Attachments
A. PURPOSE
The purpose of this Policy is to guide the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to make gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls a core principle of its humanitarian action. The Policy harnesses progressive thinking on humanitarian preparedness and response, peace building, and development, to be transformative, inclusive and uncompromising towards achieving the goals of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian action. Implementation of this Policy will lead to humanitarian action which is more just, coherent, effective and cost efficient, and thus will save more lives.
B. SCOPE
This Policy is a framework that specifies principles, standards, and actions that IASC Bodies, Members and Standing Invitees should abide by at global and field level to integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls into all preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
IASC Members and Standing Invitees are urged to implement the Policy alongside existing policies of their own, and in doing so to work in an inter-agency fashion. IASC Bodies should align all existing and new policy and operational guidance with this Policy.
This Policy will support the IASC to comply with international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, and other normative frameworks1 in upholding the rights to protection and assistance of women, girls, men and boys affected by conflict and disaster, and meeting their needs and priorities equitably. It builds on the IASC Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action Policy Statement (2008), the findings of the 2015 review of its implementation, and the gender policies of IASC Members and Standing Invitees.
This Policy should be used alongside the IASC Gender Handbook and the IASC Gender Marker. It is accompanied by an Accountability Framework to monitor implementation and progress.