Integrating gender into humanitarian action: Good practices from Asia-Pacific 3

Mainstreaming Gender Equality into Humanitarian Action

In May 2016, the World Humanitarian Summit convened a High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable “Women and Girls: Catalyzing Action to Achieve Gender Equality,” recognizing a need to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in crisis. Meanwhile, discussions during the Regional Asia-Pacific Conference on Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, centered on integrating gender into disaster risk reduction processes. These dialogues highlighted examples and critical commitments to ensure an effective humanitarian system for all women, girls, men, and boys.

This is the third compilation of good practices on integrating gender into humanitarian action in Asia, developed on behalf of the Regional Network Working Group on Gender in Humanitarian Action in Asia-Pacific. On the following pages, we highlight examples from the region that support equal treatment of all before, during and after disasters.

Gender Equality Resource Guide

The Gender Equality Resource Guide for Emergency Response Preparedness is a new resource in Nepal that sets out the responsibilities for collective coordination and ensures the rights of women, girls, men and boys are equally represented and their distinct needs, interests and capacities are incorporated into preparedness, immediate response, early recovery, reconstruction and transition.

The document is based on the lessons learned and good practices from the integration of gender equality into the humanitarian response to the recent earthquakes in Nepal. It is also included in Nepal’s Emergency Response and Preparedness plan marking the first initiative of its kind globally.

The Gender Equality Resource Guide consists of two parts. The first section outlines key action for mainstreaming gender equality in preparedness and response. It guides key stakeholders to promoting participation and dignity of affected populations, suggests key actions for the roles of humanitarian organizations, and engaging local women’s organizations. The second part offers a set of templates/tools to support implementation of key actions. These include Checklists, Advocacy tools, Terms of References, Information Management and Communications Tools, Cluster-Specific Tools, Flash Appeal Documents, and Capacity Development Tools.

The Inter-Cluster Gender Working Group, cochaired by UN Women and UN-OCHA prepared the guide, and the UN’s Nepal Humanitarian Country Team endorsed it, which led to the document being incorporated into Nepal’s Disaster Contingency Plan. This endorsement and incorporation is critically important for ensuring gender-responsive disaster preparedness in Nepal.

Marie Sophie Pettersson, UN Women Nepal