Background:

In humanitarian settings, gender inequality, one of the root causes of Gender-based Violence, remains the greatest structural barrier to women’s and girls’ participation. GBV practitioners seek to transform these gender hierarchies which legitimize and perpetuate violence against women and girls entangled in conflicts, disasters and displacement through their programming.

Women’s and Girls’ Safe Spaces (WGSS) are used commonly to deliver GBV programming in humanitarian emergencies worldwide and represent a place where women and girls can find safety, community, and healing and work together toward common and personal objectives and empowerment. These spaces offer women and girls unique opportunities to rebuild the social and safety structures lost due to emergencies, cultivate valuable life skills, and link GBV survivors to specialized support.

The 2019 Women and Girls Safe Space Toolkit outlined five specific objectives for WGSS which include:

1.     Facilitate access for all women and girls to knowledge, skills, and a range of relevant services.

2.     Support women’s and girls’ psychosocial wellbeing and creation of social networks.

3.     Serve as a place where women and girls can organize, and access information and resources to reduce the risk of violence.

4.     Serve as a key entry point to specialized services for GBV survivors.

5.     Provide a place where women & girls are safe and encouraged to use their voice and collectively raise attention on their rights and needs.

Collectively, these objectives promote a gender transformative approach that seeks to empower women and girls.

The GBV AOR Community of Practice invites you to a webinar to discuss the gender transformative impact of Women and Girl Safe Spaces. In this webinar, we will discuss the gender transformative outcome of GBV interventions in WGSS putting them in relation to individual, inter-personal and community barriers. During the webinar we will deconstruct what a “gender transformative” approach is and share examples of how different GBV actors have used this approach to support women and girls in their settings.

Speakers include:

·       The UNFPA Regional Humanitarian Hub for Syria and the Arab States who will share the main findings and recommendations Transcending Norms:  Gender transformative approaches in Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces in Humanitarian Settings , a Knowledge Product that provides practical technical guidance, based on field experience across the Arab States.

·       Other speakers to be confirmed to discuss other gender transformational aspects of WGSS

Presentation in English; Interpretation available in French and Arabic

Time: 10am London/ 11am Geneva-Cairo/12pm Amman-Athens-Baghdad -Nairobi/ 14h Islamabad/ 16h Bangkok/ 17h Manila

Date: 21 June 2022