In a humanitarian crisis, all individuals are at risk, but marginalized or groups with specific needs are often more vulnerable to discrimination, threats, exploitation and often are harder to reach. The vulnerabilities people experience in crises do not just happen. Rather, they are the result of current and historical processes of neglect, marginalization, discrimination, stigmatization and deeply rooted inequalities for women and girls, children and youth, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, older persons, displaced persons and migrants, persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics, indigenous peoples, persons living in detention, the urban poor and rural communities. The risks these people face compound when they have intersecting considerations, such as older age and a disability.
Concurrent and overlapping crises, including climate change, slow economic growth, insecurity, conflict, health threats and a fragmented geopolitical landscape, mean that the poor, the marginalized and those suffering from structural inequities are set to suffer the most. Ensuring that quality, dignified aid reaches all those who need it, based on their expressed priorities and preferences, is a constant challenge for humanitarians in a fragmented and competitive geopolitical landscape with difficult operating environments, especially when faced with financial resource constraints.
Buea, Cameroon
Achantan Presco has been unable to walk since the age of 4 after he caught malaria and suffered side effects from an injection to bring his fever down. He is the beneficiary of an initiative which enables him to rear and sell fish to supplement the family income.
OCHA/Liz Loh Taylor
Historically, humanitarian response focused only distinct characteristics of discrimination, e.g. affiliation to an ethnic minority as a characteristic separate from gender expression, and, at the height of a complex emergency, inclusion has often been delayed as something to address later.1 Recognizing that people experience crises in different yet interconnected ways, humanitarian response is shifting focus to address needs and also the denials of rights that so often drive them. This includes considering overlapping and intersecting forms of discrimination that can be experienced concurrently.
OCHA’s strategic plan for 2023 – 2026 places particular focus on how to practically ensure this rebalance, including through a holistic people-centred coordination model. It acknowledges that the risk of exclusion from assistance and protection depends on context and community, requiring an approach that considers who is marginalized, the intersectionality of vulnerabilities and the barriers that may lead to further exclusion and vulnerability. The approach should also consider people’s unique needs and priorities and subsequently tailor programmes to meet them and ensure their participation in decision-making. This less siloed, more integrated, flexible and effective response will place greater agency and flexibility in the hands of people most impacted by the crisis.
Aid in Action
Somalia – amplifying the voice and contribution of marginalized groups in humanitarian response and decision-making
Nasiib Door IDP site, Baidoa, Southwest State, Somalia
Tools are provided to a cash-for-work programme, which has trained 30 internally displaced persons in maintenance activities to improve hygiene and sanitation at the site.
OCHA/Yao Chen
Making humanitarian action inclusive means both ensuring that minority groups are appropriately targeted in the response and that their voices and contributions are included in decision-making. In Somalia, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has carried out regular monitoring and reporting to raise awareness and promote the protection of the rights of minorities and persons with disabilities, and establish a baseline for minority rights in the country. A 2021 protection assessment, underpinning the subsequent 2022 centrality of protection strategy of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), revealed crucial gaps in the humanitarian response, including exclusion based on disability, ethnicity and minority clan affiliation. The HCT and clusters used the assessment to recalibrate their assistance strategy in drought and conflict-affected areas, including by launching the Minimum Response Package in June 2022.2 These efforts were informed by the mapping of minorities developed by OHCHR to ensure that appropriate levels of assistance were targeted towards marginalized groups and minorities. The efforts also led the HCT to extend its membership to minority-led civil society organizations (CSO), ensuring that the voices of minorities are represented at the decision-making table.
In addition, through mentorship and capacity-building initiatives, OHCHR has contributed to the empowerment of civil society organizations to advocate for their rights and have their concerns addressed. With the technical assistance from OHCHR in Somalia, the HCT identified organizations that are led by and/or support the rights of persons with disabilities. This work also facilitated partnerships during the drought response . OHCHR has also supported the work of the National Disability Agency (NDA), including through capacity building and resource mobilization. In 2023, OHCHR’s engagement with civil society organizations and the NDA, contributed to the mapping of specialized services available to persons with disabilities in Somalia by the Somali Disability Empowerment Network and to the development of disability data collection and needs assessment surveys by the NDA. The surveys will contribute to establishing a baseline to identify gaps in analysis, policies and programmes, and to inform advocacy to address those gaps.
Arriving at this rebalancing is not an easy feat, as it requires the streamlining of cross-cutting issues which have – previously – been treated as stand-alone in order to help their advancement and visibility. Examples of these cross-cutting issues are age, gender, disabilities, protection, localization and accountability to affected people. But the reality is that these issues, more often than not, feed into each other. Addressing them together - or more coherently - could help provide a more comprehensive, include, tailored response.
Achieving this holistic approach to inclusion will rely heavily on reliable and inclusive data, to understand who is in need, where they are, their demographics, what their needs are and what barriers may contribute to exclusion. For example, conflicts and disasters greatly affect vulnerable populations of migrants, yet gaps still exist in recording the number of migrants and analyzing their needs. Limited national data collection capacity and the mobility of migrants makes census data collection challenging, in addition to the concealed nature of irregular migration movements, further hinders data availability. Southern and East Africa and West and Central Africa register only 7 per cent and 3 per cent (respectively) of the total migrants in need in 2023 interagency response plans, despite the large presence of vulnerable migrants in countries such as Kenya, Mozambique or Nigeria. Having a complete picture – not just of migrants but of the affected community as a whole and their context – will help to ensure rigorous needs-based analysis and subsequently, what should be integrated into humanitarian response plans.
Kaya, Burkina Faso
Daouda is 8 years old. He and his brothers were shot at as they fled their village, their mother was killed and Daouda was hit in his left arm, which later had to be amputated. UNICEF and its partners funded his treatment; Daouda now goes to school and wants to become a lawyer.
UNICEF/Frank Dejongh
Cash: an inclusive mechanism for aid delivery
Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in humanitarian action is a practical example of how to foster inclusiveness by addressing the diverse needs of affected populations in a more equitable and dignified manner. Cash, when provided with minimal restrictions, empowers affected individuals, including women and marginalized groups, to prioritize and make decisions based on their unique circumstances and priorities. It respects their agency and power of choice, ensuring that international humanitarian assistance aligns with their individual and changing needs.
CVA can increase accessibility to essential goods and services in a number of ways. It can be distributed in a way that can overcome barriers related to physical disabilities and geographical distance, ensuring that those who are often marginalized can access critical resources. For example – recipients may access cash from multiple locations (such as ATMs, if available3) instead of having to go to a distribution centre to collect a food basket. CVA can also be provided more discretely than physical goods, allowing for distribution to people who may be particularly vulnerable or at risk.
The provision of cash can help people rebuild their livelihoods and become self-reliant. This economic empowerment reduces dependency on aid and supports individuals as they reintegrate into their communities. The use of CVA is increasing in humanitarian action overall. In 2020, $6.6 billion was disbursed as CVA. In 2022, this amount grew to $10 billion, approximately a 50 per cent increase in only two years. However, the use of cash as a proportion of humanitarian assistance is still minimal: in the same time period as above (2020 to 2022), there was only a 0.3 per cent increase. 4
In order to maximise the opportunities for more inclusive cash assistance, the humanitarian community must ensure that affected people – particularly women and persons with disabilities – have equitable access to financial services, financial education programmes and mobile phone ownership. These are critical ways to ensure rapid and inclusive distribution of CVA to the most vulnerable when crises occur.
Aid in Action
Cash as an enabler of GBV prevention and mitigation
Malicha Site, South Kivu, DRC
Akela Asseni, 35, was able to launch a fish trading business following cash assistance to displaced households at the IDP site where she lives.
OCHA/Wassy Kambale
CVA can be a valuable tool for inclusion in addressing the needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings. It can support access to services, safety for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and it can be used to reduce GBV risks. CVA can also help to overcome economic barriers and is flexible and cost-effective, complementing existing humanitarian programs and bridging humanitarian and development efforts. As such, many of the actors working on GBV recommend using unrestricted cash assistance and integrating CVA in GBV case management approaches to complement other interventions. For example, to advance the use of cash assistance, in 2023 UNFPA released a guidance on designing Cash Assistance for GBV Case Management.
While CVA is not inherently riskier than any other modality, like any other humanitarian assistance, measures should be in place to ensure that women and girls are not put at further risk. CVA program design should be context specific and based on consultations with women and girls. In Iraq, following the end of large-scale military operations in 2017, there was a decline in GBV as a weapon of war, but challenges remain. Emotional abuse, domestic violence, and harmful cultural practices still affect women in Iraq. Different forms of cash assistance have been crucial in supporting conflict-affected households. In 2022, humanitarian assistance in Iraq began phasing out, with government institutions and development actors taking over. Despite progress, social protection remains limited and humanitarian cash assistance continues to be vital for vulnerable populations – including for GBV concerns.
Drawing from field learning in situations such as Iraq and other places, the GBV Area of Responsibility and UNFPA developed a GBV Risk Mitigation in CVA Toolkitto help identify and mitigate potential GBV risk in cash programming and UNFPA published new indicators to integrate into cash assessments, monitoring or evaluations to better detect GBV risks to women receiving cash assistance.
All aid distribution methods present some inherent challenges, for example, while ATMs may be readily available, there may also be physical barriers for people with disabilities or older persons, lack of access to banking or vendor requirements that exclude people. Cash – overall – provided through a context-appropriate distribution method, can be a powerful tool for inclusive aid.