Complex emergency operations, women and local capacities

1. Complex emergency operations, women and local capacities Kristin S. Scharffscher May 5th 2008

2. Complex emergencies • Normally encompass ”extensive violence and loss of life, massive displacements of people and widespread damage to societies and economies” • Are rarely confined in time and space • Are almost always of a multilateral nature, requiring a system-wide response • Constitute the ultimate human ’cost’ of severe inequities in the global distribution of vulnerability (Mark Duffield, 1994 / UN-OCHA)

3. Women: Outside the ’malestream’ ”Humanitarian organisations wrongly assume that ’men’s problems’ are the standard against which ’women’s problems’ are measured and that women are concerned only with a limited list of issues specific to their femaleness” Julie Mertus, 2002

4. And GBV has not been a priority ”…Abuse of women’s human rights is commonly given a much lower priority than other forms of human rights violations.” Bridget Byrne, 1996

5. Rape ”…strikes [you] at the intersection of multiple taboos.” Susan Brison, 1998 • Has no name • Is not a crime • Is seen as theft or damage of men’s property • Is a private matter between the man and the woman • Is the woman’s own fault • Is an inevitable part of modern warfare

6. What are women’s needs and rights? Understanding gender differences, inequalities and capacities improves the effectiveness of our humanitarian response. (Jan Egeland, 2006) Yes, but… • On what basis do we ”understand” what crisis-affected women need? • And can we really relate to ’women’ as one single group?

7. Post-tsunami Sri Lanka • Massive funding and many actors • Striking differences between the North and South • Politisation of relief work (conflict-related) • Inadequate coordination and variations in the quality of relief work • GoSL seeks controlover relief work • Relief coordination bodies in weak position vs GoSL

8. Local relief in post-tsunami Sri Lanka • Initial rescue work conducted by local communities • Many local, national and international NGOs already ’on the ground’ • Several strong women’s organisations organised collection and distribution of food and basic necessities • Women’s knowledgeand networks was essential in local relief

9. International relief in Batticaloa • None or few initial consultations • International relief provided parallel to local activities • Women’s organisations were sidelined • Few and/or flawed protection measures

10. Conferences, reports, memos Donors Preferences Financial management, framework for projects UN HQ Strategies Project planning and management Regional office Projects Project work, guideline application, task priority Country office Daily work Individual and team-based task action Field sub-office Daily life Safe or unsafe daily life for women in camp? Refugee camp Implementing a gender perspective in complex emergency operations Authorities, donors and the media UN headquarter level NGO headquarter level Regional and country offices Field offices Refugee/IDP camps

11. How far is it from New York to Batticaloa? - via Oslo -

12. The reality that meets us in the field • Enormous workload • Steady flow of smaller crises that require attention, know-how, creativity and immediate action. • ”Pressing matters must come first” • Written guidelines remain on the shelf. You do what you know will work.

13. How do we work in the field? • The novice performs ”according to facts, characteristics and rules that are clearly and objectively defined” • The advanced beginner’s actions ”may contain elements which are both situational and context-independent” • The competent peformer’s actions ”comprise an element of interpretation and judgement • The proficient performer combines ”deep intuitive involvement in performance” • The real experts do not solve problems and they do not make desicions. ”They just do what works!” (Bent Flyvbjerg, 2001)

14. Who are the true experts? The principle of proximity: The local communities know how nature ”behaves” in their area, they have experience from previous disasters (history) and they have knowledge on how to deal with crises in relation to the local context, preconditions and capacities. From Z. Murshed, 2003

16. Tsunami Evaluation Coalition: The international humanitarian community needs a fundamental re-orientation from supplying aid to supporting and facilitating communities’ own relief and recovery priorities. (TEC Synthesis Report, 2006)

17. TEC recommendations

18. Thank you! kristin.s.scharffscher@uis.no Societal safety and crisis management The University of Stavanger