girls. It seeks to develop more sensitive needs assessment, to elaborate context-specific needs of men, women, boys and girls and to improve appropriate responses. This includes consideration of gender relations and dynamics in local contexts within the logic of intervention and development as well as documentation of good practices in different sectors to help make them more systematic. Such a perspective seeks to take account of beneficiaries as people within the social power relations that shape their roles, responsibilities and identities within households, communities and beyond. Such a differentiated understanding, it is argued, can help ensure that any humanitarian interventions do no harm in reinforcing or generating negative power relations and dynamics that can place beneficiaries at risk. The conventional twin track gender strategy is to address both targeted programmes for women's empowerment as well a mainstreaming approach to integrating gender sensitivity into all aspects of programming. It arises from the global platform of CEDAW, the Beijing Platform and the MDGs where the promotion of gender equality is grounded mainly in the context of a rights-based approach to poverty reduction. However, the principles and lessons from this platform are informing how gender is being considered in and adapted to the field of humanitarian action. Most notably in a needs-based approach that addresses improved needs identification, and understanding of impact of interventions as well as a focus on specific risks and issues of humanitarian protection.

3. These working assumptions are critically explored and examined in this review to establish suggested parameters within which DG ECHO might further consider and strengthen the gender dimension of humanitarian assistance. The main themes treated include:

- Lessons learned from challenges of developing gender policies and mainstreaming strategies including recent emphasis on creating an enabling institutional environment.

- The particular focus on needs, protection, vulnerability, and participation in humanitarian assistance.

- The emergence of guidelines, tools and good practice that require more rigorous testing and examination.

- The parameters of humanitarian responses to SGBV and the challenges they pose, particularly in developing actions for prevention.

- The data and information gaps in promoting the gender dimension.

- The strengthening of Codes of Conduct to deal with sexual exploitation and abuse.