Attachments
Background
Having fled in extreme circumstances, the Rohingya refugee population that has crossed into Cox’s Bazar is highly vulnerable. They are not only traumatized by the loss of their loved ones, but also the loss of their assets and livelihoods, etc. According to most recent family counting data, approximately 53% of the Rohingya refugee population are women and girls with the largest gender discrepancy being among the population of working age (age 18-59) where 55% are female. Overall 80 per cent of the Rohingya population are women and children.
The crisis situation disproportionately affects women, girls and the most vulnerable and marginalized Rohingya refugee population groups including older persons, persons with disabilities, children (especially those unaccompanied and separated), adolescents, female headed households, single women, single parents, pregnant women, religious minorities, persons of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations by perpetuating and exacerbating pre-existing, persistent gender and social inequalities, gender-based violence, discrimination. Women and girls and the most vulnerable and marginalized are among the first to experience additional access barriers to scarce and overstretched humanitarian relief services. Increasing gendered isolation and restricted mobility of women and girls limits their access to life-saving assistance, services and information. Effective and equitable humanitarian service delivery for these traumatized people cannot be achieved without understanding and responding to their gender and age-related needs and constraints.
Gender inequalities usually exist even before a humanitarian crisis, and the current Rohingya crisis can potentially exacerbate these inequalities. A humanitarian crisis itself impacts on women, girls, boys and men across social diversities in different ways. For these reasons, integrating gender equality measures as well as age and diversity dimensions into the cross-sectoral crisis response efforts is critical to ensuring that women, girls, boys and men — particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized — have equitable access to (and benefit from) relief, services and information. This will improve humanitarian programming and make it more effective in meeting the needs of Rohingya Refugees. Sectors should make gender equality a central priority in Sector Response Plans, which will guide project partners in designing projects that meet the distinct needs of women, girls, boys and men equally/equitably.
Humanitarian responses often miss opportunities to transform gender relations through the leadership and empowerment of women and girls in their role as decision makers, first responders and economic actors — notwithstanding the fact that these are key to response effectiveness and to communities’ longer-term resilience. Understanding these distinctions provides humanitarian actors with a more accurate conception of how the crisis affects different vulnerable and marginalized groups. This understanding is key to designing gender-responsive human rights-based humanitarian actions that meet the needs and priorities of the population in a more targeted manner; ensures that all people affected by the crisis are acknowledged (and that their needs and vulnerabilities are taken into account); and that the humanitarian response is more effective and efficient.
Humanitarian actors have an obligation to promote gender equality through humanitarian actions in line with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) ‘Gender Equality Policy Statement’ (2008), the Agenda for Humanity from the World Humanitarian Summit (2016), and the Grand Bargain9. Humanitarian actors also have an obligation to support women’s and girls’ protection, participation and empowerment through targeted actions, as articulated in the Women, Peace and Security thematic agenda as outlined in United Nations Security Council Resolutions. The Government of Bangladesh, a signatory to these global commitments as well as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action, and has committed to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the National Standing Orders on Disasters.