Who Holds the Microphone?’ Crisis-Affected Women's Voices on Gender-Transformative Changes in Humanitarian Settings: Experiences from Bangladesh, Colombia, Jordan and Uganda, New York: UN Women. Crisis-affected women's voices on gender-transformative changes in humanitarian settings: Experiences from Bangladesh, Colombia, Jordan and Uganda, New York: UN Women.
Gender-transformative humanitarian action at the heart of meaningful participation and effective localization
Community-based women's rights organizations are often among the first to respond during a crisis and remain long after the larger humanitarian organizations have left. Indeed, women's rights groups and other community-based organizations want partnerships with humanitarian agencies based on equality and recognition of their contributions.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Drawing on the lived experiences of refugee and displaced women and men, the report offers specific recommendations for Grand Bargain signatories as they take action on
Engage in two-way dialogue with women and men, in equal measure, in the deployment of conventional mechanisms for participation such as data collection, consultations and
Acknowledge and adequately support existing and emerging women’s leadership, ensuring not only that meetings are the right size and format to be conducive to their participation
Identify and financially support the priorities and solutions of self-led groups of affected women and enable them to influence meeting agendas and priority-setting
Amplify affected women’s voices by bringing women’s networks, alliances and campaigns into spaces of influence to shape the decisions that affect their lives, and connecting
Formally recognize women’s rights organizations, self-led groups and young female vol- unteers as key humanitarian responders and acknowledge their contributions to broader
Broaden partnership guidelines to include a more diversified catchment of implementing partners and reduce barriers to funding by ensuring that calls for proposals are published
Increase direct and flexible funding to women’s rights organizations and self-led groups of crisis-affected women and eliminate unnecessarily burdensome operational and reporting
Seize the gender-transformative potential of connectors, engaging them consistently and supporting their work through funding and recognition of their work
Proactively make space and generate a conducive environment to enable local-level women’s rights organizations and self-led groups to participate in coordination bod-
1 MOVING TOWARDS GENDER-
TRANSFORMATIVE HUMANITARIAN
ACTION
Humanitarian action that promotes effective localization and women's meaningful participation can promote gender transformative change. Gender transformative change is a work in progress that requires the participation of a variety of actors, including humanitarian responders, women's rights organizations and crisis-affected women, men, girls and boys, among others.
INTRODUCTION
GENDER EQUALITY AND THE GRAND BARGAIN
PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH IN FOUR CRISIS-AFFECTED
Title of PV1: South Sudanese women have a voice Participants: South Sudanese refugee women Location: Tuajiji Hope Primary School. Title of PV2: World listens to the voices of women from Yumbe District.
RESEARCH CONTEXTS
Bangladesh: Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugee response
Colombia: Chocó Department, protracted crisis and internal displacement
Jordan: Amman and Za’atari Camp, Syrian refugee response
Uganda: Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, South Sudan refugee response
Gender research in humanitarian settings is only concerned with the study of power This study aims to provide a perspective on. All these factors determine an individual's vulnerabilities, capacities and access to and control over resources, but also shape their (potential) contributions to processes of transformative gender change.
EXPERIENCES OF GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE
CHANGE IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS: CONCEPTUAL
- Attention to needs, social relationships and root causes are all key for the sustainability of gender-
- Bangladesh: Peer-support networks can be a gateway to public visibility
- Colombia: Women find power in collective action
- Jordan: Community attitudes shift as wom- en earn an income
In humanitarian contexts, the interrelational level, especially the household, is an important intervention unit for gender-transformative change. Links between the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding contexts are therefore crucial for the sustainability of gender-transformative changes.
WHAT DOES A GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE
APPROACH TO
HUMANITARIAN ACTION ENTAIL?
A key finding of this research is that gender-changing change should be understood as. The focus and priorities of humanitarian programming can play a role in promoting gender-transformative change.
PASSING THE
MICROPHONE AND MOVING FORWARD
2 GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE AT
THE HEART OF MEANINGFUL
KEY MESSAGES
- Improve leadership and governance mechanisms at the level of the humanitarian country team
- Develop common standards and a coordinated approach for community engagement and
- Strengthen local dialogue and harness technologies to support more agile, transparent but appropriately
- Build systematic links between feedback and cor- rective action to adjust programming
Achieving the transformative goal set out in the Grand Bargain requires the meaningful participation of crisis-affected people (see Box 5, Commitments to participation in the Grand Bargain). Women have seen these developments slowly help to shift gender norms towards acceptance of women's proactive and meaningful participation in the public realm.
PATHWAYS FOR PARTICIPATION
Data collection and information gathering
It is therefore important that affected communities are made aware of the effects of their participation on programming and service delivery. Furthermore, it is important for respondents to show accountability by acting on the commitments made in connection with the cooperation with affected local communities.
Consultations and community dialogues
Small women-only meetings and special topic meetings that involve two-way dialogue can facilitate women's participation. As a result of these targeted alliances between various women's leadership bodies, women-led organizations are now attending various cross-sectoral interagency planning meetings and sharing their views.
Feedback and complaint mechanisms
Two-way dialogue involves discussing issues that are important to the women themselves, even if the issues transcend what is perceived as part of the traditional humanitarian field. They take a long time to respond and they don't show up at the office.”
Social mobilization
While camp authorities in Uganda called the hotline easily accessible, most female and male community members and leaders did not mention the hotlines as a means of contacting humanitarian actors.
Self-led organizations
Self-led groups lay the foundation and prepare affected women for participation in other arenas by strengthening self-confidence and self-esteem. I am and how I They chose me as the community so they will turn, they will be good.”.
MEANINGFUL
PARTICIPATION REQUIRES RESOURCING OF LOCAL
But when we turn around, we [women] are the ones who pick up and collect the cups, sweep the floor – they don't consider us [for project opportunities]. and we feel that we are being taken advantage of and we don't want to be taken advantage of anymore.” Promoting gender equality requires adequate and dedicated resources for grassroots women's organizations and local leaders to meet the expectations placed upon them.
RESISTANCE AND
BACKLASH TO WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION
Resistance
Men in the survey reported feeling left out and disempowered by humanitarian programs that targeted women to receive financial aid. Young men in the Youth Network in Chocó participate in programs related to “new masculinity”.
Backlash
As young girls, we can't socialize, go to the market, we can't do anything here in the camp.” Despite the increased participation of women], women still do not feel comfortable speaking when men are there.
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WOMEN’S MEANINGFUL
STORY OF GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE
CAPACITY- BUILDING INITIATIVES
Women, Uganda, FGD, South Sudanese Refugees) Capacity building initiatives play an important role in strengthening women's confidence to speak in public. Opportunities to overcome women's marginalization stem from humanitarian organizations' investment in women and opportunities that are tailored to women, creating a conducive environment for women's participation, a greater capacity to raise their voices and not just in the to speak publicly, but also to actually influence women. decision-making in community spaces.
PEER-SUPPORT NETWORKS CAN BE A
GATEWAY TO PUBLIC VISIBILITY
Shanti Mohila advocates for justice for Rohingya people, Rohingya Women's Empowerment and Advocacy Network intervenes in cases of intimate partner violence and Shanti Khana provides psychosocial care by volunteers. They thought, 'why should I listen to those random women?' Ever since we joined [the band], people really listen to us and respect what we say.
3 GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE AT THE
HEART OF EFFECTIVE LOCALIZATION
- Increase and support multi-year investment in the institutional capacities of local and national
- Understand better and work to remove or reduce barriers that prevent organizations and donors
- Support and complement national coordina- tion mechanisms where they exist, and include
- Achieve by 2020 a global, aggregated target of at least 25 per cent of humanitarian funding
An important part of the Grand Bargain aims to shift decision-making power and resources locally, from international agencies to crisis-affected communities and their duty-bearers. The third section of the chapter outlines entry points for Grand Bargain signatories to harness and amplify the gender-transformative potential of localization efforts, involving women's rights organizations and local groups.
A GENDER PERSPECTIVE ON “LOCAL”
LOCALIZATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRISIS-
Partnerships
This means that partnerships with local women's rights organizations from the beginning of the programming cycle increase the likelihood that the solutions developed will be tailored to problems that crisis-affected women themselves identify as high priority. As partnerships are envisioned, it is important to recognize the diversity among local women's rights organizations.
Funding
Long-term funding for women's rights organizations that also allows resources for interrelated projects is also needed. The necessary approach must enable local women's rights organizations to pilot and implement their own gender-transformative solutions in humanitarian settings.
Coordination
All of these requests, if properly funded, could substantially contribute to gender-transformative changes envisioned by local women's rights organizations. Connectors in Uganda's Yumbe District include local women legislators and members of the Women's Organisation.
ENTRY POINTS FOR
In their work to promote the implementation of the district's gender policy, they also address key humanitarian priorities, including menstrual hygiene management and teenage pregnancy prevention. And in Cox's Bazar, imams are using local legislation that sets the minimum age of marriage for girls at 18 and for boys at 21 to prevent child marriage and promote gender equality, which they say is in line with the teachings of the Quran. and ultimately benefits the entire community.
LOCALIZATION EFFORTS THAT INCLUDE WOMEN
Connectors
They have the capacity to mobilize women affected by the crisis, including those in situations of increased vulnerability. Vertical linkages: Connectors can serve as bridges between national and international humanitarian actors, or their implementing partners, and people affected by the crisis.
Community-based women’s organizations
While these groups may lack the organizational capacity and/or interest to become formalized humanitarian actors, self-directed groups have much to offer in advancing a transformative gender agenda and should be recognized and supported (financially and otherwise). Humanitarian agencies and donors should support self-directed groups as key actors in the localization agenda.
Young female volunteers
Before, when I went out, people would say, 'Who knows where she might go?', but now they say, 'She's going to work. you don't need to tell her anything.” Humanitarian agencies can play a role in supporting young women volunteers by formally recognizing their contributions within crisis-affected communities.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GENDER-
TRANSFORMATIVE LOCALIZATION
WOMEN FIND POWER IN COLLECTIVE
In Colombia, gender relations are changing as different groups of women and men work together for a better future in their communities. That is why I am committed to continue working for women's rights in Chocó and participate in different decision-making spaces to communicate our thoughts, our feelings and our realities to contribute to. the transformation that our territory needs.”.
COMMUNITY ATTITUDES SHIFT AS
WOMEN EARN AN INCOME
Humanitarian agencies should work to minimize these harmful unintended consequences by seeking the equal participation of women and men in the design and delivery of their programming. Meanwhile, women's involvement in income-generating activities is already undergoing gender transformative change through the.
CONCLUSION
TOWARDS A GENDER- TRANSFORMATIVE
HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
Formally recognize women's rights organizations, self-led groups and youth volunteers as key humanitarian responders and recognize their contribution to broader emergency response efforts. Increase direct and flexible funding for women's rights organizations and women's self-led groups affected by the crisis, and remove unnecessary burdensome operational and reporting requirements to allow them to pursue their agendas and work on their own terms.
EXTENDED LIST OF VIDEO MATERIALS
PARTICIPATORY VIDEOS
Title of PV2: Shanti Khana (Peace Center) Participants: Members of Shanti Khana Location: Community Women's Healing Center. Title of PV2: What we dream of Participants: Syrian refugee women Location: UN Women Oasis Centre.
VIDEO CLIPS
Executive Director of Rohingya Women Welfare Society (RWWS) and founder of Peace Center (Shanti Khana). Rohingya woman promotes the mental health of fellow Rohingya women living in the camp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Grand Bargain at Two: Collapse Under Its Own Weight?, Available at: https://www.odi.org/. Available at: https://colombia.unmissions.org/en/chocó-women-peace-and-security United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the.
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MEETING THEIR NEEDS WORLDWIDE
