Scope of Our Work: Humanitarian Action

UN Women is committed to ensuring equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of humanitarian action, and that humanitarian action seeks to promote gender equality and more just societies. To this end, UN Women works in crises prevention, preparedness and response to reduce vulnerabilities, address risks, promote resilience and leverage women’s leadership.

At the regional level, UN Women ROAS seeks to promote knowledge on the gendered impact of displacement, and to provide platforms for women to engage in decision-making on their needs in displacement.

UN Women offices in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine are rolling out support to women affected by crisis, and to partners engaging in humanitarian programming. Across these contexts, this work is done through an integrated humanitarian-development framework that targets both those affected by crisis and seeks to build national systems and structures. A two-pronged strategy is utilized to achieve the following results:

  1. to make long-term humanitarian and development assistance more responsive to women’s and girls’ needs, and increase their role and leadership;
  2. to meet women’s basic needs through increased access to recovery and livelihood opportunities, paired with comprehensive protection services and support to the justice sector to promote accountability for violence against women.

Across the region, this portfolio of work is generously funded by the Governments of Australia, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Complementary to this, UN Women is implementing a regional flagship programme funded through the European Union’s Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syria crisis that aims at strengthening the resilience of Syrian women and girls and host communities in Iraq, Jordan and Turkey. The programme aims to address economic vulnerability and violence by increasing women’s access to financial assets and recovery and income opportunities, while providing immediate and life-saving protection services.