The Women’s Refugee Commission has been conducting a series of trainings around the world on “mitigating risks of gender-based violence.” These trainings focus specifically on developing and implementing programs that improve women’s economic opportunities and provide safe access to cooking fuel as tools to protect women and girls against sexual violence and abuse.
Our journey down this path began with a body of work we initially undertook to address the shortcomings of economic programming in humanitarian settings. Notably, these programs have seldom been based on the needs of the local market. Over a two-year period, we conducted assessments around the world in a variety of contexts, including in refugee camps, urban areas with large refugee populations, situations of internal displacement and countries where refugees have returned once a conflict has ended.
We found that—in spite of good will and best efforts—the economic programs we visited and assessed were often based on organizations’ pre-established repertoires of programming rather than on the needs and opportunities that existed within the particular socio-economic context. The programs tended to be short-term interventions that failed to recognize displacement as an extended reality for most people, and that neglected to adequately consider the long-term challenges of reintegration within severely damaged or destroyed societies. Additionally, the programs seldom capitalized on the target populations’ existing skills and assets. Our work culminated in the writing and widespread distribution of Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practitioners in Humanitarian Settings that lays out the steps programmers need to take to choose an appropriate intervention, and includes guidance on implementing programs.
Getting a Job Isn’t Always the Answer
We quickly learned, however, that effective, market-driven economic programs were only the first—albeit extremely necessary—step. As an organization with a specific focus on women and youth, we were especially concerned by evidence that economically empowering women and youth can actually heighten their risk of sexual violence and abuse. Husbands and partners may resent the change in household power dynamics that sometimes arises with women’s increased income and they may demand control over those new resources. Employers—especially in situations where refugees don’t officially have the right to work—may take advantage of women’s and young people’s vulnerability by withholding wages and sexually harassing or physically abusing them. Furthermore, accessing livelihood options and markets can expose women and girls to risks they might not experience if they stayed closer to home.
Our report, Peril or Protection: The Link between Livelihoods and Gender-based Violence in Displacement Settings details some of these findings. The report also identifies key factors that make women vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV): impunity; lack of legal rights; insufficient rations; financial dependence and lack of economic opportunities; shifts in power dynamics; social and cultural norms; and the need for firewood or a safe cooking fuel.
Prevention Is Better Than Cure
We then began thinking about how we could push the humanitarian community to put more emphasis on GBV prevention—because if we don’t figure out how to prevent it, we’ll be responding to the effects of GBV indefinitely.
Looking at the key vulnerability factors we’d identified, we realized we could provide the humanitarian community with guidance on developing and putting into practice responses to three of the issues—insufficient rations; economic dependence and lack of economic opportunities; and the need for firewood or a safe cooking fuel (the latter being an area that the Women’s Refugee Commission has also done a large body of work around.) This thinking led to the development of the “Mitigating Risks” workshops, which focus on the links between GBV and livelihoods. The workshops bring together staff designing and implementing economic, food security, fuel, and gender-based violence programs and cover four objectives:
- Understand how to mitigate vulnerability to GBV through programs that focus on prevention in order to enhance protection.
- Learn and design effective and safe livelihood programming to mitigate risks.
- Develop awareness of how safe access to cooking fuel can reduce vulnerability to violence.
- Develop a joint action plan to enhance protection of refugee/displaced/returning women and girls, taking into account the context of their countries.
The workshops bring together staff from UN agencies, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local NGOs, donors and host governments, and push practitioners to build protective elements into their economic programs—that is, to think through if and how their programs might be exposing women and young people to heightened risks, and how they can modify those programs to reduce these risks and enhance protection. The workshops also discuss access to safe cooking fuel as a vital element of protection. Firewood collection, a common livelihood strategy when other income generation options are not available, exposes women and girls to the risk of rape and abuse. If done right, economic interventions increase women’s and young people’s income and their protection. Similarly, the safe provision of cooking fuels and fuel-efficient stoves can enhance protection by reducing or eliminating the need for unsafe firewood collection. These two types of interventions implemented in parallel can significantly improve women’s safety.
During these workshops, the interrelationship of livelihoods, cooking fuel and GBV is highlighted, analyzed and dissected. Participants are encouraged to think about how addressing these vital issues through a lens of protection can begin to actualize the prevention side of GBV.
“Mitigating Risk” workshops have been held in Thailand, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Chad. The fifth training will be held in Kenya this week. Additional trainings will be held Liberia, Uganda and Jordan over the next 12 months.
