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Self Report 2017

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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2D
Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • As a founding partner of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, the WRC will support implementation of the Call to Action Road Map 2016-2020, help bring new partners into the initiative, and conduct sustained advocacy with all stakeholders for strong, comprehensive programs to address gender-based violence from the start of an emergency.
  • Policy
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
  • The WRC will gather the evidence for community-based care for survivors of sexual violence where insecurity and other factors prevent survivors' access to health facilities.  
  • Operational
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
  • The WRC will identify effective interventions to prevent and address forced early child marriage in three diverse humanitarian settings and disseminate learning to all stakeholders.
  • Operational
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

Core Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Core Responsibility
  • Implement a coordinated global approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis contexts, including through the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies.
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
  • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    WRC aims to ensure that gender-based violence is addressed from the start of a crisis. This requires improvements in policy and practice among all stakeholders. The Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies is a multi-stakeholder initiative with a measurable Road Map of priority actions. The WRC is committed to the success of the Call to Action because it can fundamentally transform humanitarian practice on GBV prevention and response. One needed improvement in practice is better access to healthcare for GBV survivors in hard-to-reach areas. Another under-addressed issue is forced early marriage—a form of GBV.

  • Achievements at a glance

    WRC supported implementation of Call to Action in various ways during the reporting period. We brought several new NGO partners into the initiative, and conducted missions to three countries to identify ways to strengthen Call to Action in the field. The WRC developed an implementation plan for the initiative’s monitoring and evaluation framework.

    On community-based care for survivors, the WRC advocated with two UN agencies in support of this approach and continues to seek funding to pilot it in at least one humanitarian setting in 2017.

    WRC advanced its work on child marriage with release of a report on the factors driving this practice in four settings: "A Girl No More: The Changing Norms of Child Marriage in Conflict". We have initiated pilot projects in three settings (Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar) to strengthen prevention and response to child marriage among the displaced, and secured a grant to evaluate their impact.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    For each of our Call to Action commitments, we provided a time frame for achievement, set interim benchmarks, and indicated our method for measuring progress. We are obligated to submit an annual progress report to the governmental lead of the Call to Action. Call to Action partners will assess collective progress through implementation of the Call to Action’s monitoring and evaluation framework. As noted above, the WRC also has a grant to evaluate the impact of its child marriage prevention and response pilot projects.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    Globally, important progress is being made to address gender-based violence in humanitarian settings. But there are continued challenges in moving from pledges to act to institutionalizing the needed changes in stakeholders’ policies and practices at all levels. In terms of the WRC’s specific commitments under this transformation, we note above the need for funding to implement pilot projects on community-based care for survivors.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    The WRC will continue to serve as an active partner in Call to Action, moving forward with its commitments under the initiative, and submitting an annual public report on progress made.

    We are continuing to seek funding for the community-based care for survivors initiative and hope to begin implementation in 2017.

    The next step in our work on forced child marriage is to undertake child marriage prevalence studies in three diverse settings.

  • If you had one message for the annual report on what is most needed to advance the transformation 'Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability', what would it be

    Urge donors to only fund initiatives that are consistent with established inter-agency standards for safe and effective humanitarian programming and to require their partners to specifically detail how their work is meeting those standards.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Accountability to affected people ☑ Gender ☑ IDPs ☑ Refugees

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑3A - Reduce and address displacement

3D
Empower and protect women and girls

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • As a member of the secretariat of the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crises, WRC will facilitate implementation of the Every Woman Every Child Everywhere Initiative and its roadmap and work to end all preventable deaths of women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • As a Steering Committee member and seat of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, the WRC will advocate - in partnership with national women's organizations - for reform of gender discriminatory nationality laws which exacerbate the risks to crisis-affected women and their families, limit their access to reproductive health care, create barriers to education and sustainable livelihoods and deny them opportunities to participate in community decision making and electoral processes. As a leader of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, the WRC will support increased engagement of youth in this work.
  • Advocacy
  • Leave No One Behind
  • In its role as a member of the inter-agency group developing guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action, the WRC will provide technical expertise and leadership on gender equality, gender-based violence prevention and response, and women's protection and empowerment to the guidelines development processes, as well as in the implementation strategy that follows.
  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC commits to conducting a gender analysis with age, sex and disability disaggregated data when developing and implementing projects, ensuring that the different needs, vulnerabilities and capacities of women, girls, boys and men, including those with disabilities and sexual and gender minorities are reflected in WRC's research, programs and advocacy to improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of its activities.
  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will build humanitarian partners' capacity to deliver programming that links adolescent girls, including those with disabilities, to essential services and builds their capacity to fully participate in the decision making processes that affect their lives.
  • Capacity
  • Leave No One Behind

  • The WRC will continue to assess, report and advocate on stakeholders' compliance with established inter-agency standards on gender-responsive humanitarian action, focusing in particular on women, girls and youth displaced by crises.


  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will improve community resilience, particularly among women and girls, through roll out of its community-based training curriculum on mitigating gender and sexual and reproductive health risks in emergencies supported by Disaster Risk Management for Health at the district and national levels.
  • Training
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will monitor and advocate for immediate implementation of the Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) for reproductive health at the onset of all new emergencies and for the transition to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care as soon as the situation stabilizes. 
  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will partner with local and national groups of women with disabilities to provide capacity development and mentoring, thereby increasing their ability to participate in humanitarian program design, delivery and monitoring.
  • Partnership
  • Leave No One Behind

Core Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Core Responsibility
  • Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
  • Leave No One Behind
  • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
  • Leave No One Behind
  • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
  • Leave No One Behind
  • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    WRC’s commitments reflect the need for continued improvements to policy and practice to promote gender equality and ensure that humanitarian response is fully inclusive, always includes sexual and reproductive health services, and reaches those at greatest risk. One commitment relates to the need to improve integration of reproductive health into disaster preparedness planning.

    The commitment on equal nationality rights was made because there are still over 50 States that maintain discriminatory nationality laws. This exacerbates risk for crisis-affected women and families.

    Other WRC commitments to protect and empower women and girls can be found under 2D, 3F, 3G and 4A.

  • Achievements at a glance

    Reproductive health achievements include:
    - Published four in a series of reports on the refugee crisis in Europe. Reports identified gaps in protection and in reproductive health services for refugees along the migration route. Advocated for stakeholders to urgently implement established standards, including Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health.
    - Partnered with national training institutes in three countries to provide clinical skills refresher training on the MISP for over 150 service providers.
    - Conducted training in Pakistan for local, provincial and national NGO, UN and government disaster risk management representatives using WRC curriculum: "Community Preparedness: Reproductive Health and Gender: Facilitators Kit".

    As seat of Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, WRC helped secure a Human Rights Council Resolution on Women’s Equal Nationality Rights in Law and Practice. Also conducted workshops in Nepal and Togo to build capacity of youth and adult women’s rights activists to advocate for reform.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    WRC monitors the type of technical support provided to operational partners, the number of humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors reached, how they are adapting their interventions to make them more protective and inclusive, and the outcomes for affected populations.

    Under the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, progress is measured according to: increased engagement of women and youth in advocacy and media engagement; increased availability of advocacy and training resources; government action resulting from advocacy interventions by women and youth.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    The disaster risk management initiative is challenged by funding cuts in year two. On the MISP clinical training, there were issues with trainees’ meeting the criteria for participation. Globally, MISP implementation is impacted by funding constraints and capacity gaps. In the Europe refugee crisis, political will was a barrier in certain transit countries, including Greece.

    For the Equal Nationality Rights campaign, national women’s rights NGOs require greater funding support to advocate for reform. Lack of government transparency regarding the status of/process for legal reforms makes targeted advocacy challenging in some countries.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    WRC will take forward the third year of the project in Pakistan on the integration of reproductive health in preparedness planning. As the secretariat for the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises, we will facilitate revision and dissemination of the Inter-Agency Field Manual to support technical updates and address gaps in policy and practice. The Equal Nationality Rights Campaign will convene women and youth in MENA with government representatives to discuss good practices. We will also work with four targeted countries to develop country-specific advocacy guides, and develop a guide on this issue and SDG realization.

  • If you had one message for the annual report on what is most needed to advance the transformation 'Empower and protect women and girls', what would it be

    Fund, design and implement humanitarian programming that meets established inter-agency standards on gender in humanitarian action. Support an inclusive response by recognizing the diversity that exists within this population, understand and address factors that enhance or mitigate risk, ensure participation in decision making and program planning.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Accountability to affected people ☑ Gender

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑3A - Reduce and address displacement

3F
Enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility

  • The WRC will continue to assess, report and advocate on stakeholders' compliance with established inter-agency standards on gender-responsive humanitarian action, focusing in particular on women, girls and youth displaced by crises.


  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will integrate the goals of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action into its own research, program, and advocacy work, giving particular attention to the inclusion of displaced adolescents and youth, including those with disabilities and sexual and gender minorities, as partners in decision-making processes and the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs.
  • Policy
  • Leave No One Behind

  • The WRC will provide technical support to operational partners in humanitarian settings to strengthen protection and increase the participation of adolescent girls, sexual and gender minorities, and young people with disabilities in program design, implementation, and evaluation.


  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    WRC’s research shows that the needs of displaced adolescents and youth are often overlooked and their skills and capacities remain untapped and unsupported. A default, one-size fits all reflex persistently bundles adolescent girls’ needs with those of younger children or adult women. For displaced youth, there are typically few programs or activities that address their particular needs. Both sub-populations are seldom consulted in the decision-making processes. To be effective and accountable, humanitarian programming must engage adolescents and youth in all their diversity at every stage of the response and in every phase of the program cycle.

  • Achievements at a glance

    The WRC co-chaired with UNHCR the first ever global Global Refugee Youth Consultations. With partners, consultations were held with over 1200 refugee and host community youth in 22 countries. The Consultations produced a plan of action—Seven Core Actions for Refugee Youth—that were presented to key stakeholders at high level meetings in Geneva in late 2016 and detailed in the final report on the Consultations: "We Believe in Youth".

    Under our adolescent girls initiative, the WRC published "I’m Here: Steps and Tools to Reach Adolescent Girls in Crises: Updates and Learning From Implementation in Six Countries". We also piloted targeted programming for adolescent girls in camp-based settings in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda that reached over 1500 adolescent girls and are described in the report: "Strong Girls, Powerful Women". WRC also provided technical assistance to two NGO partners on disability inclusion in their adolescent and youth programming.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    WRC partners with implementing agencies to ensure uptake of our tools and recommendations within partner organizations and across other agencies. We monitor the type of technical support provided to operational partners, the number of humanitarian and other actors reached, how they are adapting their interventions to make them more protective, and the outcomes for affected populations.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    There is increased awareness of the imperative to address the specific needs of adolescents and youth and support their engagement and empowerment. But significant gaps remain in practice. It is challenging, for example, to engage adolescent girls effectively with actors across program areas. And it is challenging to find resources for youth initiatives in a period of highly constrained humanitarian resources. WRC is also challenged internally and with partners to ensure that adolescents and youth with disabilities and LGBTI adolescents and youth are routinely and meaningfully included in this body of work.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    The WRC and UNHCR will work with partners to advance implementation of the Core Actions for Refugee Youth, including supporting national actions plans developed by youth.

    Under the adolescent girls initiative, WRC will release reports on a five-country project the WRC undertook with IOM to examine how improving female participation in governance structures in camps for internally displaced persons could contribute to reducing risks to gender-based violence. The WRC will continue its partnership with Mercy Corps to institutionalize the "I’m Here" approach to build two new features—a data visualization dashboard and a real-time monitoring tool.

  • If you had one message for the annual report on what is most needed to advance the transformation 'Enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation', what would it be

    This will require programming that not only responds to the diverse needs and risks of adolescents and youth, but also elevates their voices and maximizes their capacities so they can define and lead the transformation.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Disability ☑ Gender ☑ IDPs ☑ Refugees

  • Specific initiatives

    ☑The Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action ☑ The Inclusion Charter

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑3A - Reduce and address displacement ☑ 3D - Empower and protect women and girls

3G
Address other groups or minorities in crisis settings

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility

  • The WRC will provide technical support to operational partners in humanitarian settings to strengthen protection and increase the participation of adolescent girls, sexual and gender minorities, and young people with disabilities in program design, implementation, and evaluation.


  • Operational
  • Leave No One Behind
  • The WRC will serve as an active member of the inter-agency group developing globally endorsed guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action, and will support their rollout and implementation through 2020.
  • Partnership
  • Leave No One Behind
  • WRC endorses the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.
  • Policy
  • Leave No One Behind

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    The WRC has three commitments under this transformation. Information on promoting the protection and empowerment of adolescent girls can also be found under transformation 3F.

    Our commitment to promote the protection and empowerment of sexual minorities is grounded in WRC research conducted on GBV in urban areas which highlighted the discrimination and violence that displaced LGBTI persons regularly endure, and the lack of attention in humanitarian policy and practice to this population. See "Mean Streets" report.

    The commitment on inter-agency guidelines on disability inclusion will address the current lack of such globally endorsed guidelines needed to inform policy and practice.

  • Achievements at a glance

    The WRC advocated for the establishment of an Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Team to develop global guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. The Task Team was approved last July. WRC serves on the task team and will help lead work on integrating gender and GBV considerations into the disability guidelines. WRC also published a report, "Working to Improve our Own Futures", which includes proven strategies for inclusion, and identifies how to strengthen the leadership of women with disabilities in humanitarian response.

    To help improve humanitarian practice in protection for LGBTI persons, WRC partnered with a local LGBT organization in Beirut to pilot activities with transwomen refugees, and worked with humanitarian responders in other cities to build their capacity to work with LGBTI refugees and create linkages with host community organizations and service providers.

    Achievements related to strengthening protection and participation of adolescent girls are under 3F.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    The WRC monitors the type of technical support provided to operational partners, the number of humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors reached, how they are adapting their interventions to make them more protective and inclusive, and the outcomes for affected populations. The WRC uses participatory methods to document the most significant change for marginalized groups, placing them at the center of identifying gaps, opportunities and recommended solutions.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    As the WRC works to advance these commitments, we have found that discrimination, knowledge gaps and resource constraints are barriers to building the needed skills, capacities and commitment among practitioners. Furthermore, there is still much work to be done to ensure that humanitarian policies and programs take into account the diversity within population groups and the range of intersecting factors that impact an individual’s protection and access to resources and opportunities. Examples of such factors include sex, age, gender identity, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, family structure.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    WRC will work with stakeholders on resilience-based approaches founded on skills and capacities of traditionally marginalized groups to foster positive power dynamics in decision-making and stronger social inclusion.

    We will continue on the Task Team for the disability inclusion guidelines, informing gender and GBV considerations across the guidelines.

    WRC will conduct workshops for practitioners on new tools, strategies and positive practices to strengthen protection and empowerment of LGBTI refugees. We will seek funding for activities that leverage local LGBTI organizations’ expertise and integrate them into humanitarian response, while advocating for refugee inclusion in global LGBTI rights discourse and programming.

  • If you had one message for the annual report on what is most needed to advance the transformation 'Address other groups or minorities in crisis settings', what would it be

    Humanitarian actors across sectors must strengthen their understanding of the various factors that put different people at greater risk, and take steps to mitigate those risks in a rights-based approach that empowers as well as protects. This will include much greater engagement of host community organizations with relevant expertise.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Disability ☑ Gender

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑3A - Reduce and address displacement ☑ 3F - Enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation

4A
Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • To ensure the growing area of cash-based programming is gender responsive, minimizes protection risks and maximizes protection benefits, the WRC will train practitioners on the use of the Guide for Protection in Cash-based Interventions developed by a consortium of UN agencies and NGOs.
  • Training
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    As cash-based interventions (CBIs) become a larger component of humanitarian response, it is essential that the interventions are designed and implemented in ways that maximize protection and minimize risk, and take the particular vulnerabilities of women and girls into account. The WRC has found that good progress has been made in researching the issue and in the development of tools, guidance and organizational standards. The essential next step is to ensure updates in the field by promoting best practices and training practitioners in the new Guide for Protection in Cash-based Interventions developed by a consortium of UN agencies and NGOs.

  • Achievements at a glance

    During the reporting period, the WRC received funding for our project, Optimizing Cash-based Interventions for Enhanced Protection from Gender-based Violence. This project focuses on building the capacity of humanitarian actors so that their cash-based interventions are safe and inclusive.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    Now that funding is secured and as implementation gets under way, the WRC will monitor the type of technical support provided to operational partners, the number of humanitarian and other actors reached, and how they are adapting or modifying their interventions to make them more protective.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    As noted above, the WRC has just recently received funding to advance this commitment and is in the early days of implementation.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    With funding in hand, the WRC is partnering with three NGOs implementing CBIs in three countries to improve guidance, tools and monitoring frameworks uses in GBV protection needs assessments. Technical assistance is currently under way in Somalia, Jordan and Nigeria.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Cash ☑ Gender ☑ Social protection

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑2D - Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

Attachments

  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 3D, 3F | Gender | The Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action
  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 3D, 3F | The Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action