Gender in Emergencies - Care Canada and Oxfam Canada 2019 to 2021

November 2019 - Women and girls are disproportionally affected by humanitarian crises. While carrying a disproportionate share of the burden of response they usually face a lower status in society and have less opportunity to make the decisions that shape or control their lives. However emergencies present a significant opportunity to shift the power dynamics at the national local and household levels and to challenge the social norms conflicting with gender equality. With GAC’s support CARE Canada in collaboration with Oxfam Canada aims to strengthen women’s leadership and women’s rights in humanitarian situations in Bangladesh Somalia and South Sudan. Project activities include: (1) providing operational and technical support to women’s rights actors (WRAs) to work on humanitarian issues respond to crises or to advocate for the including women’s interests and needs in humanitarian responses; (2) working with local and national WRAs to increase local capacity for gender in emergencies; and (3) investing in Women’s Local Humanitarian Leadership models to support women responders’ technical and leadership skills including rolling-out existing models from Oxfam’s Gender Leadership in Humanitarian Action and CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased participation of women in decision-making groups and platforms in the humanitarian program cycle; and (2) increased access to feminist knowledge such as best and emerging practice on gender in emergencies by humanitarian actors including WRAs. The expected ultimate outcome is lives saved suffering alleviated and human dignity maintained in countries experiencing humanitarian crises or acute food insecurity.