The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has issued a warning that worsening socioeconomic conditions, recent and ongoing conflicts, and a lack of humanitarian funding are raising the risk of gender-based violence for women and girls who have been forcibly displaced.
“A toxic mix of crises — conflicts, climate, skyrocketing costs, and the ripple effects of the Ukraine war – are inflicting a devastating toll on the forcibly displaced. This is being felt across the world, but women and girls are particularly suffering,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
Due to rising costs and insufficient humanitarian aid brought on by broken supply chains and funding shortages, a large number of refugees and internally displaced people are unable to meet their basic needs.
Given the loss of assets and means of subsistence, the disruption of community-based safety nets, and their frequent exclusion from education and other forms of national social protection, displaced women and girls are frequently the most vulnerable to shocks. Many women and girls are being forced to make agonising decisions in order to survive due to food shortages and rising costs.
“With savings depleted, many are skipping meals, children are being sent to work instead of school and some may have no options but to beg or engage in the sale or exchange of sex to survive. Too many are facing heightened risks of exploitation, trafficking, child marriage and intimate partner violence,” said Grandi.
UNHCR has noted serious nutrition concerns among refugee populations in Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. Stunting, anaemia, and acute malnutrition are a few of these. Over seventy percent of refugees in eastern and southern Africa have had their food rations reduced and are now unable to meet their basic needs. Nine out of ten Syrian refugees in Lebanon cannot afford basic necessities like food and services, while 1.8 million Syrians living in displacement camps inside Syria suffer from severe food insecurity.
According to data from the UNHCR, half of people who have been forcibly displaced across the Americas only eat two meals per day, and three-quarters have reduced the amount or quality of their food. Yemen and the Sahel are predicted to experience significant declines in food security, and millions of people who are internally displaced live in nations like Somalia and Afghanistan where 90% of the population lacks access to enough food.
As harmful coping mechanisms are used in all communities, there is an alarming, pernicious cycle of hunger and insecurity, each of which exacerbates the other and increases risks to women and girls.
Particularly shocking are reports of girls being forced into marriage so the family can afford food. Child marriages are increasing in the East and Horn of Africa as a means of easing the burden on household finances. The drought increases the risk of sexual assault because it forces women and girls to travel farther distances to gather firewood and water.
While there has never been a greater need for programmes to address gender-based violence, UNHCR is concerned that funding has not kept up. The highest amount ever will be required by UNHCR to fund global programmes for preventing and responding to gender-based violence in 2023—roughly USD 340 million.
UNHCR is pleading with donors to continue funding for life-saving humanitarian programmes in order to ensure that refugees and other forcibly displaced people can meet their basic needs, in keeping with this year’s UN theme for the 16 Days of Activism: uniting to end violence against women and girls.
