Briefing note: Understanding the gender-related impact of the crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for an inclusive response

01 September 2024

Recommended Actions:

In line with repeated calls by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres for the immediate implementation of a ceasefire by all sides and ensuring rapid, safe, and sustained humanitarian access, the first necessary step is to secure peace and overcome the risk of famine for the affected people. Additionally, gender-responsive humanitarian and development aid interventions are essential to address the specific needs and priorities of vulnerable women, men, girls, and boys, based on sex- and age disaggregated data and periodic rapid gender and vulnerability assessments.

It is also necessary to protect all civilians, and ensure that responses to gender-related risks and vulnerabilities are embedded into essential strategic planning documents, including the Humanitarian Flash Appeals, and to the extent possible, channel resources to women’s organizations. Furthermore, it is essential to safeguard infrastructure, including houses, agricultural land and health care facilities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in accordance with the international humanitarian law.

Responses to the crisis could include efforts to:

• Strengthen collection, analysis, and dissemination of data disaggregated by sex, age, and disability status to continually update available information on the impact of the conflict on the food security and livelihoods of women and men of different age, residency status, and socio-economic conditions. The evidence generated should guide the planning of targeted gender-responsive interventions and strategies to better meet the specific needs of affected women, men, girls, and boys on short, medium, and long term. Periodic rapid gender analysis and gender-sensitive vulnerability assessments, including gender-sensitive indicators in monitoring and evaluation systems, should follow the gender-related impacts of agricultural development, food and nutrition security policies and investments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
• Conduct gender assessments to evaluate market conditions and support the distribution of agricultural products. This includes assessing farmers’ ability to utilize agricultural lands and agribusiness units and identifying areas for intervention. Additionally, explore the potential for humanitarian response interventions, such as supporting home garden production, small-scale livestock farming, and fodder distribution.
• Ensure that the immediate needs of women and girls in the Gaza Strip are met through the provision of quality basic services and improved access to resources, services, fodder and other essential agricultural inputs and tools to support their early recovery and rehabilitation, taking into account their specific needs, constraints and existing capacities.
• Support efforts to restore the economic activities and functioning of markets in the Gaza Strip. Revitalization of the private sector is fundamental, as humanitarian aid alone is insufficient to meet the huge needs of the population. Without functioning markets, continued scarcity will lead to inflation.
• Scale up a broader array of social protection initiatives, once domestic markets are reactivated, including targeted cash transfers and vouchers, to provide immediate assistance to affected and vulnerable families. Tailored interventions are needed to address the loss of income experienced by female-headed and single-headed households and prioritize households with people with disabilities, recognizing their heightened vulnerability. Additionally, consider unconditional cash distributions to enhance women’s roles in the recovery phase and to restore crop production capacity, alongside the direct distribution of agricultural materials to prepare for the coming seasons.
• Continue efforts undertaken to assess the immediate and long-term impacts of damage to infrastructure, loss of livestock, and disruption of agricultural activities on the livelihoods and productive capacities of men and women. As the situation permits, identify new or alternative income-generating and employment opportunities in the post-conflict period, focusing on women, youth and the most vulnerable people. Possible interventions include cash-for-work programmes to reconstruct damaged infrastructure, rehabilitate lands and irrigation systems.
• Support ongoing efforts by humanitarian actors to mitigate and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) during and after the conflict, based on periodic protection risk analyses conducted among affected and vulnerable people. Adopt special measures to ensure that interventions do not put people at risk of GBV, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), and other forms of discrimination, following the “Do No Harm” principle. This includes targeting the most vulnerable women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities; addressing the underlying causes of discrimination and structural barriers; and re-establishing community-based protection networks to be involved in the humanitarian response. Additional recommended actions include raising community awareness of GBV while engaging all community actors, building social peace among farmers and local communities, and establishing protection, feedback, and complaint mechanisms. Securing safe access to fuel and energy, productive inputs, and water will reduce tensions and competition for resources, thereby minimizing the risks of violence.
• Assist women-led and women’s organizations to serve as early responders in conflict-affected areas in the West Bank, including but not limited to Area C, Hebron, Jenin camp and Nablus. It is also crucial to engage local women’s groups and women leaders in anticipatory actions and peacebuilding processes in the Gaza Strip, by developing women-led risk mappings and involving women in hotlines addressing violence. In the long term, invest in formal and informal education and training of women and girls to strengthen their technical capacities and leadership and negotiation skills, and support female heads of households in overcoming recent shocks.