The Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) has issued a paper on the gender-sensitive criteria in humanitarian work during the current emergency situation in the Gaza Strip. The paper aims to understand the primary and secondary effects of the emergency situation on women in particular and individuals and societies in general, as well as empowering women in humanitarian work alongside promoting effective and appropriate women's participation in various humanitarian interventions.

The paper highlighted the importance of gender mainstreaming in various humanitarian action programs and indicated that programs related to gender equality contribute to promoting the right to effective and appropriate participation, providing protection, and increasing opportunities for assistance and self-reliance. These gender-sensitive programs result in better living quality for individuals, families, and societies in general. The paper also put on display the fact that various emergencies affect in different ways the societal groups (women, girls, men and boys), and therefore all humanitarian interventions must be based on gender analysis.

Furthermore, the paper explained that the risks to which women are exposed during the emergency are different from those experienced by men, and consequently, the way of interaction must be gender-sensitive. knowing how different societal groups, especially women, are affected during the time of emergency and how crises change their traditional roles is also important as it will help ensure that humanitarian assistance fully meets the needs of the population in an effective and high quality.

In the same context, the paper stressed on its preparation on several international standards such as the IASC Gender Manual in Humanitarian Action, Guidelines for Integrating GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Action, Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in the Humanitarian Response (SPHERE).

The following is the paper in full:

Gender-Sensitive Criteria to Be Considered in Humanitarian Work During Emergency

Introduction:

Humanitarian work provides life-saving services and facilitates the recovery of societies affected by armed conflicts, natural disasters, and complex emergencies. It is not possible to achieve effective, equitable and participatory humanitarian work without understanding the special needs of different groups, especially women and girls and their priorities and their ability to respond; the integration of gender equality concept is empowering the human rights-based approach to humanitarian action that, in turn, improves the level of programs that are developed by respecting and protecting the universally recognized rights and dignity of everyone as a human being.

Studies show that the share of women and girls in GBV doubles in emergencies and crises. As the primary caregivers, they take greater responsibility for household chores, agriculture, and food production, and thus become less able to access the resources and humanitarian services they need. It may also require them to take on more responsibilities at home when the main household provider feels insecure.

The disruption of societal safety networks and low access to services can all exacerbate the risk of violence against women, as she bear the brunt of the increased care and work during periods of emergency and crisis. Likewise, the possibility of interruption of livelihoods may increase during the emergency period, which adversely affects women as many of them work on an informal wage and thus this reduces access to basic needs and services.

The Importance of Gender Mainstreaming in Humanitarian Programs in Times of Emergency:

Gender mainstreaming in humanitarian programs helps ensure that the specific needs, capabilities, and priorities of women and men are recognized in terms of gender roles, and gender equality is achieved and the empowerment of women in humanitarian action is guaranteed in terms of responsiveness, recognition, and protection of human rights as well as fundamental freedoms for all persons.

Gender equality programs contribute to promoting the right to effective and appropriate participation, providing protection, and increasing opportunities for assistance and self-reliance. These gender-sensitive programs result in better and more effective quality for individuals, families, and societies in general.

Gender-Sensitive Criteria to Be Considered in Humanitarian Work During Emergency

Participation:

Enhancing community participation results in better outcomes for humanitarian action, and therefore affected communities in emergency times must participate actively as partners in the protection and humanitarian assistance, including processes for designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programs.

The participation of affected communities in the mentioned areas ensures that assistance is appropriate and context-relevant local and actual needs, and also includes reducing the risk of excluding vulnerable groups.

Moreover, participation enhances the community's ability to withstand and adapt to crises by developing capabilities and making use of available resources, as the population affected by emergencies has competencies and capabilities that can be of particular importance in developing emergency responses.

These competencies and skills must be appreciated to restore the dignity of individuals and enhance their resilience. Participation can also enhance local capacities, responsibilities as well as building the resilience of society as a whole.

Women and girls are key actors in protecting themselves and they must be consulted in the process of identifying expected risks and solutions to counter these risks. Participation contributes to empowering women and girls and provides them with space to express their views, alongside developing policies and interventions about the response which expresses the needs of the group. This step is considered vital to understanding the primary and secondary effects of emergencies on individuals and societies in general, and it works to ensure that the protection needs of women and girls are at the core of response efforts.

 Working to protect women in every possible way:

Human rights parties must take serious steps to reduce the overall risks which women and girls may be subjected to when they receive various humanitarian assistance and services. Also, the concerned organizations must exert maximum effort to remove obstacles and barriers that prevent women from accessing and obtaining various humanitarian services, as they must support women to demand and obtain their rights. This is done through:

• Understanding the context and anticipating the consequences of humanitarian action that may adversely affect the safety of women affected by emergency times and their dignity and rights. Thus, aid should be provided in a safe and accessible environment and every possible step should be taken when providing and managing assistance to protect women from any violation.
• Ensuring that women receive assistance according to their needs and without any discrimination, and so humanitarian parties must identify obstacles that prevent women from accessing aid, and take the necessary measures to ensure that they are meeting their needs without discrimination.
• Addressing any measures that result in the deliberate prevention of women’s access to their basic needs using general humanitarian laws and principles.
• Ensuring that women receive support on the basis of need and that they are not discriminated against based on gender.
• Advocating for the right of women affected by crises to access and obtain humanitarian aid, especially in marginalized and difficult-to-reach areas, and therefore monitoring women’s access to humanitarian aid, identifying and understanding barriers while fixing them by providing information and feedback mechanisms in an easy-to-understand manner is a must. Adding to that, women who cannot access various services or humanitarian centers should be contacted with and reached to eliminate such problems.
• Information must be available to enable women to understand their rights and how to defend them. The information must be presented in a variety of ways, such as writing, graphics or audible advertisements to facilitate access to information as widely as possible taking into account differences in age and level of education.

Working at all local levels and coordinating with national authorities:

When a state of emergency occurs, humanitarian parties must work in coordination with all national and local frameworks or take advantage of pre-existing partnerships to impose effective measures aimed at protecting women and girls and responding to their needs.

Some points must be taken into consideration to ensure sound cooperation between the different national systems, including the government's policy, the approach of different actors in humanitarian work, international standards in dealing with gender, in addition to engaging key decision-makers and formulating procedures and tools that can be implemented to improve the protection of women and girls. Generally, compliance with humanitarian principles, thorough understanding of the specific context of an emergency, and a “do no harm” approach should be among the primary factors governing all emergency and crisis interventions.

Recruiting society to protect women:

Humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery from an emergency must be designed to promote gender equality; this would entail includes challenging some social gender norms even in times of emergency. As the existence of certain customs and traditions biased against women exacerbates the situation of gender inequality, and humanitarian service providers often face resistance to efforts aimed at changing social customs and gender norms in emergencies, knowing that in many situations changing negative habits is part of contributing to saving the lives of many women and girls.

Accordingly, it is necessary to work on a communication strategy to change behavior using societal messages and mobilize community efforts and social media to influence the knowledge of individuals, families, and societies and impact their attitudes and practices. This forms an important strategy especially during a state of emergency as it is used as a mean to develop the continuity and effectiveness of services provided to a certain society. Also, it promotes acceptance of social customs and good gender-related norms, whether at the level of the individual or society at large.

Things to take into account:

Various emergencies affect the societal groups (women, girls, men and boys) in different ways, and therefore all humanitarian interventions must be based on gender analysis.

The risks that women are exposed to during the emergency period are different from those experienced by men, so the way they act and interact must be gender-sensitive. Knowing how different societal groups, especially women, are affected during the emergency time and how crises are changing their traditional roles, which will help to ensure that humanitarian assistance fully meets the needs of the population effectively and in high quality.

For humanitarian assistance to be effective and appropriate for all in an emergency, the different needs of all groups, especially women and girls, must be identified and addressed.