University Essay: Gender Equality in Humanitarian Assistance

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of gender equality in humanitarian assistance, tracing its evolution and significance. It begins by defining gender and humanitarian aid, highlighting the historical lack of gender perspective in humanitarian efforts until the late 1990s, particularly with the UN OCHA's policy. The essay emphasizes the differential impacts of emergencies on men and women, citing increased vulnerability of women to sexual violence, health issues, and economic hardship. It further explores the need for gender-sensitive interventions, including needs assessments, inclusive peace-building, and decision-making processes. The essay delves into how conflicts and disasters affect men and women differently, with women often taking on leadership roles and facing increased risks, such as violence and limited access to resources. It underscores the importance of incorporating gender perspectives to ensure effective and equitable humanitarian responses. The essay also touches upon the role of gender in peace building and reconciliation after a national disaster or conflict.

Gender and Humanitarianism 1
GENDER EQUALITY IN HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
By (Student’s Name)
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Gender and Humanitarianism 2
Gender Equality in Humanitarian Assistance
Introduction
The perspective of gender equality was not incorporated in most humanitarian works
until 1998 (Read 2018). The humanitarian agencies would intervene in emergency situations
without considering the implications of gender differences. The importance of including a
gender perspective in humanitarian works was not popular before this period (Stoll 2017). In
1998, the United Nations’ Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
developed a policy that aimed at incorporating a gender perspective in humanitarian affairs.
The office oversees the operations of most of humanitarian agencies and have influenced
those agencies to incorporate the perspective while intervening in emergency situations.
There is need to ensure gender equality in humanitarian assistance. Extensive research has
revealed that a situation of emergency has different impacts on women and men (Asad,
2015). For instance, women are more at risk of magnetron and ill health due to their unique
sexual and reproductive health needs. It follows that an intervention plan would only be
effective if it considers the unique needs of the population while offering humanitarian
assistance.
There are numerous advantages of ensuring that the perspective of gender is included
in any form of humanitarian works (Strid and Verloo 2018). In addition to ensuring that
gender equality is achieved, it helps increase the effectiveness of the humanitarian
intervention. There are several ways in which gender equality can be achieved when offering
humanitarian assistance. As Baines (2017) observes, one of the ways would be carrying out a
need assessment to identify the unique needs for each gender/people group. Once identified,
intervention can be done accordingly. The second way is ensuring that both men and women
are involved in the peace building process after a conflict (Stoakley, Brown and Matthew

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2017). Another would be ensuring that both genders are involved in making decisions
concerning them (the people affected by the situation of emergency). Vulnerability in
emergencies is dependent on the nature of the population. Certain groups of the population
are likely to be more vulnerable than others. For instance, children under the age of five years
are at higher risk of being malnourished than other members of the population. This
assignment will focus on the evolution of gender equality in humanitarian context. The
following will be discussed: gender and humanitarian assistance; how Conflicts affect men
and women in differently; achieving gender equality in humanitarian action; integrating the
perspective of gender in humanitarian action; sexual violence that is perpetrated against
female humanitarians and gender-based vulnerability during emergencies.
Gender and Humanitarian Assistance
Gender is used here to mean the state of being either being male or female as shaped
by social and cultural factors. Humanitarian assistance refers to the act of offering help to
individuals or communities in times of stress. Such stress causes the individuals/
communities have no ability to meet their basic needs such as water and food. Some
examples are wars and famine The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) is the one that is mandated with the assistance that is offered by the United Nations
in during humanitarian crisis. The office is under the United Nations secretariat. Individuals
and organizations learn new things with time. Due to the learning that is acquired, future
activities are likely to be done better. This has been the case with humanitarian assistance. As
we will see in this section, the role that gender plays in humanitarian assistance has been
appreciated with time. For a humanitarian assistance program to be effective, it is very
important to appreciate the great role that gender plays in shaping humanitarianism response.

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The office mentioned above works with a wide range of humanitarian assistance providers to
ensure that the providers carry out their work in a way that is both effective and informed.
Agencies offering humanitarian assistance could either be governmental or non-governmental
(Ticktin 2014). One of the mandates of the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
is to ensure that those responding to a crisis/disaster ensure that they involve a gender
dimension in their work.
Humanitarian works have been going on for a long time. It is worth noting that the
issue of gender has not been traditionally viewed as important until in the last couple of years
(Kirby 2015). Traditionally, it has been thought that the issue of gender was not had no
significant impact on humanitarianism response. It is worth noting however, that extensive
research has revealed that the issue of gender is very important in such responses and if an
intervention is to truly succeed, then it must be sure to include a gender perspective in their
work (Malkki 2015). In the year 1998, the humanitarian segment of the Agreed Conclusions
of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requested that all policies being made
concerning humanitarianism include a gender perspective. The request was made to the
Emergency Relief Coordinator after a realization of the important role that gender plays in
humanitarian response. Although it is right to conclude that the role of gender in
humanitarian assistance has not been appreciated for long, there are major strides that have
been made in the last couple of years (Kataja 2017). In addition to appreciating the important
role of gender in humanitarian assistance, ECOSOC has also noted the importance role that
women could play in peace building and reconciliation after a national disaster or conflict.
Due to the 1998 move to ensure that the issue of gender is addressed in humanitarian
assistance, the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) of the United Nations established a
committee that was mandated with ensuring that the issue of gender was included in
humanitarian interventions. Some of the achievements that the committee made soon after

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being put in place was to produce a background paper that would be used to guide the
integration of gender in humanitarian assistance. In addition, the committee also developed
some guidelines providing how the concept of gender could be integrated in the process of
consolidated appeals. To ensure that the guidelines were effective, they were first tested and
found to work.
IASC has continued to make huge strides in ensuring that the gender perspective is
included in the humanitarian responses. In the month of May 2017, the committee developed
and issued a policy statement which is aimed at guiding the integration of gender in to
humanitarian affairs. The committee has urged the organisations concerned with
humanitarian aid to adopt the policy. Among to their things, the policy includes some
strategies that can be used to ensure that the issue of gender is successfully integrated the
process of offering aid. The modern crisis has become more sophisticated and complicated.
This is especially due to the increased use of firearms. According to Lombardo and
Rolandsen (2016), this makes emergency situations complicated and harder to intervene.
Currently the committee is looking in to a way of offering humanitarian response in the
contemporary complex emergencies while ensuring that the issue of gender is included in the
responses. Another area of concern to the committee is that of Conflicts. The committee
believes that in all these cases, it is very important to ensure that the issue of gender is
adequately addressed (O'Manique and Fourie 2018).
There is a reason why it is important to ensure that the perspective of gender is
considered during humanitarian assistance. The reason is that women and men are affected
differently by an emergency (Noble et al. 2017). It is therefore fair to ensure that their needs
are addressed differently to ensure fairness and gender equality. This is best explained by the
fact that more than 80% percent of people living in refugees and camps around the world are
women and children. In a nut shell, if a humanitarian response to a crisis is to be effective,

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then it is necessary to consider gender, as women and men are affected differently by war and
crisis. The following section will look in to the aspects of difference between men and
women in situation of crisis.
Disasters and Emergencies Affect Women and Men Differently
As seen in the discussion above, it is very important to consider the perspective of
gender while offering humanitarian assistance. This section is going to discuss the differences
among men and women that necessitate the inclusion of such a perspective. It is worth noting
that both men and women are affected by conflicts, wars and other emergency situations.
However, the impacts are usually different. Extensive evidence has revealed that the impacts
of an emergency situations are not gender neutral. As observed in the previous section, most
of the people who live in refugee camps around the world are women and children. Let us
analyse the situation. When there is an emergency such as war, most men are either fighting
or have been killed. This leaves the women to lead and take care of their households. In a
normal society, men are the leaders of the households. It follows therefore that there is a
dramatic transfer of the role of protecting and fending for the household to the women
(Malkki 2015). It is usually a very hard situation for the women since they are many factors
that prohibit them from being able to carry out those roles efficiently. For instance, a war may
confine the women and the children to their homes. Human rights, for instance the right to
life, are usually at risk of violation for both men and women during emergency situations.
The state of violence associated with a crisis however makes the women more vulnerable to
rape and sexual harassment. This puts the women at risk of more conditions. For instance,
rape may lead to spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS. In addition to
this, such actions may lead women with pregnancies that they neither wanted nor planned for.

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A situation of crisis also leads to curtailing access to health services. This would
affect women and girls more due to the unique aspects of their reproductive health. (Djamba
and Kimuna 2015). For instance, a pregnant mother may go for days without attending the
antenatal clinics. This increases the chances of infant and maternal mortality. It is also
common for women and children not to get enough nourishment in emergency situations
since the little food aid may largely be used to feed the man of the home. This would mean
poor nutritional status for women and the children. Another group of women that is likely to
be affected negatively is the lactating mothers. Lactating mothers need access to adequate
food and health care. This would ensure optimal health and nutrition status for them and their
babies. The situation of emergency does the opposite however. It contributes to a poor
nutrition status and increases the chances of infant mortality.
According to Piot (2015), most societies define the identity of a woman as being
either a mother or a wife. In a war situation, many women lose their husbands. This leaves
them windows and with the responsibility of providing and protecting the household. In most
households, it is the men who fend for the households. The loss of a husband therefore makes
the woman vulnerable to poverty and other social problems. Poverty is associated with poor
health status and increased chances of mortality.
To ensure that there is gender equality when intervening in humanitarian crisis, it is
important to ensure that the gender perspective is considered. The humanitarian agencies
should employ strategies to ensure that as much as possible, they endeavour to reduce the
vulnerability of the different groups by intervening proportionately. It is also important to
ensure that both men and women are involved in the process of reconciliation or peace
restoration. It is not only fair but vital to ensure that both men and women contribute to the
process of peace building. It is wort noting that some humanitarian agencies such as the

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United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has ensured that their intervention programs have
gender sensitive strategies.
Achieving Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action
There are various measures that can be employed to ensure that gender equality is
achieved during humanitarian aid/interventions. This section will discuss some measures that
the humanitarian agencies can carry out to ensure that they observe the perspective of gender
in their work. The first measure that can be taken is to carry out an assessment aimed at
revealing the kind of violence that is being perpetrated against women. After the
identification, the agency could find possible measures to ensure that the situation is brought
under control. For instance, they may seek legal intervention, provide medical support or
provide food and other materials.
The second way would be including both men and women when developing camps
for refugees and internally displaced persons. Extensive research reveals that when both men
and women are involved in such planning, the women are likely to less vulnerable (Gill and
Schlund 2016). The planning should also ensure that there is adequate food material and
water. Another measure would be registering men and women differently. This would help
ensure that both groups are both given a chance to deal with what is affecting them. The other
measure would be distributing the food to the women. According to Hilhorst, Porter and
Gordon (2018), when women are given the food to share to the rest of the family members,
there is a high likelihood that the food will be shared according to vulnerability. This is likely
to explain why the World Food Program has a policy that ensures that more than 80% of the
food that is supplied for relief goes directly to the hands of women (Malkki 2015).

Gender and Humanitarianism 9
There are also other measures that would ensure that vulnerability is reduced in the
long term. Some of these measures include offering vocational training and supporting
households to be food secure through practicing sustainable agriculture. Education
opportunities should be to both girls and boys. When it comes to supporting sustainable
agriculture, the woman of the house should receive the funds to support the same. When the
funds are managed by women, they are likely to be utilized well.
Some other measure would be creating awareness locally and internationally about
the gender issues. Another technique that would be of great importance, is to ensure that
appropriate training is carried to equip the staff working with the humanitarian agency with
appropriate skills necessary in ensuring gender equality (Cornwall and Rivas 2015). When
the staff are equipped with the skills of ensuring that the gender perspective is considered,
chances of achieving gender equality in humanitarian assistance increases. Training the staff
would be a very important strategy in ensuring that gender equality is achieved. This would
probably explain the collaboration of the Canadian and British governments to come up with
a module that will be used to train people in peace keeping mission on how to ensure that the
issue of gender equality is addressed. In a nutshell, there are many ways of ensuring that
gender equality is maintained during humanitarian assistance works.
Integration of a Gender Perspective in Humanitarian Assistance
As seen from the previous section, gender matters in humanitarian assistance. This
section will look at the integration of a gender perspective in humanitarian assistance. In
addition, some of the contemporary policy will also be addressed. The main policy that is
used to guide integrate a gender perspective in humanitarian affairs is that developed by the
United Nations department of Emergency Relief. It was developed in 1998 and started being

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enforce in May 1999. The policy has undergone several modifications since then. According
to Read (2018), before the policy was developed, there were some background facts that were
considered. These are going to be discussed next. One of the factors was that situations of
complex emergencies and disasters affect the different members of the society differently.
When it comes to gender, there are different impacts that the situation will have on women,
men and children. The second factor of consideration is that men in situations of war and
conflicts, men are mainly involved in fighting and combat, while women and children form
the largest proportion of the vulnerable civilians (Falk and Hermle 2018). This is evidenced
by the overwhelmingly large number of women in refugee camps all over the world. This
leaves such women with the role of heading their households and carrying out other
responsibilities solely. Thirdly, the rights of women and children are affected in a direct way
during emergency situations. Fourth, nutritional and health needs of women and children are
usually not considered during emergencies. The fifth factor was guided by research and
studies. Extensive research reveals that when the gender perspective is considered,
interventions are more likely to succeed (Kaufman and Williams, 2016).
In the light of the above factors, the following principles relating to gender equality in
humanitarian assistance were developed. First, is the principle of ensuring that both men and
women receive equal protection in situations of emergency. The principle also emphasizes on
the importance of ensuring that the rights of women and children are not violated (Unit and
Women, 2015). The second principle is concerned with ensuring that both men and women
are equally represented in the process of peace building and reconciliation. In addition, both
genders should also be involved in making decisions at all levels of the humanitarian
intervention (Christie 2017). The third principle is concerned with giving women’s
organizations and groups an opportunity to intervene at the various phases of a humanitarian
response.

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The last section of the policy identifies the actions to be carried out to ensure that the
above-named principles are achieved/observed. The first action is to ensure that humanitarian
agencies formulate specific strategies geared at ensuring that the perspective of gender in
integrated in the interventions (Kataja 2017). The second is developing adequate capacity for
gender mainstreaming in the intervention programs (Burns 2015). The final action is ensuring
that the activities carried out in ensuring gender mainstreaming in an intervention program
are collected together in a report. As Giametta (2015) observes, this would help in monitoring
and evaluating the progress being made as far as the issue of gender integration in
humanitarian assistance is concerned. Monitoring and evaluation would help in identifying
strengths and areas for improvement.
Sexual Violence Against Female Humanitarians
Women and girls are more likely to be victims of sexual violence during conflicts
when compared to men. This section is going to focus on the sexual violence against female
humanitarians. The aim is to demonstrate the disadvantaged position of women during
conflicts. It is sad to imagine that sexual violence is perpetrated to female humanitarians.
According to Buss et al. (2014), this may be done by either individual from the community
being aided or the co-workers. As Olivius (2016) observes, there have been numerous cases
of sexual abuse to women humanitarianism. There is a non-governmental organization that is
concerned with ensuring that such cases are reduced/eliminated. The organization is called
Report the Abuse and it was founded by Megan Nobert. Megan Nobert was a victim of
sexual harassment while working as a humanitarian assistant. She was working at South
Sudan when one of her colleagues drugged her and sexually exploited her. When she realized
what had happened, she reported the matter to the appropriate authorities including the

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leaders of the UN organization she was working for. All that happened was a series of
questions but not action was taken against the perpetrator. It was this experience that
motivated her to start the organization to help women who might undergoing through the
same struggles as her. She was astonished to realize that there were many such women who
had decided to keep quiet since they reported, and nothing was done about the complains.
In addition to helping women who have suffered sexual violence, the organization is
also concerned with helping humanitarian organizations with the best practices to adopt too
prevent sexual violence towards female humanitarian assistants. The organization carries out
surveys to determine the number of women that are affected and the circumstances under
which they are sexually abused. Through these online surveys, it has been possible to develop
concrete findings and recommendations. The United Nations Inter-Agency Committee
discussed the findings in a meeting held in 2016. According to Fiddia, Lewis and Cole
(2017), the committee has shown great interest in ensuring safety of women during
humanitarian assistance programs. Nobert was invited to the meeting and she shared her
thoughts, findings and progress. The committee appreciated her work and promised to
support it. It would therefore be true to conclude that the international community has
realized the importance of putting appropriate measures to prevent sexual violence
perpetrated against female humanitarians.
Conclusion
As discussed in the previous sections, the impacts of an emergency are different for
different genders. Since most of the vulnerability has been discussed in the previous sections,
this section is only going to highlight the vulnerability in brief. In an emergency the nutrition
status and health of children under the age of 5 is usually affected negatively (Baker, 2017).