A life-saving priority

An estimated 67 million women and girls are in need of humanitarian assistance. Impacted by conflict, violence and natural disasters, women and girls in emergencies are at heightened risk of gender-based violence and trafficking, unintended pregnancy, maternal morbidity and mortality, unsafe abortions, and child, early and forced marriage. Despite the immediate, long-term and largely preventable impacts of these realities, the unique needs, priorities and capacities of women and girls are not treated with the same urgency as shelter, water and food aid in emergency response and recovery efforts, and opportunities to transform unequal gender relations and shift harmful gender norms are being missed.

This statement was released a head of the G7 Foreign Minister’s meeting in Dinard, France, April 5-6, 2019. The joint statement and recommendations, signed by more than 30 leading international agencies and women’s rights organizations, call on governments, donors, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations, and national and local actors to work together to put women’s and girls’ rights and agency at the center of every humanitarian response.