No Future for Yemen Without Women and Girls OVERVIEW Governorates in Yemen Received Some Form of Life-Saving Assistance in 2015
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Poicy Brief: October 2016 No Future for Yemen Without Women and Girls OVERVIEW governorates in Yemen received some form of life-saving assistance in 2015. There is an increasingly desperate situation for women and girls across most aspects of life in Yemen. While the conflict has affected the entire population of Yemen, it is important to recognize the unique impact This is further compounded by gaps in the response it is having on women and girls. Gender inequality and to their needs. From immediate and life-threatening the specific barriers faced by Yemeni women and girls in concerns to deteriorating gender relations, being achieving their full potential have long been recognized a woman or girl in Yemen has become even more as both underlying and direct causes of food insecurity, challenging. undernutrition, and poverty in Yemen. Since 2006, Yemen has ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Despite the deteriorating circumstances, there Gender Gap (145 out of 145 countries in 2015).iii are some glimmers of hope that have emerged, Prior to the conflict CARE and other organizations made pointing to how the current uncertainty created by positive progress in addressing the inequalities facing the conflict can provide windows to change gender Yemeni women and girls working particularly on women norms over the long term. and girls’ empowerment and preventing gender-based Introduction violence. However, advances made in recent years to address inequality in Yemen have come under severe Since March 2015, the escalation of the armed conflict strain during the conflict because of rising violence and in Yemen has catapulted the entire population into a lack of necessary goods and services. One concern is that humanitarian catastrophe. Over 13 million people need in the absence of systematic analysis of and planning immediate life-saving assistance, and with the conflict for gender-associated risks, humanitarian programming unresolved the humanitarian situation continues to could be at best ineffective and at worst do harm by deteriorate.i Even before the crisis, Yemen was the poorest being blind to these concerns. country in the Middle East, and as the conflict drags on, In order to ensure gender-sensitive programming, the economy continues to suffer – Yemen’s GDP shrunk the specific needs of women and girls must first be by almost 35 percent in 2015.ii Any fragile development articulated. In November 2015, CARE and GenCap gains that had been achieved over the past several conducted a scoping studyiv to review and assess available decades are quickly eroding. information on the impact of the conflict on gender roles Humanitarian actors are working to respond to this and relations, and consequently, the different needs of enormous crisis, and to date, close to 100 humanitarian women, girls, men and boys. It found that while there actors are operating inside Yemen. Despite Yemen being was good pre-conflict information on gender issues in one of the most challenging operating environments Yemen, most assessments conducted since March 2015 in the world, more than 8 million Yemenis in all 22 have been gender-blind. To address this information gap, CARE, Oxfam, and Key Findings GenCap jointly conducted a gender assessment to Unsurprisingly, the gender assessment found an analyze the impact of conflict on gender dynamics in increasingly desperate situation for women and girls Yemen. Through this assessment, researchers conducted across most aspects of life as well as gaps in the response 554 household interviews, 40 focus group discussions, 32 in-depth interviews with individuals and officials, and to their needs. From immediate and life-threatening a secondary data review. The assessment covered some concerns to deteriorating gender relations, being of the hardest hit areas – Aden, Taiz, Hajjah, and Abyan a woman or girl in Yemen has become even more governorates. challenging. Despite the deteriorating circumstances, there are some glimmers of hope that emerged in the The findings of the gender assessment are intended to assessment, pointing to how the current uncertainty inform program development to address the specific created by the conflict can provide windows to change needs and changing roles of women, girls, men, and gender norms over the long term. boys and to strengthen gender equity and equality. The assessment goes well beyond this, however, providing The findings below are broken into two areas – gaps in a concrete evidence base to illustrate the importance of gender-sensitive humanitarian programming and areas supporting a comprehensive Gender in Emergencies (GiE) ready for gender-transformative work. approach in Yemen. The data points to a need for greater GAPS IN GENDER-SENSITIVE HUMANITARIAN investment in women and girls across the aid sector, both PROGRAMMING in emergency response and longer-term programming, Gender-Based Violence (GBV): to ensure the highest quality programming and greatest Before the war, GBV was commonplace in Yemen, impact on the Yemeni people today and for years to come. including early and forced marriage, genital mutilation, and restrictions on mobility. Women and girls were also often denied access to resources, opportunities and CARE’S GENDER IN EMERGENCIES APPROACH services – yet another form of GBV. The current conflict Recignizing that women and girls are often left behind has further exacerbated the preexisting vulnerabilities in an emergency, CARE has prioritized empowering Yemeni women and girls faced. women and girls affected by crisis in our broader Since the current conflict intensified, there has been a goal of reaching over 20 million people affected by substantial increase in recorded GBV incidents – there was humanitarian crisis by 2020. CARE recently published a 70% increase in reports in September 2015 compared a report articulating our unique Gender in Emergencies to March 2015.v Many of these GBV survivors will require (GiE) approach and the steps we are taking to achieve responsive critical medical care and immediate and gender equality in humanitarian programming. From long-term psychosocial support – services that are the need for robust gender-specific analysis to ensuring that humanitarian programming not only supports currently severely lacking or non-existent in Yemen. The women;s immediate needs but helps to empower them lack of such services, as well as a lack of safe refuge for as well. This Yemen Gender Assessment illustrates the victims of abuse compounds the issues victims already findings of CARE’s global GiE report. face including stigma and rejection from their families and communities. Cultural norms and stigma related to CARE’s GiE report finds that: sexual violence crimes further discourage survivors from both reporting and from seeking necessary medical and 1. Improving Sex and Age Disaggregated Date psychosocial services.vi (SADD), and making GiE tools and approaches is Interviewees reported that as women take on roles that non-negotiable. 2. Explicit investments to empower women in were traditionally seen as male roles and men are staying humanitarian action must be ensured home in greater numbers due to a lack of employment 3. Successes and lessons learnt from GiE work must opportunities, intra-household conflict is rising. Focus cross over into longer-term resilience work to group respondents reported that forms of violence by sustainable reducevulnerability of women and men at the household level often include verbal abuse of girls women and physical abuse of children. 4. Working in parnership with local partners should Findings from the assessment point to clear gaps in mutuallly build competencies and accountabilities necessary medical care and immediate and long-term to reach and empower women and girls in an emergency. psychosocial support to respond to the increase in GBV incidents. Additionally, steps must be taken to begin to destigmatize reporting of GBV incidents within the communities in which NGOs operate. women and girls’ and men and boys’ food access and Health: household and agricultural duty responsibilities are further exacerbated. These findings point to the need Pre-conflict, Yemen had a high maternal mortality rate to ensure that food aid programming (and other - estimated as 148 deaths per 100,000 live births. The humanitarian programming) is not gender blind. health system in Yemen was strained, with three doctors per 10,000 people as of 2010.vii UNFPA estimates 2.6 Humanitarian Access: million women of reproductive age have been affected Since the onset of the conflict, it is now estimated by the prolonged conflict, including 257,000 pregnant that as many as 30% of displaced women may now be women. 55% of deliveries were not attended to by skilled heading their families.xiii The ability of women to access medical professionals, due in large part to a lack of female humanitarian aid differs depending on locations. skilled birth attendants in rural areas. With disruption to According to the UN, women and girls in Yemen often normal health service provision and a further decrease in remain invisible to humanitarian actors and miss being female health workers this is likely to worsen further.viii An targeted with aid assistance.xiv In some places women estimated 15% of these pregnant women suffer maternal can be reached directly, while in others aid is received or obstetric complications and face an increased risk that through their male relatives. these complications will become life-threatening as they have difficulty