NDP Calls for Aid to Women and Girls in Crisis - $10 million needed as first step

November 8, 2007 - Conditions of women in crisis have reached a critical point said UNDP today. The organization’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery called for 10 million USD to help women and girls in crisis for the next two years. The funding is vital to scale up a groundbreaking new strategy that addresses the needs of women affected by conflicts and natural disasters, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Crisis Bureau Kathleen Cravero said.

Endorsed by UNDP and its partners in countries, the Eight Point Agenda for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention is transforming the way the organization does business. This comprehensive approach outlines steps to address the long-term needs of women and girls in crisis, whether they are survivors of earthquakes, tsunamis, or militias that use rape and brutality as a tactic of war.

“Neglecting women and girls in crises makes no sense from a development perspective,” said Kathleen Cravero speaking from London. “Not only do we fail to address the needs of half the population, we also fail to gain from their insights and resourcefulness during the critical stages of the recovery process.”

Indeed, few recognize how disproportionately women suffer during crisis – whether it is the result of violence or natural disaster. After the waters of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami receded, for example, many regions found that the death toll among women was three to four times greater than among men. In some villages, only a handful of women survived. And those who survived were often excluded from any decision-making process in the recovery effort.

In times of crisis women have shown extraordinary resolve and strength, whether forming networks to provide vital services that were destroyed during the conflict, or joining together to promote peace and reconciliation.

“One of the most common and disturbing images of war is of women uprooted from their homes and communities, reeling from the effects of sexual violence and struggling to provide for their children in the harshest of environments,” said Cravero.

“But if we continue to see women only as victims – and not as problem solvers and decision-makers – we do so at their peril, and at the peril of peace. We need to seize opportunities to “build back better” during the recovery period. Realizing the Eight Point Agenda will help achieve this goal,” she added.

In brief, the eight points of the agenda are: protecting women from violence in crisis; ensuring women have access to justice; strengthening women’s voices and representation; building peace with and for women; promoting gender equality; putting women’s needs first in the recovery effort; urging governments to work for women; and strengthening women’s networks in crisis.

For background information:

Activities included in the roll out of the Eight Point Agenda for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality in Crisis Prevention include:

1. Increasing women’s security by enhancing the gender component of security institutions (in El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Honduras, Kenya, Liberia, Philippines, South Sudan and South Eastern Europe);
2. Supporting the reintegration of women and girls associated with armed forces and groups;
3. Improving women and girls’ access to legal aid and strengthening justice institutions to fight impunity; training lawyers, judges, police officers and social workers on legal representation and counseling of survivors of sexual violence;
4. Establishing safe centers for victims of human rights abuses to gain access to information on domestic laws;
5. Ensuring women are included when analyzing conflict related responses (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria);
6. Building a global network of experts on gender and disaster risk reduction that would be dispatched to high-risk countries;
7. Collecting and analyzing data on women in crisis (DRC, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda).

From: http://www.undp.org/cpr/we_do/8_pa_press_release.shtml