How anticipating response to climate shocks can reduce gender-based violence

How can women and girls be better protected against sexual violence when a climate disaster strikes??

The answer is to intervene before it strikes.??

Across the world, climate-related disasters that impact the food security of millions of people are increasing in frequency and intensity. These crises have far-reaching consequences, particularly for already marginalised people, including women and girls. Anticipating and preparing for climate-related disasters and providing assistance to at-risk communities in advance is an efficient way to mitigate their impact.?

Anticipatory action – supporting people through cash transfers before a crisis hits - can enable them to protect their families, especially women and girls, from the risks of gender-based violence associated with negative coping strategies, high debts, and psychological stress.?

In 2022, following several failed rainy seasons in Somalia, WFP delivered US$ 6.7 million of early cash transfers to over 200,000 climate-vulnerable people to mitigate the impact of predicted failed rains. This anticipatory action payout, the largest for WFP in Eastern Africa to date, was complemented by early warning public service announcements on radio in vernacular languages and investments in community-level infrastructure and soil and water conservation.??

Madina Odwaye, an 80-year-old woman from Kutinbo village, heard on the radio that floods were coming, and received cash assistance which she spent stocking up on food for herself and her grandchildren to prepare her family for the floods. “The warning messages and cash came at the right time,” she said. “I got $70… I went to the shop and bought 20kg of rice, spaghetti, some oil.”?

WFP's Gender and Food Systems Programme Associate in Nairobi, Faith Wachira , advocates integrating gender-based violence prevention, response and mitigation actions into such anticipatory action programmes.?

"More than 71 million people in East Africa need urgent food, nutrition, and livelihood assistance," she explains. "We know that pervasive gender inequalities further exacerbate the impact of food insecurity on women in those crises. Ultimately, they're more likely to go hungry due to unequal access to resources, limited influence over household decisions, and discriminatory norms restricting their freedoms. They're also more vulnerable to gender-based violence."?

Gender-based violence undermines progress towards Zero Hunger both directly (survivors show lower nutritional status, lower earning potential, limited ability to access food, and loss of dignity and agency, which affects their ability to meet their own needs) and indirectly (the cost of gender-based violence on healthcare, psychosocial counselling, legal services, and lost wages are estimated to be in the trillions of dollars every year).?

On the other hand, food and nutrition insecurity heightens the risk of experiencing gender-based violence: households without enough food are known to adopt negative gendered coping mechanisms (e.g., sex work, early and forced marriage, sexual exploitation and abuse); and girls and women are at heightened risk of experiencing gender-based violence when collecting firewood or travelling farther to unknown areas for food cultivation.?

"Examples like Somalia make it clear that anticipatory cash has the potential to protect families, particularly women and girls, from the risks of gender-based violence linked to the consequences of food insecurity, high debts and financial and psychological stress, which is a common trigger for intimate partner violence," says Faith.?

"At the forefront of more emergencies than ever before, , WFP is uniquely positioned to play a role in minimising gender-based violence through its implementation of anticipatory actions."?

However, there are challenges along the way. There is currently a lack of adequate gender-disaggregated data on food and nutrition needs, which is crucial to understanding gender-based violence better. Without it, humanitarian responses can easily become gender- blind.?

The humanitarian sector’s reliance on traditional community structures is also potentially problematic, as research tends to involve conversations with community leaders, who are often older men. Those experiences exclude meaningful engagement opportunities with women, youths, people living with disabilities and marginalised ethnicities.?

Anticipatory actions are crucial in addressing the complex challenges of climate change, food insecurity, and gender-based violence.

Integrating gender-based violence prevention, response, and risk mitigations into anticipatory action can save lives and promote gender equality and empowerment. By leveraging existing knowledge, partnerships, and inclusive practices, humanitarian organisations like WFP can make significant strides in supporting vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls, in protecting themselves from the devastating impacts of gender-based violence in times of crisis.?

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