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A Feminist Assessment of the Humanitarian Aid System’S Support of Women- and Girl-Led Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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A Feminist Assessment of the Humanitarian Aid System’S Support of Women- and Girl-Led Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic i WE MUST DO BETTER A Feminist Assessment of the Humanitarian Aid System’s Support of Women- and Girl-Led Organizations during the COVID-19 Pandemic AMPLIFYING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CRISES i AMPLIFYING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CRISES #WeMustDoBetter i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments and Citations 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 6 Research Aims and Core Questions 10 Methodology 11 Findings: What Women and Girls Told Us 13 Core Impacts of COVID-19 According to Women Leaders 24 Conclusions 25 Recommendations 27 References 30 AMPLIFYING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CRISES #WeMustDoBetter 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, we must thank the women and girl NoVo Foundation, and other partners that leaders that contributed their thoughts, have supported the sharing of this survey insights, experiences, and concerns to the around the world, including The Equality development of this project. It is because Institute, Oxfam International, the Sexual of their freedom that we do this work. We Violence Research Initiative, UNHCR, UN exist for them. We must do better for them. Women, Purposeful, USAID, and the Femi- nist Humanitarian Network. We would also We dedicate this report to their commit- like to thank Statistics Without Borders for ment and perseverance in the face of the their quantitative analysis of all of the data. crisis, and we hope that we have represen- It is because of our friends and allies (inclu- ted their perspectives, experiences, and ding, but not limited to, Catherine Poulton, priorities faithfully, and with the deepest Christine Heckman, and Josh Chaffin) in respect, love, and solidarity for our sister the rooms and halls of power that real con- activists. versations and transformative change are possible. VOICE would also like to thank our sup- portive partners, donors, and other allies. We are thrilled to showcase the incredi- UNICEF has been the largest donor and ble work of the VOICE research team, led partner for this edition of our We Must Do by Heather Cole, Sinéad Murray, Sharanya Better series, which is a shared deliverable Sekaram, and Amy Greenbank, as well as under our ambitious partnership: “She the broader VOICE team, including the Leads the Way: Revolutionizing the Aid VOICE Fellows, Head of Communications Sector’s Approach to GBV Prevention and and Marketing Chiderah Monde, and Exe- Response by Harnessing the Power of Wo- cutive Director Mendy Marsh. We would men and Girls.” Additional donors include also like to thank Jasmina El Bouamraoui Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the of EL BOUM for the report design. CITATIONS Report citation VOICE (2021). We Must Do Better. In-text (VOICE, 2021) AMPLIFYING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CRISES #WeMustDoBetter 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The results show how precarious the pro- gress toward gender equity has been, in We Must Do Better represents the first at- every sphere of life. During the pandemic, tempt at a global feminist assessment of the women and girls are realizing, painfully, that experiences of women and girls—and the or- they had not so much gained their rights ganizations they lead—during the COVID-19 within patriarchal contexts, but rather had pandemic. It looks at their lives holistical- been given concessions that were granted ly to see how the pandemic has impacted only until a crisis struck, then quickly with- their organizations and communities and drawn. COVID-19 may not discriminate, but how humanitarian responders engage with families, communities, and governments them, if at all. We invited 200 feminist orga- certainly do. nizations and individual women and girls in 41 countries to share their experiences du- The humanitarian aid sector contributes too, ring the pandemic and speak of their needs. despite its commitments to crisis-affected populations—denying women and girls The work sought to understand how their their rights to participation, consultation, organizations are being affected and the and services and in some cases subjecting ways in which they are (or are not) being them to its own types of violence. Response supported. We asked about their frustrati- strategies have failed to engage women- ons and how to alleviate the burdens they and girl-led organizations to explore what carry. We looked at how gender inequalities a gender-transformative health response manifest in crisis; what impact lockdowns might look like. Many of the organizations and economic downturns have on women responding to this survey noted that they and girls; and how the pandemic has affec- have not been invited to participate in the ted the violence they face. planning for the COVID-19 response, in spite of humanitarian agencies’ mandates to do The VOICE survey asked them to look at their so. We are taking this opportunity to make it domestic lives as well as the supportive roles known that the humanitarian system needs they play in communities and to find con- to do better. The pandemic makes this more nections between the two domains. It recog- apparent than ever. nizes the dual aspects of women’s lives––that women in leadership are not living “outside” The loss of women’s incomes, resources, the dynamics they are trying to change and freedom of movement, friendships, and are often experiencing violence similar to the networks come in addition to the increased women they serve. household burdens, demands for support from children and other family members, We covered issues of access to resources for and care for those who are sick. The closure their organizations; health, wellness, and ot- of schools, the difficulties in obtaining food, her kinds of social care; their exposure to and increased sanitation needs are burdens violence; and their access to supportive net- disproportionately carried by women. works. The findings are organized around three major themes that emerged: social In May 2020, the United Nations Population expectations and norms, access to resources Fund (UNFPA) and other actors forecasted and assets; and giving and receiving care. major concerns about increased violencet AMPLIFYING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CRISES #WeMustDoBetter 3 against women and girls (VAWG). Yet there through traditional gender expectations was no specific objective included for VAWG at every level: local, national, regional, and in the overall Global Humanitarian Response global. Plan.1 VOICE and many other feminist organizati- Both foreign and domestic responses to the ons and activists in the humanitarian sector pandemic have relied heavily, and without have been reporting the same needs, the negotiation, on the unpaid labor of women same violence, and the same marginaliza- and girls. The assumption that women are tion of women and girls for decades. We a resource to be deployed within a crisis, know that they experience specific, predic- rather than members of communities in table consequences and rights violations need, is connected to widespread gender whenever a disaster strikes, and yet their norms. Their needs and experiences are not needs go mostly unrecognized, unfunded, aligned with the assumptions underpinning and ignored. the response. Unlike men, around who the response has been designed, women are The main recommendations are for du- experiencing increased exposure to violence, ty-bearers to adhere to their own global increased responsibility for others, and lack commitments to localization of humani- of or reduced access to sex-specific health tarian response, including systematically services they require. creating ways for women and girls to de- sign and lead responses in addition to in- Women working to support women and girls corporating their views and contributions find themselves having to “do more with into all phases of the Humanitarian Pro- less,” effectively working harder than ever, gramme Cycle (HPC). Further, we recom- for free, without the resources to change mend a gender power analysis be applied the modes of delivery in the context of social to all health interventions, that interventions distancing. Women leaders are legitimately take into account women’s greater exposu- concerned that now, having done their CO- re, and that funding be protected for sexual VID-19 response work with minimal support, and reproductive health (SRH) and VAWG they will be expected to continue to work services. Duty-bearers should provide mul- on these terms in the future. At the same ti-year flexible funding to local women- and time, demand for their unpaid caregiving is girl-led organizations through partnerships also increasing within the private domains driven by and grounded in local expertise of family and community. In both domains, and knowledge. They should reach out to their own needs are made invisible and dis- networks of women-led civil society organi- regarded, even as the risks to their health zations (CSOs) and non-governmental or- and safety have increased. ganizations (NGOs) to ask what roles they would like to play as partners and address A similar report could have been written any barriers to their participation. Women- in response to other recent epidemics and and girl-led organizations also need connec- pandemics, including SARS, Ebola, and Zika. tions to donors and support in connecting COVID-19 has unveiled again that women to each other regionally to strengthen their and girls are both more exposed to infection resistance, solidarity, networks, and advo- than men and boys and also providing more cacy. The humanitarian system, including of the care. However, these realities have still UN actors and international non-govern- not been built into humanitarian response.
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