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Women in humanitarian settings aren’t superhuman – but they are superheroes

Thursday, 15 November 2018 12:11 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Women and girls live in some of the most precarious places on the planet, yet their specific needs continue to be neglected

Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan is an advocate with Women Deliver for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, rights and wellbeing in humanitarian and fragile settings.


If you judged women in fragile and humanitarian settings by how governments and international organizations support their specific needs, you would think they were superhuman.

You would definitely believe, despite the obvious prolonged duration of crisis and displacement, that women and girls affected by violence and conflict never experience puberty, menstruate, become pregnant or give birth. After all, reproductive health services – like access to skilled birth attendants, menstrual hygiene supplies, information and contraception – are not prioritized, and rarely available.

You may also conclude that these same women and girls were immune to violence. Sure, they often live in some of the most precarious places on the planet, travel dangerous routes, put themselves daily in harm’s way as they gather water and wood for their families, and endure overcrowded settlements – but theyre invincible, right? Why else would less than 0.1 percent of humanitarian aid in 2017 be dedicated to address gender-based violence?

You might even imagine that women and girls are impervious to the deep-rooted inequalities, rising cultural conservatism, and pervasive sexism which exist in too many places. Between 2014-2015 – the years of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Nepalese earthquakes, and the start of Europe’s refugee crisis – only 5 percent of foreign aid to fragile states significantly targeted gender equality.

The reality, of course, could not be further from the truth. Tragically, more than 32 million women and girls of reproductive age require humanitarian assistance. They are among the most vulnerable to maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, and all forms of gender-based violence including child marriage. Yet, their specific needs continue to be chronically neglected and even disputed.

This past year, I have met with women and girls in South Sudan, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Uganda. Each of us share the same hopes: to be safe, healthy, and to provide for and
raise healthy, educated children with dignity. The communities I visited, however, were not afforded even the most basic of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services needed to survive and thrive, let alone achieve their dreams.

Quality reproductive health services, supplies and information are life-saving everywhere, and especially for women, girls and newborns in fragile and humanitarian settings, where neglect, broken health and education systems, disease, malnutrition, food insecurity and the threat of violence can make everyday a battle for survival.

The consequences are devastating. In the DRC, 22,000 women die every year from complications in pregnancy and childbirth. In South Sudan, where pregnant women are often malnourished from conception to birth, the physical and neurological health of their babies could be compromised forever. In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls aged 15-24 account for 70 percent of new HIV infections.

While governments and international organizations continue to resist making real, gender-transformative change to the humanitarian system, women and girls are superheroes with unwavering courage and determination. They put their children, families and communities at the center of everything they do.

They are midwives in northern Nigeria, who risk their lives to help women manage their pregnancies with safety and dignity; advocates against gender-based violence in Lebanon, who tirelessly push for policies that protect women and girls; peace builders in the Philippines, who help communities mitigate conflict and reconcile inequalities; teachers educating children in subterranean bunkers in Syria; and tireless polio campaigners in Pakistan on the front line of disease eradiation.

Women
s efforts and organizations working at the community level need sustained direct investment - local and national actors directly received only 3 percent of international humanitarian assistance from donors in 2017 – in addition to greater advocacy support, and political engagement.

To drive real change for women and girls in fragile and humanitarian settings, the status quo will not suffice. The challenges that still lie ahead are complex and grave, and must be faced with a superhuman effort of our own.

The aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted 70 years ago and promises of the Sustainable Development Goals, will be little better than empty rhetoric until and unless governments and international organizations employ urgent, superhuman effort and determination to address the root causes of humanitarian crises and inequality, rebuild trust, and lead with moral courage.

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