Crises affects women and girls differently and disproportionally. Pre-existing gender-based discrimination and inequalities are exacerbated in crisis settings, where women and girls face violence and exclusion, directly affecting their ability to survive, receive lifesaving assistance and recover from crisis shocks. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is also a very pressing human rights concern and a pervasive issue affecting women and girls during times of conflict and humanitarian crisis. Women and girls’ experiences of violence are not confined to a specific crisis context, rather VAWG exists in a continuum from spanning phases of recovery, peacebuilding and development, as well as a diverse range of contexts, including armed conflict, disasters and humanitarian situations. Women’s lived experiences of violence are complex, intersecting with different forms of discrimination and oppressions. Conflict, climate disasters, and public health crises have the power to escalate and intensify VAWG. At the same time, humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding interventions have the power to accelerate action to prevent and respond to VAWG, building into broader ongoing development priorities to prevent VAWG. Twenty-five years have now passed since the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women set out an expansive vision and commitments for achieving gender equality in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Platform for Action called for an increase in women’s participation in decision-making and prioritized the protection of women in situations of armed conflict, as well as assistance to refugees, internally displaced and conflict-affected people. Despite this commitment, evidence shows that much remains to be done to advance the goal of gender equality in humanitarian action – in the provision of gendered lifesaving services, and in the promotion of longer-term recovery. Evidence on VAWG prevention programmes in conflict and humanitarian settings are relatively new. However, new efforts to facilitate community-level attitude and social norms change as well as implementing economic empowerment/cash transfers and adolescent girl focused initiatives are demonstrating that VAWG prevention programming can be implemented in these complex settings. UN Women’s triple mandates as well as its membership in the IASC have positioned UN Women to prevent and respond to VAWG in situations of initial emergency response; phases of resilience, peacebuilding, and recovery; and in its development work, which encompasses longer-term social norm change and national systems strengthening. UN-Women has also developed a strategy to address VAWG across the Humanitarian Development Peace Security Nexus which seeks to consolidate and strengthen UN-Women’s whole of organization approach to address VAWG holistically in different contexts and settings. This is aligned with SG’s Triple Nexus, recognizing that humanitarian action must include prevention and recovery given the causes, nature and length of crises and emergencies. UN Women seeks to develop a conceptual framework to guide VAWG prevention and mitigation programming in the crisis and humanitarian settings, drawing from existing evidence and literature on what works and what does not work to address causes and factors of violence. This conceptual framework is key to the operationalization of UN Women’s HDPS nexus strategy on EVAW (forthcoming 2023). Relevant partners including UN agencies and civil society will be consulted.
|
