Attachments
BACKGROUND
The Canadian Red Cross in close cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has developed its CERA Project “Capacity Building for Emergency Response in the Americas”. Three cross-cutting themes have been identified as priorities in the process of strengthening preparedness and response frameworks prior to disasters and emergencies: gender and diversity, protection, and community engagement and accountability.
The integration of gender and diversity has been driven by the growing evidence in the humanitarian sector that, by ignoring the different specific needs of girls and women and men and boys in terms of age, ability, socioeconomic status, can lead to situations of discrimination in the response or, worse still, accentuate the suffering with a negative impact in the long term. This reinforces the Government of Canada “GAC” Gender Equality Policy and GAC’s focus on ensuring a gender approach of all humanitarian action.
The inclusion of Community Engagement and Accountability has been driven by internal and external evaluations which emphasize the need to increase participation, number of consultations and communications with communitiesand to improve the mechanisms available to communicate their opinions and make complaints.
What does “mainstreaming” an issue in humanitarian action mean?
Mainstreaming an issue or an axis means integrating it into any action that is planned — whether it is strategies, policies, procedures, support systems, programs, projects or interventions and specific actions — in all areas and at all levels of disaster risk management and emergency preparedness and response. It is a key strategy to guarantee that the needs, concerns and experiences of the people affected (including
II. BACKGROUND
children, adolescents, men and women of all ages, conditions and abilities) are an integral part of the design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, plans, instruments, interventions and activities in all areas, so that no vulnerable group is excluded and all people can benefit equally from assistance.