Gender Assessment

“In the Eye of the Storm”: Assessment of how Culture, Customs and Conflict are Deepening Protection Risks in Northwest Syria

Across Syria, there are estimated to be 6.9 million IDPs and a total of 14.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance – an increase of 1.2 million from 202113 in NWS, around 4 million people, including around 3 million IDPs14, need regular humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs. This includes 1.72 million people residing in 1,397 last-resort sites, of whom 80 percent are women and children15.
According to OCHA’s Multisectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA) data from August 2021, the income gap has widened everywhere in Syria, with average household expenditure exceeding income by fifty per cent. Only 10 percent of households have an income above the cost of Syria’s Minimum Expenditure Basket. Across the country, food insecurity remains extremely high – with an estimated 12 million severely food-insecure people, Syria ranked amongst the ten most food-insecure countries globally in mid-202116. More recent data, from Humanitarian Situation Overview in Syria (HSOS)17 in May 2022, and from Mercy Corps’ research18 into the wider impacts of the conflict in Ukraine, suggest a significant deterioration in 2022.

Additionally, in September 2022, Government of Syria declared the Cholera outbreak. As of the 29th of October, a total of 4526 suspected cholera cases have been reported from NWS with 1517 (33.5%) suspected cases reported from IDP camps.26
It is essential to note that these emerging pressures have specific – and different – impacts on men and women; CARE’s commitment to Gender Equality as both a goal and an impact area (Vision 2030 Gender Equality Impact Strategy) reflects an understanding of the differing social positions of men and women, and the disproportionate impacts of conflicts, crises and disasters on women and girls27. Aligned with CARE’s commitment to Gender Equality, Gender is the primary axis of disaggregation and as such, this PNA recognizes that the consequences of increasing food insecurity, increasing prices, and the on-going impact of public health crises have implications for women and girls, not least their increased exposure to gender-based violence28. This PNA, therefore, gives dedicated attention to the specific vulnerabilities of women and girls.
The PNA is further disaggregated by age, and diversity, in alignment with CARE’s commitment to accounting for intersecting vulnerabilities, inequalities and diversity, and recognizing the varying protection needs that arise from these. The data is also analysed through the lenses of age and disability particularly, to ensure that the distinct risks and needs of different groups are both identified and addressed. This means, for example, that the specific needs of boys (gender + age) are recognized and articulated, with the acknowledgement that child labour has a particular impact on adolescent boys, ending their education and putting them at risk of injury, recruitment into criminal activity, and isolating them from support. Child marriage is recognized as a specific concern for adolescent girls as both a mechanism of attempted ‘protection’ and as a way of reducing the resource needs of a family. Women and men with disabilities have protection needs related to their gender, in relation to care (the giving and receiving of), to employment and income-generating opportunities, and to their exposure to sexual exploitation and abuse. These risks and needs are explored throughout this report.

CARE Türkiye has been providing humanitarian programs in NWS since 2013.To deliver its programs in NWS CARE currently works in partnership with five Syrian NGOs and implements directly in Jarablus, Aleppo governorate. CARE’s expertise lies in emergency response (implemented via cash, vouchers, and in-kind assistance); water, sanitation, and hygiene services; shelter and settlement; sexual and reproductive health services; protection and gender- based violence response, prevention, and risk mitigation; livelihoods and economic recovery assistance.

In December 2021, CARE Türkiye commissioned SREO Consulting to conduct a comprehensive protection needs assessment (PNA) in NWS. The main goal of this PNA was to assist CARE, as well as other protection and non-protection actors, in developing protection-responsive humanitarian interventions and addressing NWS's complex humanitarian situation. The assessment aimed to include an age, gender, and diversity (AGD) lens to better understand critical protection concerns and needs of the diverse groups in the targeted communities. Particularly, the specific protection needs, concerns, and service access barriers of adolescents and youth, as well as persons with disabilities, have been assessed to inform well-tailored and well-targeted humanitarian responses. In July 2022 CARE engaged with Heather Cole, an independent technical writer to propose a revised analysis and the final shape of this report. Read More...

Gender-Sensitive Conflict Analysis in South and East Darfur States, Sudan, 2022

CARE International in Sudan is implementing the project “Enhancing resilience through improved food security, disaster risk reduction and peaceful co-existence in South and East Darfur states, Sudan” (1 September 2021 – 31 August 2025) through funding from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project addresses the specific needs, vulnerabilities, and capacities of women, youth, and persons with disabilities to strengthen their resilience to buffer, adapt, and respond to future shocks at an individual, family, and community levels. This gender sensitive conflict analysis in East and South Darfur – representing eight villages – is to understand the causes, power and gender dynamics, and actors of conflicts in the project area.

The conflict in Darfur is escalating rapidly, with eight times more people killed and displaced in 2021 than in 2020. Inflation rose by 359% in 2021. Climate change—marked by devastating floods and prolonged droughts—combined with food insecurity and a lack of services leaves people feeling violence is their only choice.
A profoundly unequal and harmful set of social norms that do not value women, and even refer to them as vessels of the devil, coupled with laws that do not protect women and their rights, are pushing many burdens of this crisis onto women. A common saying is, “Almara mamlouka ela malak Almout” or “A woman is owned to death.” As the situation gets more extreme and livelihoods and service get scarcer, women are more likely to be working outside the home to help meet family needs. Men have not increased their involvement in household chores and childcare to compensate for these shifts—leaving women with even higher burdens than before. The shifts in women having to work outside the home have not translated into corresponding improvements in women’s rights, engagement in politics, or access to public life.
This research draws from 20 focus groups and 20 Key Informant Interviews that represent the views of 193 people (45% of whom were women) in eight villages in July of 2022. It also looks at 44 secondary sources.
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Making the Invisible Visible – An evidence-based analysis of gender in the regional response to the war in Ukraine

The escalation of the war in Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, causing thousands of civilian casualties; destroying civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, and triggering the fastest growing displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. The demographic profile of Ukraine, combined with the implementation of martial law and conscription policies, led to an awareness of gender- and age-related factors within the regional humanitarian response that recognised the pre-crisis situation of persons of all genders and diversities and how the war and subsequent regional crise s were compounding the risks that they face.

From the early days of the response, Rapid Gender Analyses (RGA) and other analyses and assessments were conducted, and the Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF) recognised the emergence of common themes and concerns within these that required a closer examination. It was identified that the solutions to the concerns identified required national, regional and cross-border solutions rooted in broad changes in policy and the humanitarian architecture. However, at the time, gender themes, including trends, gaps and specific challenges faced by women and men belonging to different socio-economic and ethnic groups, across the
humanitarian and refugee response in the region had not been captured adequately. Read More...

Enhancing adaptive capacity of women and ethnic smallholder farmers through improved agro-climate information in Mai and Samphanh district, Phongsaly Province, Laos

The Agro-Climate Information for the Adoption of Resilient Farming Practices by Women and Ethnic Minority Farmers (ACIS2) is implemented by CARE International in Lao PDR. The project financed by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (MECDD) in Luxembourg, is designed to support poor and vulnerable households in remote, rural areas and to enable women and ethnic minority farmers in Mai and Samphanh districts (Phongsaly province) to better anticipate risks and opportunities related to climate variability thus improving their response through participatory and equitable agro-climatic planning. The project’s aim is to contribute to SDG 13 by increasing climate resilience of women and ethnic minority farmers in northern Laos.
The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the project’s success in implementing activities and in attaining the project’s goals and expected results. The ACIS2 has implemented a wide variety of activities to increase the resilience of ethnic communities to climate change and climate variability. The project has been successful in achieving its objectives and expected results. Project provide the weather forecast and agriculture advisory and support for cardamom production, intercropping galangal, pineapple, fruit trees, bee keeping, vegetable gardening, improved rice production and support to women’s savings and loans groups which has resulted in reducing the impact of climatic hazards and improving farmers’ incomes.
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Uganda: Refugees and Host Communities in Yumbe and Terego Districts Rapid Gender Analysis

The conflict in South Sudan expanded to the southern parts of the country in July 2016, which led to an influx of refugees in Northern Uganda. Uganda hosts 1.5 mill. refugees in total, many live in refugee settlements. The four largest settlements in West Nile are Bidi Bidi, Palorinya, Rhino and Imvepi, with numbers of refugees ranging from 60,000 to more than 240,000. According to a report of the World bank and Uganda Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on gender-based violence (GBV) in Uganda from 2020, more than 80 % of the refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda are women and children. During the conflict, violence against women and girls such as the abduction of girls and the use of rape as a weapon of war was used. Women and girls fleeing to Uganda reported sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) “to have taken place throughout the route of migration within South Sudan itself as well as when crossing the border." Read More...

CARE Rapid Gender Analysis – North-west Syria: SACRIFICING THE FUTURE TO SURVIVE THE PRESENT

The war in Syria has fueled one of the world’s most complex protracted humanitarian crises. The combination of mounting insecurity, economic decline, environmental stressors and the Covid-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic impact. After 11 years of conflict, north-west Syria, which is home to more than 4.6 million people, continues to experience recurring waves of violence and forced displacement and disruptions in the provision of humanitarian assistance. Idleb governorate recorded the highest death rate as a result of the conflict countrywide in 2021, accounting for more than 19% of the national toll, followed by neighboring Aleppo with 18%.
More than 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, compared with 10% before the start of the conflict, and as of the end of 2021, 60% of the population were food insecure, a 57% increase on the figure for 2019. The agricultural sector continues to decline, and average food prices have risen by more 97% in a year.
The situation in the north-west is even more acute. Food prices have gone up by more than 120%, further increasing households’ dependency on humanitarian aid.5 The ongoing food crisis is expected to significantly amplify stressors on the most vulnerable, particularly the region’s 2.8 million internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as female-headed households, widows, women in general and children.
All participants in this rapid gender analysis (RGA), including adolescents, identified food, livelihood and health support as their main needs. Adolescents also highlighted the need for better education opportunities. The conflict and severe economic strain have led to more women becoming main breadwinners, but social and cultural barriers continue to impede their greater participation in decision making in the household and the public sphere. Read More...

Rapid Gender Analysis Brief Ukrainian Refugees in Romania

Since the escalation of the war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, there has been an outpouring of kindness, solidarity and support in the form of basic goods and services from the Government and people of Romania to Ukrainian refugees.
As of 1 June 2022, 1,098,326 Ukrainians refugees have arrived in Romania. Of these, only 84,470 (7.7 per cent) have remained in Romania.1 Of those arriving in Romania, 54 per cent are adult women, 32 per cent are children and 14 per cent are adult men. The top five counties hosting refugees are Bucharest, Constanta, Brasov, Galati and Iasi.
This Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) brief highlights the most significant gender and protection issues for refugees from Ukraine in Romania and sets out key recommendations to address them. The RGA brief was conducted jointly by CARE/SERA, the Federation for Child Protection, the Federation for Social Services and Plan International in Romania.

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Rapid Gender Analysis – Northeast Nigeria – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States

The combined effects of the ongoing insurgency, the COVID pandemic, and a looming food crisis are severely affecting men, women, boys, and girls in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe state in Northeast Nigeria. Women, girls, and at-risk and vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected by these combined crises. CARE and Plan International led this Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) to update the needs of women and girls from those identified by the 2020 joint RGA between CARE, UN WOMEN, and OXFAM. Given the evolving factors and context of the overlapping crises (Food insecurity and COVID-19), This RGA includes the additional dimension of analysis to more significantly including the experience and perspectives of adolescent boys and girls in this complex crisis. Read More...

Menstrual Hygiene and Health Development Impact Bond

This report is focused on the experience, knowledge, attitude, and practices of menstrual health and hygiene. This involved generating understanding about the MHH knowledge, attitude, and practices among schoolgirls and adult women. It also aimed at creating an understanding of the experience of women and girls within the social norms and economic constraints and forwarding recommendations for future improvement. Read More...

Conflict Sensitive Rapid Gender Analysis Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

The on-going armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado that started in 2017 and the mass displacement it caused have created a complex humanitarian crisis in one of Mozambique’s poorest regions, Cabo Delgado. Prior to the crisis, Cabo Delgado province already suffered from high levels of poverty and absence of services. This situation has been worsened by the crisis which depleted what little resilience the province’s population had. Host communities find themselves having to share already scarce resources. There are evident signs of solidarity fatigue and tensions between IDPs and host communities result in frequent conflicts.

IDPs in Cabo Delgado are suffering from dire living conditions, extremely limited access to basic services and struggling to meet essential needs. Widespread lack of access to cash and income generating opportunities are causing negative multi-layered gendered impacts on the lives of IDPs. IDPs living in resettlement centres are among
those most vulnerable, women and children making up the majority of residents, where access to resources or income generating opportunities is very limited. Female-headed IDP households have constrained access to land when compared to their male counterparts, making subsistence farming difficult. The combination of these factors
has led to the commodification of humanitarian aid with the sale of part of the food received through humanitarian assistance being a prevalent practice.

While humanitarian assistance has been vital in meeting IDPs’ most urgent needs, there are still immense and persistent needs. Life at resettlement centres is difficult and protection risks abound, particularly for women and girls. Water is scarce and fetching it is an arduous and often dangerous task for women and girls. Access to health care is
limited, including to maternal and sexual and reproductive health services. Reports of sexual exploitation and abuse were frequent and included cases of community leaders requesting money or sex in exchange for guaranteed access to humanitarian aid. Read More...

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