Children in humanitarian settings
In 2023, more than 10 million children were forced to flee their homes last year in the world’s 10 largest crises[1]. Children, defined as those under 18 years, in humanitarian emergencies, face heightened, intersecting risks that impede their growth, safety and development, and make them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. This cohort remains largely invisible across the humanitarian programme cycle. Humanitarian services for children are provided by sectoral specific agencies, however, engagement with children and young adolescents remains relegated to specific technical agencies. Concerns surrounding do no harm and protection have inversely / conversely impeded consultation with and participation of children, in decisions that affect their lives, ranging from for example, how information on humanitarian service provision is presented to them, the type and format of education they receive.
What is Accountability to Affected Persons (AAP)
AAP is an active commitment by humanitarian actors to bridge the power differential, be held to account and engage with affected persons on services provided to them. The IASC views systematic accountability and inclusion as essential to meeting organizational and collective standards and commitments, including the Grand Bargain. It continues to increase its efforts to strengthen its collective accountability to affected people. AAP is anchored in two operational principles – a rights-based approach and aid effectiveness[2]. Other instruments such as the Core Humanitarian Standards[3] and UNICEF’s Core Commitments to Children guide sector wide implementation.
Whilst AAP has gained traction in humanitarian emergency responses in recent years, the same does not hold true for accountability to children. Concerns on do no harm, access barriers and lack of specialized expertise to engage with children and support their participation, has resulted in subpar utilization of the capacities and lived experience of children in emergencies. This is a lost opportunity both in ensuring improved protection outcomes and programming that is aligned to the specific needs and preferences of children. This affects receptivity, uptake and use of services and also means there is limited understanding of the diverse needs and preferences of children across parametres such as age, gender, socio economic status, ethnicity, status (e.g. Internally Displaced Person (IDP) /refugee/ host community), Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC), dis/ability, literacy etc. How do children understand accountability:
While knowledge, training and possibly practice, on accountability and accountability to children in particular, varies, this variation is not limited to development and humanitarian practitioners, be it frontline staff or technical experts. This extends to communities and children who are served by humanitarian actors. How do children define and understand ‘accountability’? Do they see this as an integral part of service provision? Do they see themselves as rights holders? Does this seem more of a secondary priority that follows lifesaving assistance? Do children across see their views and opinions as important and impactful?, Do they think their participation can lead to change and course correction?
The role of accountability in child protection
Prevention is a key tenet of Child Protection. This entails a comprehensive awareness of the context of operations, explicit and implicit threats to children, drivers of violence within homes, camps, schools etc.). Engaging with children from the onset, using platforms and media that they are comfortable with, will support
- a) understanding challenges in relation to child protection and abuse, including sexual exploitation abuse and harassment
- b) this engagement will also maximize and strengthen community based prevention and response measures
- c) ensure awareness and uptake by children of mechanisms in place to mitigate and report concerns and obtain assistance for survivors.
Children are important influencers and actors in their own right! They can influence their peers, households, communities and community institutions both directly and indirectly. Humanitarian actors need to adopt a capability lens when working with children. Being accountable to children also means ensuring that attempts at engagement are not tokenistic – is there an added value to engaging with children / is it in their best interest, noting the opportunity costs for them, especially in an emergency setting. What is the envisioned end result for children? How will the information and their engagement be used and how will you report back to children? Is their investment proportionate to the results planned for children?
Accountability to children is not limited to ‘feedback collection’, it means supporting proactive participation in line with their evolving capacities, across all points of the humanitarian programme cycle, supporting collaborations which engage them in co design and implementation. It means communicating with children on how their feedback was used or why it was not used. It also supports evidence based advocacy with both duty bearers and donors.
Inclusion of children in their diversity in humanitarian settings
Inclusive practices are essential to ensure participation and accountability of all children in humanitarian programming. However, humanitarian actors often consider children as a homogenous group, not recognizing how differences in age, developmental stage, gender, disability status and other factors increase the barriers to access and participation by children in all of their diversity. Little attention is given to adolescents’ evolving developmental capacities, and to the specific needs and risks of adolescent girls in particular, who face increased safety risks due to the intersection of gender and age inequalities.[4] Research shows that during humanitarian crises, adolescent girls are particularly targeted with exploitation and violence.[5]
Despite protections under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that apply to all persons with disabilities in situations of risk or humanitarian crisis, there is a significant evidence gap on the intersection of age, gender, and disability in humanitarian contexts. Humanitarian action often overlooks the particular risks and barriers faced by adolescent girls with disabilities. Furthermore, people with different types of disabilities (physical, mental, intellectual or sensory) face different types of risks and barriers. Women and adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities face higher risks of gender-based violence and are one of the most likely groups to be targeted by abusers.
Inclusion International’s 2020 analysis of the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in Official Development Assistance (ODA) confirmed that international development aid continues to exclude people with intellectual disabilities and their families.[6] An analysis of ODA data from 2014-2018 revealed that 99.98% of funding during this period excluded people with intellectual disabilities, 36% of the funding that did include people with intellectual disabilities was not CRPD-compliant and therefore not fully inclusive, and only 2% of aid relevant to people with intellectual disabilities and their families was delivered through organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs). The report also found that when people with intellectual disabilities were included in emergency response/humanitarian programs specifically, 50% of that programming was delivered using methodologies that were not consistent with the human rights set out in the CRPD. This highlights not only the need for investments in programming that is accessible for people with intellectual disabilities, but also the need for program tools and resources that will strengthen humanitarian actors’ understanding and capacity to deliver inclusive programming.
Recent attention to disability inclusion in humanitarian aid guidelines raises awareness about the need to mainstream inclusive practices, but are often limited to an impairment approach that focuses on addressing the disability through specific accommodations for physical and sensory disabilities rather than taking a rights-based approach and addressing the broader ways of working that are excluding people. People with intellectual disabilities are among the most excluded because there is no single accommodation or design based on Universal Design that supports their inclusion – this instead requires tailored efforts beyond physical access that fundamentally shift the way programs are designed and delivered, ensure access to information, and overcome attitudinal barriers.
Specific research and guidance on the inclusion of adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities in humanitarian action remains limited, despite evidence that they are among the most at risk of gender-based violence (GBV), exclusion, and isolation. An intersectional lens that considers the risk factors and power dynamics associated with gender and age, alongside an analysis of how different types of disabilities specifically impact adolescent girls’ experiences, is often missing. Furthermore, a strengths-based approach exploring capacities is rarely taken.
Partnership with BHA
With support from BHA, IRC is implementing the Inclusive and Accountable (IAA) research and practice initiative in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, two countries with a long-standing humanitarian programming. The IAA project focuses on accountability to children and inclusion of adolescent girls in IDP settings. Working in partnership with three youth organisations for the accountability to children workstream and with Inclusion International[7] and their members on the inclusion of adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities, the initiative seeks to understand barriers and enablers on accountability to children using a co design approach to a) conduct a qualitative assessment with children, caregivers and humanitarian actors in IDP settings and develop a resource/ toolkit for the humanitarian sector b) conduct qualitative consultations with adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers to capacitate sector actors to support inclusion and develop a guidance on the same ( consultations completed in July 2024).
IRC co leads the Accountability to Children Advisory Group of the Alliance on Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (ACPHA). Accountability to children is one of the four key pillars of ACPHA strategy. Member organizations include Save the Children, UNICEF, UNHCR, the CP AoR, the Global Education Cluster, the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance, IOM, Ground Truth Solutions, Terre des Hommes, the War Child Alliance etc. It provides advisory support to member organizations on interventions that focus on accountability to children and has helped to build a community of practice. As part of the inclusion workstream, the project created a 10-person Inclusion Advisory Group that includes self-advocates and other experts from a range of humanitarian agencies and CSOs from multiple regions. This group brings a diversity of experience and perspectives and is advising the program team as it moves through different stages of the project.
Learning to date :
- It is important to support children and adolescents to understand how they can engage in each space and intervention, in line with their evolving capacities.
- Partnership: working with collectives and individuals in an emergency context requires an agile and adaptive approach that builds on the lived experiences, knowledge, and skills of the affected population, with proactive collaboration, to identify and formalize their contributions.
- A co-design approach to develop approaches and tools strengthens their quality and relevance while cultivating joint ownership and a shared stake in outcomes.
- Working with organizations of persons with disabilities and self-advocates is essential for informing consultation approaches, identifying participants in a context where disability disaggregated data is unavailable, and building trust amongst girls and their family members.
- Accountability and inclusion are the responsibility of all organizations and should not be confined to specialist agencies.
- Inviting organizations of people with disabilities to train humanitarian organizations on disability inclusion strengthens understanding while balancing power. Building a respectful partnership between humanitarian organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities allows everyone to share their strengths.
- Engaging self-advocates to co-facilitate consultations with humanitarian actors is possible and a best practice. The co-facilitators should have time to get to know each other and practice together.
- Adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities are happy to take part in activities when they feel welcomed, safe, and affirmed. They need freedom to come and go, and to take part how they want to. Contextualized stories, drawings, role plays, and energizers are an effective way to encourage their participation.
- Caregivers value the attention given to their adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities, and seeing their girls engage in a group, sometimes for the first time, has a big impact. Caregivers also value having a space to share their own experiences, and as this may be the first time they are being asked about their experiences and listened to, it may be emotional.
- Even just one experience of working with adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities can be transformative for humanitarian staff. It motivates staff to want to do whatever it takes to include these girls in programming.
In the pipeline/ watch this space for :
Results from the Humanitarian Inclusion Survey
Learnings and insights from the formative consultations with adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers
Training modules on engaging with adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities in humanitarian settings
Perceptions of children and humanitarian actors on barriers and enablers to accountability
Toolkit for humanitarian actors to implement, monitor and advocate for accountability to children.
References
[1] Save the Children, 2024
[2] IOM
[3] Revised and launched in March 2024
[4] International Rescue Committee. (2017). A safe place to shine: Creating opportunities and raising voices of adolescent girls in humanitarian settings. Available at https://gbvresponders.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IRC-COMPASS-Global-Report.pdf
[5] Ibid.
[6] This study was conducted through Inclusive Futures, a consortium of 16 disability and development organizations led by Sightsavers and funded by UK Aid. See the full report here: Excluded from the Excluded: People with Intellectual Disabilities in (and out of) Official Development Assistance.
Inclusion-international accessed at www.inclusion-international.org