Interestingly, a modest “modern” view of women and gender in humanitarian work makes a reappearance at the International Conference – not through women of the Movement – although many worked behind the scenes in the same direction – but through invited guests.
The Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Ms L. Frechette spoke during the opening session, and towards the ned of her address included these words:
“That is the hope which has been kept alive, ever since your Movement began, by the men and women of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. Your commitment to the protection of non-combatants has been clear and consistent ever since your founder, Henry Dunant, summed up his philosophy as “compassion in the midst of battle””[i].
WFP, through and intervention by Ms C. Bertini, mentioned women, mostly as victims, but at least referred to them as actors, too:
“Reaching women with emergency assistance, including food aid, is crucial not just to empower them and combat their sense of hopelessness, but to carry out successful strategies to help communities cope with crises. One consequence of humanitarian emergencies is a dramatic increase in the number of female-headed households. In many cases, women and teenage girls are the sole providers of food for their families. At the same time, the greater burden on women for finding food, shelter and so on, is worsened by their decreased access, when compared with men, to resources such as relief commodities, credit, seed, tools and productive land. [ii]”
She continued:
“But will a focus on women work as an aid strategy? Women may be the leading victims of humanitarian emergencies, but is targeting aid on them really effective? They may be at the heart of the problem, but are they part of the solution?
At WFP, we are encouraging our field staff and our partners to follow guidelines on involving women in assessing foodaid needs, distributing food to households and monitoring distribution. We are pleased to have such an agreement with the ICRC.
Particularly in emergencies like those in Rwanda-Burundi or in Kosovo, the easy way out in delivering food aid is to use the existing community governance — the male power structure, for want of a better term. In such cases, much of the food often does not get to the victims — at least, not for free. But we want to see more food distributed by and to women and we want to see women engaged at the outset in the designs and plans for local emergency operations and food aid used in development. And we have seen time and time again that if food is distributed to heads of households, in majority women, most of that food is consumed by those for whom it is intended.
This has been controversial at times. I recall seeing southern Sudanese men complaining on CNN about how women were being given WFP food that would normally go through tribal leaders. Frankly. I was pleased to see the complaints — they showed the system was working, at least in Sudan.
There are tremendous advantages to this approach of targeting women with humanitarian aid. For example, female-headed households may be the only remnant of social structure left in an emergency. A household with a mother, involved in her community both socially and economically, is far more likely to withstand the strain of physical uprooting or a sudden loss in normal food supply channels.
At the same time, women are. for better or for worse, far less likely to be part of local political problems or agents that perpetuate them and, therefore, are less suspect conduits for aid. They are likely to put their immediate families first, and less likely to be drawn into the game of using food as just another weapon in ethnic or tribal conflict.
Women are a logical channel for humanitarian aid in emergencies because of their widespread role as food producers. Most people are unaware of the large role women play in agriculture, especially in a number of areas where there are ongoing major humanitarian crises. Eight out of 10 farmers in Africa are women and 6 out of 10 in Asia. Women are, in fact, the sole breadwinners in one household in three worldwide. We need to strengthen their economic role in recovery measures and not design operations in the field that treat them as passive welfare recipients, rather than as active participants in the economic system.
Finally, and most importantly, women are the people in the household most committed to ensuring that every member has access to food for consumption. Unless we get food to women, we will never effectively end hunger.
To be frank, in making women a priority we have to work very hard to get cooperation from local authorities or national governments, and even from some NGOs and other international agencies. A concerted effort to focus on women means change and many of us resist change.
It is so gratifying to see the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement involved in important initiatives on behalf of women; including women in peace mediation, in decisionmaking, and in humanitarian assistance; and devoting its special attention to women as victims. A strong emphasis at this Conference and beyond on implementing effective, practical policies that reflect the fact that most adult victims are women and that women can make all the difference in keeping families and communities together, can only be welcomed.
I congratulate Cornelio Sommaruga and Astrid Heiberg for all their efforts in addressing the gender dimension of humanitarian assistance. And let me take a moment also to thank you, Cornelio, for having been such a powerful moral voice and effective leader during your time as President of the ICRC and, even more, for having been such a wonderful colleague and friend. We are all fortunate that, in this decade of the nineties, the world has one consistent, strong, vocal, uncompromised advocate for all conflict victims throughout the world — Cornelio Sommaruga. We will miss you, but we are stronger because of you.
In conclusion, all of us working to reach out to the victims of humanitarian crises need to place a major emphasis on women. Women and their young children are the first to suffer when a nation is seized with violence. They must now be first in line when we provide humanitarian aid.
If there is anything to learn from the Rwandan mothers and their children conceived in violence, from the Angolan street children, from the young Kosovar rape victims — it is the strength of their human will to survive, search for hope and move on. Despite the rising violence against our own colleagues in the field, all of us in the aid community — the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN agencies, our NGO partners — must match that strength. We must search together for better solutions, so that when men wage war, women and children need not suffer so much anymore. (Applause) [iii]”
Towards the end of the Conference, Ambassador Y. Bikè. Vice Chair of the Conference, presented the “pledges” recorded.
Among his remarks was this:
“On a more practical basis, many pledges are aimed at
strengthening the capacities of National Societies through the implementation
of Strategy 2010, which was approved by the General Assembly of the
International Federation at its 12th session. It should
be noted that all the pledges from one geographical region, and from a number
of other countries, include a specific commitment to ensuring that more women
are involved and represented in decision-making bodies. [iv]”
[i] Report of the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent including the summary report of the 1999 Council of Delegates and of the constitutive meeting of the 13th session of the standing commission; Geneva : ICRC : Federation, 2002; P 108; P 110/172 in the electronic version available at https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DIGITAL/CI_1999_RAPPORT_ENG.pdf
[ii] Report of the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent including the summary report of the 1999 Council of Delegates and of the constitutive meeting of the 13th session of the standing commission; Geneva : ICRC : Federation, 2002; P 114; P 116/172 in the electronic version available at https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DIGITAL/CI_1999_RAPPORT_ENG.pdf
[iii] Report of the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent including the summary report of the 1999 Council of Delegates and of the constitutive meeting of the 13th session of the standing commission; Geneva : ICRC : Federation, 2002; Pp 114-115; PP 116-117/172 in the electronic version available at https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DIGITAL/CI_1999_RAPPORT_ENG.pdf
[iv] Report of the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent including the summary report of the 1999 Council of Delegates and of the constitutive meeting of the 13th session of the standing commission; Geneva : ICRC : Federation, 2002; P 146; PP 148/172 in the electronic version available at https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DIGITAL/CI_1999_RAPPORT_ENG.pdf
