T F U U S N D R S T REFUGEE WOMEN BACKGROUND ACHIEVEMENTS AND IMPACT UNHCR’s activities for refugee women have evolved Mainstreaming and Support to Operations significantly over the last ten years. While the Office To promote the integration of a gender equality per- continues to promote activities for women in accor- spective in UNHCR’s planning processes, the Unit dance with the Beijing Platform for Action, UNHCR’s invested significant resources in the analysis and revi- policy has shifted to achieving gender equality for sion of UNHCR manuals, guidelines, and training refugees. Its goal is to incorporate a gender equality per- materials. Detailed comments, based on gender analy- spective into all its activities (a concept known as sis and the concepts in People Oriented Planning “mainstreaming”). UNHCR continued to encourage (POP), were provided to staff responsible for produc- asylum countries to make their procedures more respon- ing the Reintegration Operational Framework, Health sive to the experience of female refugees. and Nutrition Checklists, Camp Security Training Modules, Emergency Assessment Guidelines, the As part of this strategy, UNHCR launched in 1996 the Operations Management System (OMS) Effective General Initiative Fund for Refugee Women (GIF). Planning Guidelines, and others. To complement this, The Initiative was designed as a discretionary fund to gender-awareness training was provided for some man- encourage pilot activities geared towards empower- agers and staff, followed by a two-day retreat for both ing refugee women. Although field offices were encour- the regional gender advisors and the refugee children aged to integrate activities for refugee women directly policy officers. The retreat provided a useful forum into their initial programme planning, it was recognised for identifying policy priorities, constraints, and global that occasionally unforeseen opportunities arose. The operational objectives. GIF was designed to seize these opportunities. In 1999, the Refugee Women and Gender Equality Unit made Training is a helpful tool for advancing the interests a strategic decision to fund a limited number of pro- of refugee women. POP has been the primary training jects that promoted the advancement of women’s vehicle for implementing UNHCR's Policy on Refugee interests. Women. POP has provided UNHCR staff and imple- menting partners with a framework for analysing the OBJECTIVES different experiences of female and male refugees, returnees, and displaced people. In 1999, the frame- In 1999, the main goal of the Senior Co-ordinator for work of analysis was revised to reflect changes in think- Refugee Women/Gender Equality Unit was to incor- ing over the last decade. As a result, the POP frame- porate a gender equality perspective into all UNHCR’s work now more decisively highlights gender equality operational activities. In order to accomplish this, the as a goal, and includes practical programming exercises Unit, in partnership with the field operations, strove to: to apply gender analysis to operations. • quantify the extent to which this had already been achieved; An important vehicle for improving the tools for main- • develop mechanisms to increase the integration of streaming was the new OMS. In 1999, UNHCR worked gender equality concepts into UNHCR’s pro- to ensure that the Country Reports and Operations gramming; Plans, as well as funding appeals, were gender sensitive • conduct assessments of gender equality integration and inclusive of women’s needs and capacities. During in key country operations through the Country the year, workshops were piloted on use of the new pro- Reports and Operations Plans; and ject description document. The Unit participated in • evaluate compliance with agreed gender equality those workshops, bringing practical support to the field plans. on how to ensure that every project improved the lives of refugee women and children. UNHCR GLOBAL REPORT 1999 Page 386 TRUST FUNDS UNHCR made considerable efforts to encourage gov- In West and East Africa, projects were implemented ernments to ensure their asylum procedures addressed to develop country-specific mechanisms to prevent the barriers that women face. Increasingly, female staff and respond to sexual and gender-based violence were made available for status determination and against women. In the Horn of Africa, reproductive translation requirements in order to redress imbal- rights awareness and training was undertaken, as well ances in access to asylum. UNHCR worked to clarify as projects to promote the elimination of harmful tra- jurisprudence in the context of asylum claims predi- ditional practices such as female genital mutilation and cated upon gender-based persecution, and offered a legal the marriage of young children. Activities to include opinion in the United Kingdom reflecting its inter- women refugees in protecting the environment were pretation of the relevant laws. implemented, and gender-sensitive mine awareness training sessions were held. The Bosnian Women’s Initiative (BWI) was evaluated in October 1999. Workshops were held to discuss how In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the regional advi- the BWI could better empower women in the future, sor worked with the field offices to finalise strategic and the lessons learned will be used to guide the newly frameworks on gender mainstreaming and to develop created Kosovo Women's Initiative (KWI). For the lat- gender-sensitive performance indicators. In the ter, the Unit helped to develop a strategic planning Americas, UNHCR focused on issues such as co- framework to strengthen start-up activities and promote ownership of land for returnee women in Guatemala empowerment. The KWI is now fully underway and (as part of reintegration programmes) and refugee returnee women are participating in a variety of activ- women in Mexico; migration documents for men and ities including fora to discuss the rights and changing women refugees in Chiapas and urban areas of Mexico; roles of women in Kosovo’s society. and gender sensitive legislation and inter-agency co- ordination in Colombia. In other regions, UNHCR In Turkmenistan, the Unit helped conduct a workshop worked to promote gender-friendly asylum procedures on how to include gender awareness in protection and in Egypt; to improve women's health in Western assistance activities. A checklist on asylum procedures Sahara and Pakistan; to produce a public information and programming was developed, integrating gender campaign on the rights of women; and to promote and child policy issues. The checklist was modified for micro-credit schemes and literacy training for refugee other regions (Europe, the Baltics, and Central Europe). women in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They will be field-tested in 2000. General Initiative Fund for Women REFUGEE WOMEN The Senior Regional Advisors for Refugee UNHCR and the other UN agencies recognised that Women/Gender actively promoted UNHCR's main- women have been systematically left out of reconcil- streaming strategy in the field. Gender networks were iation processes and there are tangible benefits from established in the Americas, Europe, the Baltics, the bringing a female perspective to the peace table. For Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and this reason, funds were allocated from the GIF to sup- Central Asia. In early December, the Americas gen- port preparations for an inter-agency sponsored peace der network held its third annual meeting to evaluate mission by senior African women leaders to Eritrea, the work of the regional team. Following success in the Ethiopia and Somalia, as part of peace negotiations in Americas, it was agreed that the system of networks these countries. The mission to Somalia was delayed would be expanded to other regions, as it had proven due to security concerns, but it is planned to take to be an effective mainstreaming tool. The gender place in 2000. In the meantime, UNHCR is under- network is based on the "ripple in the pond" effect, taking a more thorough study of what has already been whereby knowledge shared by one or more members done to promote the participation of women in the of an office is disseminated throughout the office. The peace process, analysis of gaps, and how the partici- idea is to move away from individual focal points pation of women can be of added value. responsible for gender issues towards sharing respon- sibility among all staff members. The networks in GIF funds were also allocated to the regional advisor Central Asia, the CIS, and the Baltics started off with in Turkey to set up gender networks in the Eastern three-day workshops for programme and protection staff European and CIS countries, the Balkans, and Central in each region, to share ideas on gender awareness Asia. In each region, workshops were held with par- and mainstreaming. ticipants from programming, protection, and commu- nity services to establish a series of tools for main- UNHCR GLOBAL REPORT 1999 Page 387 TRUST FUNDS streaming gender equality in those regions. Checklists months or more, resulting in a temporary lack of sup- were established for gender sensitive asylum proce- port to headquarters units and field offices. dures and promoting gender equality in programming. In some regions, this was the first time the issues of gen- Working with Others der awareness and mainstreaming gender equality had The Unit continued to promote technical co- been discussed in such a forum. The participation of ordination and networking with partners.