Welcome to the virtual exhibition area of the HNPW 2024 "Inclusion" area of common concern!

The “Inclusion” area of common concern (AOCC) at the HNPW allows humanitarian stakeholders to come together to learn more about processes and tools, celebrate successes and discuss remaining challenges towards an inclusive and quality humanitarian response. Sessions typically focus on the inclusion of diverse parts of the affected populations, such as older persons, women and girls, youth, persons with diverse SOGIESC, indigenous people, persons with disabilities. They also allow to discuss related issues such as mainstreaming inclusion into a variety of other complementary cross-cutting areas of work, such as AAP, protection and localization.

This space is the one-stop shop for information and resources relating to the Inclusion AOCC. Please scroll down for:

• the programme of the HNPW 2024 "Inclusion" Area of Common Concern (with links to each session description, location ad registration)
• the slides decks and other resources presented in the sessions (coming soon)
• relevant reports and other information to foster the understanding on how to leave no one behind in humanitarian action (see the sections below about persons with disabilities, PSEA, women and girls, older people, youth, people leaving with SOGIESC (LGBTIQ+) and MHPSS) .

This virtual exhibition area is accessible 24/7. All the highlighted mentions below (in italics) are clickable for links.

In case you would like to get more information, propose additional resources, or be put in touch with relevant experts, please do not hesitate to reach out to Isabelle de Muyser in OCHA (demuyser-boucher@un.org).

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Check out the full list of 10 exhibitions and 25 sessions in this flyer

MAKE YOUR SESSIONS ACCESSIBLE !!

Individuals with disabilities, whether vision, cognitive, hearing, or mobility, interact with technology differently and might require different accommodations to be able to join and participate in virtual meetings. In order to ensure the accessibility of your session(s), please consult some basic tips [here].

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HNPW OPENING SESSION:

STATEMENT OF Ms. VIRGINIA GAMBA, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UN SECRETARY GENERAL FOR CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICTS, SPEAKING ABOUT THE NEED FOR INCLUSIVE HUMANITARIAN ACTION:

OTHER RESOURCES:

About inclusion of persons with disabilities:

At least 15% of the world population (approx.1,3 billion people) experience significant disability, and most of them live in low to middle income countries. Persons with disabilities are not only disproportionately impacted by conflicts, disasters, and other emergencies, but also face barriers to accessing humanitarian assistance. At the same time, global commitments and standards all emphasize how persons with disabilities are also active agents of change.

General guidance:

• Thisshort guide gathersthe most important things you need to know about disability inclusion inhumanitarian action, including practical tools and resources to take the rightsteps.

• How to get started on disability inclusion in humanitarian action | UNICEF - outlines basic steps for disability focal points, emergency focal points, and staff engaged in humanitarian coordination.

• The IASC Guidelines, Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action set out 4 “must do” actions for humanitarian actors to effectively identify and respond to the needs and rights of persons with disabilities. The recommended actions in each chapter place persons with disabilities at the center of humanitarian action, both as actors and as members of affected populations.

• A compilation of 39 practical examples of good practices and learnings from 20 countries for all phases of humanitarian response:Inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. Case studies collection 2019 (interagencystandingcommittee.org)

• Glossary of terms related to disability and recommendations to use in oral and written communications on disability or other subjects Disability Inclusive Language Guidelines (un.org). Also available in [FR/AR/ESP/RU/CHI] – contact demuyser-boucher@un.org for copies.

• Has your organization already endorsed the HUMANITARIAN DISABILITY CHARTER? See the list of the 250+ signatories, among which 32 Member States plus the European Union, 15 UN entities and numerous international and local NGOs and civil society organizations.

• Check out the website of the Reference Group on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, a platform fostering cooperation between UN, International Agencies, NGOs and organizations of persons with disabilities in promoting disability inclusive humanitarian response.

OCHA STAFF : please visit the OCHA Hub Thematic Pages on disability and Inclusion with more resources:OCHA Disability & Inclusion - Home sharepoint.com

Persons with disabilities in armed conflict:

• About theSecurity Council Resolution 2475 (2019), first-ever resolution calling upon Member States and parties to armed conflict to protect persons with disabilities in conflict situations and to ensure they have access to justice, basic services and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.

• Stories of persons with disabilities in armed conflict: see this HNPW virtual exhibition

• A blog from ICRC about Persons-with-disabilities-in-armed-conflict.pdf

• Children with disabilities in Armed Conflicts - discussion paper published by the Office of Ms. Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflicts

Making HNOs, HRPs (and HNRPs) inclusive of persons with disabilities:

• Guidance on Strengthening Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Response Plans: explains how to strengthen inclusion of disability in Humanitarian Needs Overviews (HNOs) and Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs). The aim of this work is to make humanitarian programming more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities affected by crisis.

• Tip Sheet: Integration of Disability in HRP :summarized tips to strengthen inclusion of disability in Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs) based on the Guidance on Strengthening Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Response Plans;


• Self-Assessment Tool Disability Inclusion HNO and Self-Assessment Tool Disability Inclusion HRP: These tools are based on quality criteria to improve the level of meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities within HNO and HRP document. Country teams are encouraged to use them to self-assess how disability is included in their HNO and/or HRP.

Training Package: ‘Introduction to disability-inclusive humanitarian action’ :

Available in French or English onKaya Connect andDisaster Ready. This training course, consisting in six modules, will allow you to gain knowledge and skills on the rights-based understanding of the disability, on the IASC Guidelines and their Must Do Actions, on the meaning of inclusive humanitarian action and its key approaches, accessibility and universal design. One module focusses specifically on inclusive accountability to affected populations.

An additional package was developed for trainers to facilitate learning, reflections and discussions around disability-inclusive humanitarian action with a focus on programming: : ‘Introduction to disability-inclusive humanitarian action (for trainers)’ - The content is relevant across different humanitarian sectors and contexts of intervention.

About PSEA:

The IASC supports a vision of a humanitarian environment in which people caught up in crises feel safe, respected, and can access needed protection and assistance without fear of sexual exploitation or abuse (SEA) by any aid worker and in which aid workers themselves feel supported, respected, and empowered to deliver assistance free from sexual harassment.

• TheIASC PSEA 2022-2026 Strategylays out three commitments: Operationalization of a Victim and Survivor Centered Approach, Organizational Culture, and Strengthening Country Capacity.


• This year, the Executive Director WFP, Cindy McCain is the IASC PSEAH Champion. Read more about her Championship here.

• Access more resources on the IASC PSEA Microsite.

About inclusion of women and girls:

It is essential that humanitarian actors acknowledge women’s and girls’ roles as first responders and agents of change, as well as the best representatives of their needs in humanitarian crises. Particular effort should be made to reach marginalized women and girls, including women with disabilities, indigenous women, elderly women, and women of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity, engaging them as active partners, and building on their needs and capacities. Impacted by conflict, violence and natural disasters, women and girls in emergencies are at heightened risk of gender-based violence and trafficking, unintended pregnancy, maternal morbidity and mortality, unsafe abortions, and child, early and forced marriage.

• The Gender Handbook for humanitarian action provides practical guidance for ensuring that the specific needs, capacities and priorities ofwomen, girls, men and boys are identified, that assistance targets the personsand groups most in need, and that women’s leadership is promoted and enabled.

• Read the 2024 IASCPolicy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls inHumanitarian Action (updated) whichguides the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to make gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls a core principle of its humanitarian action

• TheIASC Gender Accountability Framework (GAF) Report, 2022 provides a snapshot of the IASC’s outputs on its Gender Policy and allows for cross comparison with the baseline established with previous GAF reports.

• Beyond Hunger: the gendered impact of the global hunger crisis - This report by PlanInternational presents evidence on the gendered impacts of the current global hunger crisis from eight of the countries most affected. The causes and consequences of food insecurity are closely entwined with gender – the most food insecure countries are also the most unequal. Gender inequality plays a role in how food is produced and consumed, shapes the strategies people employ to cope, and influences the manifold impacts of hunger and food insecurity on the protection and wellbeing of those affected.

• https://reliefweb.int/report/world/her-voice-rapid-gender-analysis-womens-voices-needs-and-leadership-march-2024

• https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gender-alert-gendered-impact-crisis-gaza

• https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-khartoum-al-gezira-east-darfur-south-darfur-rapid-gender-analysis-october-2023

• https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-rapid-gender-analysis-november-2023

About inclusion of older persons:

By 2050, the number of persons aged 60 and over will have grown to 2 billion people, or 22%. By then, older persons will begin to outnumber children aged 14 and under. Just over 80% of the world’s older persons will be living in low- and middle-income countries. Globally, the “oldest-old” (80 and above) constitute the fastest growing age segment of the older population. However, while at high risk in conflict and displacement situations, older people are often overseen or not able to access humanitarian services.

• TheHumanitarian Standards for older people and people with disabilities (available in 9 languages) - provide practitioners andorganizations with clear actions that can be taken to protect, support andengage older people and people with disabilities and provide guidance toidentify and overcome barriers to participation and access in diverse contexts,and at all stages of the humanitarian programme cycle.

• Humanitarian action and older persons: an essential brief for humanitarian actors : although dated 2008, the recommendations in this advocacy paper remain very valid.

• Review of the main risks (defined as potential adverse consequences of a crisis) for older people in emergency situations and key actions that can be taken by humanitarians to alleviate them: older-people-in-emergencies--identifying-and-reducing-risks.pdf (helpage.org)

• older-people-in-disasters-and-humanitairan-crises-guidelines-for-best-practice.pdf (UNHCR/HelpAge International)

• The summary of this report If not now, when? Keeping promises to older people affected by humanitarian crises from Age International is only a few pages and is quite accessible for people unfamiliar with the topic. It provides urgent recommendations for humanitarian actors, donors and agencies for an inclusive humanitarian response for older people. The full report is also available on the same page.

• No One Is Spared: Abuses Against Older People in Armed Conflict. : Older people are often at heightened risk of abuses during armed conflict, as evidenced by this 2022 report of Human Rights Watch, whichdescribes patterns of abuses documented by Human Rights Watch between 2013 and 2021 against older people in 12 countries affected by armed conflicts (Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Mali, Mozambique, Nagorno- Karabakh, Niger, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine). The report also draws on the serious protracted violence in two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, the violence experienced by older ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the experiences of older refugees in Lebanon displaced by conflict in Syria. A summary and easy-to-read version are availablehere.

• Stories from older people in North West Syria: Roles reimagined: Stories of challenges and self-reliance from older people in northwest Syria. This report, prepared by Action For Humanity and HelpAge International, comes from talking to nearly 120 older people in northwest Syria. It reveals detailed views on how older people’s roles and views have changed, showing how conflict, money issues, and caregiving duties have affected them.

• “I Used To Have A Home”: Older People’s Experience of War, Displacement, And Access To Housing in Ukraine [EN/RU/UK] : a report from Amnesty International about heightened risks faced by Older Persons who are unable to access housing in displacement following Russian invasion. The report documents how older people often remain in or are unable to flee conflict-affected areas, exposing them to harm and dangerous living conditions in severely damaged housing. Those who do flee often cannot afford to cover rental costs, while thousands have had to stay in overstretched state institutions, which do not have enough staff to provide the necessary level of care.

• I sleep on an empty stomach - This report from HelpAge International provides key recommendations for improving the inclusion of older people in humanitarian nutrition planning and response. Lack of knowledge about the nutritional needs of older people, assumptions about their productivity, social and economic marginalisation, and the prioritisation of younger populations can all contribute to their systematic exclusion from emergency nutrition response planning and implementation. A blog highlighting the key actions practitioners can take to include older people in nutrition responses can also be foundhere.

• Older people’s risk of starvation and extreme poverty due to rising global costs - a report from HelpAge which explores the impact of rising global costs on the lives of older people through in-depth research in 10 countries (Argentina, Colombia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Malawi, Mozambique, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen).

• Disaster Risk and Age Index : ranks 190 countries on the disaster risks faced by older people, and highlights gaps in data sets and points to appropriate policies.

• Older people and climate change - se also this additional video:

• Working with older people in forced displacement (UNHCR)

Some short free trainings that might be useful for HNPW participants:

• Understanding Older People and Their Needs in a Humanitarian Context (30 minutes)
• Helping Older People in Emergencies - HOPE (2,5 hours self-guided course divided into five modules to increase knowledge on the inclusion of old people in the humanitarian action).
• Age Inclusive Humanitarian Interventions -AIHI - an introduction on mainstreaming Older People in the humanitarian interventions (2,5 hours self-guided course).

About inclusion of youth:

Young people make up 41 per cent of the global population. In many humanitarian settings, adolescents, youth and children constitute more than 50 per cent of the population in need. One quarter of the global youth population live amid violence or armed conflict and young people are increasingly affected by natural disasters – made more intense and frequent because of climate change. The support young people receive in humanitarian crises has a
lasting impact not only on their own recovery process, but also on the future of humanity.

• The IASC Guidelines on Working with and for Young People in Humanitarian and Protracted Crises (from which the above quote and figure originate)serve as the ‘go-to’ guide and resources for working with andfor young people in humanitarian settings and protracted crises. The same webpage contains also aFacilitator’s Guide and aTraining package on the Guidelines.

• The Checklist to ensure the meaningful engagement of young persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. aims to provide guidance on how to ensure meaningfulparticipation of young persons with disabilities in local humanitarianresponse.

• UNICEF’s Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation is a package of guidance, tools, activities, and supplies to support and bring about positive change in adolescents’ lives through arts and innovation, especially those who are affected by humanitarian crises.

• TheSupplemental Guide to the 2020 Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Toolkit for Humanitarian Settingsis specially tailored for youth-led organizations (YLOs), and aims to support their rightful place within humanitarian coordination and programming for ASRHR.

• The UNICEFAdolescent Data Portal (ADP) brings together a wealth of global, regional and national-level data on adolescents, with measures closely tied to the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Visit theCompact for Young People in Humanitarian Actionto learn more about how to transform humanitarian action with and for Young People.

About inclusion of people with diverse SOGIESC (LGBTIQ+):

In 2011 the United Nations Human Rights Council recognized that discrimination and violence on the basis of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) violates human rights. Discrimination, violence and exclusion continue often to be experienced by people with diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities and Expressions, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC, aka LGBTIQ+ people) before, during and after disasters and conflict. The manifestations are often many and profound, undermining people’s potential to develop resilient and dignified lives, and to survive and recover from shocks.

• Glossary of terms:https://www.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl486/files/documents/IOM-SOGIESC-Glossary-of-Terms.pdf

• "Why Diverse SOCIESC Inclusion Matters"– blog on the IASC Accountability and Inclusion Resources Portal

• Nothing About Us Without Us: Diverse SOGIESC Inclusion : a think piece relevant for all practitioners interested in making their practice more inclusive--it offers insight into power dynamics, the ways diverse SOGIESC organisations and people are already engaged in humanitarian relief, and the ways powerful institutions can (and should) share power.

• More SOGIESC Inclusion Resources relating to humanitarian and development situations are available in the 42 Degrees Library.

About MHPSS:

The experience of an armed conflict or a natural hazardcan significantly impact the mental health and psychosocial well-being of aperson, with immediate as well as long-term consequences.WHO estimates that, in areas affected by conflict, one person in five is living with some form of mental disorder, from mild depression or anxiety to psychosis. These disorders often impact their ability to function or can lead to stigma, discrimination, and exclusion. Access to appropriate care and support therefore isn’t just a health issue, it can be a matter of survival.

• My Hero is You: Supporting each other when wars come – storybook to support the mental health and well-being of children who are affected by armed conflict, as well as their parents and caregivers [En/Fr/Ar]

• IASC Information Note on Disability and Inclusion in MHPSS.pdf : guidance for strengthening thedisability inclusiveness of MHPSS responses and programmes in emergency settings.

• IASC Minimum Service Package Mental Health and Psychosocial Support- an easy-to-follow intersectoralpackage, which spells out the activities and actions that all humanitarian actors should put in place in all emergencies for an effective MHPSS response. Available in English, Arabic, Bulgarian, French, Polish and Ukrainian.

• Guidance on Addressing Suicide in Humanitarian Settings - a practical and concise resource thatis applicable across all types of emergencies, organizations, and sectors.

Check out the webpage of the IASC MHPSS Reference Group for more information about ongoing work and useful guidance