Emergencies hit women the hardest
During emergencies like natural calamities and national crises, women are hit the hardest, and the recovery period is also the longest for them due to existing inequalities, gender discrimination and incompatible emergency response mechanisms, speakers said yesterday.
In this context, the policymakers and other stakeholders should address gender-based violence (GBV) by following a comprehensive and multi-sectoral approach.
This was discussed at a roundtable, titled "Gender-based violence in development and humanitarian settings: Accountability of stakeholders and policymaker", held at Azimur Rahman Conference Hall at The Daily Star Centre in the capital.
ActionAid Bangladesh, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and The Daily Star jointly organised the event as part of the ongoing international campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence 2018.”
Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid, conducted the discussion while Eiko Narita, UNFPA deputy representative, was the chief guest at the event.
Speaking at the discussion, Eiko Narita said, “Gender-based violence is a very sensitive topic and it has to be handled carefully. It is about the very dignity of a human being.”
“The role of media is crucial in raising awareness among everyone outside this room. Because the masses outside are most likely to be the victims or the perpetrators of gender-based violence during a humanitarian crisis,” she urged.
Participants described their experience in addressing GBV during different emergency situations including cyclones, floods and the Rohingya crisis.
They said obstacles still remain in the disaster response mechanism, as many field-level workers fail to perceive the sensitivity of GBV. Gawher Nayeem Wahra, founder convener of Disaster Forum, said human resource management should focus on training these employees better.
Dilruba Haider of UN Women said, “The development workers have a lack of understanding about what violence means.”
“This is a psychological problem, so we must change our thought process. Discrimination begins when a girl is born,” said Elita Karim of The Daily Star.
Speakers emphasised putting women at the centre of humanitarian response and encouraged policymakers to start from the ground-level with a multifaceted response system.
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