Strategies for Gender Equality and Effectiveness in the Field
For more information, contact Nasserie Carew
Preventing Gender-based Violence During Firewood Collection
By Erin Patrick, Consultant, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children
Gender-based violence (GBV) has been an integral component of armed conflict throughout history. The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children is working to mitigate one of the most preventable risks of sexual violence women and girls in conflict settings face: leaving the relative safety of their camps to collect firewood as cooking fuel for their families.
The Women’s Commission’s new Fuel & Firewood Initiative aims to address the problem of firewood collection by advocating for coordination of all fuel-related activities from the highest levels of the humanitarian system and for the engagement of a wide array of actors from a variety of sectors, including physical protection, environmental protection, health, technology, food distribution and livelihoods.
The initiative stems from a 2005 Women’s Commission’s report investigating methods for reducing the vulnerability of displaced women and girls to GBV during firewood collection, Beyond Firewood: Fuel Alternatives and Protection Strategies for Displaced Women and Girls, and two accompanying case studies on Darfur, Sudan and the Bhutanese refugee camps of eastern Nepal. The reports presented a series of key findings on various projects and initiatives underway throughout the world that are aimed at either reducing the threat to displaced women and girls associated with firewood collection, and/or reducing their vulnerability to attack by reducing their need to leave the camps in search of firewood. The report also investigated alternative fuels and fuel technologies that could be appropriate for use in camp settings.
In addition, the report put forth recommendations on what displaced women and girls, UN agencies, NGOs and donors should do to address the problem. The majority of the recommendations were focused around four key areas: direct provision; physical protection strategies; fuel-efficient technologies and cooking techniques; and alternative fuels and fuel technologies, as well as the critical importance of alternative income-generation activities.
The four main objectives of the Women’s Commission’s new Fuel & Firewood Initiative are:
- To pilot the development and coordination of all fuel-related activities in two field settings: Darfur, Sudan and eastern Chad;
- To promote the findings of the Women’s Commission’s Beyond Firewood reports and the pilot projects broadly within the humanitarian community for use, education/awareness raising and field application;
- To encourage and facilitate the establishment of an Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Fuel; and
- To promote the institutionalization within the UN system of accountability for developing and coordinating a fuel strategy in all new emergencies.
Although international standards requiring sufficient fuel provision have existed in various forms for more than a decade, the continual violence experienced by displaced women and girls who trek from their camps to collect firewood is a testament to the lack of coordination, enforcement and international progress on this issue. The Women’s Commission’s Fuel & Firewood Initiative is addressing this lack of international urgency, thereby reducing a needless threat to the safety of displaced women and girls.
