8 March 2023 — On International Women’s Day, the International Rescue Committee recognises women around the world who step up after disaster strikes to rebuild their homes, communities, and cities, regardless of the guardrails that have failed to support them.
During crises, women often bear an unequal brunt of impact. Women tend to experience more incidences of gender-based violence, more healthcare complications, and more economic loss.
The one-year anniversary of Ukraine brings to mind that the war sparked the world’s fastest, largest displacement crises in decades, with women and children representing 65% of the internally displaced people in the country and making up 90% of Ukrainian refugees. In East Africa, over 8 million people are facing an unprecedented sixth season of failed rains and impending famine. The prevalence of severe food insecurity is higher among women, who tend to eat least, last, and least well within their households and suffer the most from nutrient deficiencies. Nearly four million women who are pregnant or lactating across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are acutely malnourished. Furthermore, an estimated 80% of the people displaced by climate change are women and girls.
Inah Kaloga, Senior Director of Violence Response and Protection at the IRC, said:
“An impact of all humanitarian crises is increased inequalities for girls and women, which drives poverty and violence against them and rolls back their progress in education, employment, and health. Another barrier to women being better informed, targeted, and effective in their work is their exclusion from shaping disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies or programmes. Women’s rights organisations (WROs) and women-led organisations (WLOs) tend to be shut out of decision-making processes, especially in access to funding.
“A new IRC report shows that while some agencies have met overall targets to better include national and subnational organisations, WROs/WLOs are far behind. For instance, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in 2021 that 27% of funding from their country-based pooled funds went to national or subnational actors, but only 3.5% was to WROs/WLOs specifically. This is just one example of the wider picture of how humanitarian funding fails to reach WROs/WLOs.
“The lack of funding to WROs/WLOs is an alarming oversight that disenfranchises women’s voices, capacities, leadership, and agency. Beyond representation and funding, this is depriving overall humanitarian response from previous knowledge, perspectives, and experiences. Women’s rights and women-led organisations are first responders to conflict and crisis and often are best placed to understand the needs of women and girls in these contexts to make a lasting impact to increase gender equality and end gender-based violence. For a truly inclusive, global humanitarian response, there must be changes to funding, leadership, and accountability - to recognize that WROs and WLOs add value to humanitarian planning and that they have a right to be a part of it.”
Women continue to prove that when they lead, they bring transformative changes to entire communities and the world at large. Explore the ways in which IRC staff and volunteers serve as first responders, humanitarians, activists, and advocates, contributing powerful leaders and changemakers to a more equitable future for all.