Mitigating and Preventing Gender Based Violence in the Fight against Hunger: a Guide to Adapted Tools

BACKGROUND

Action Against Hunger has established a solid foundation to promote gender equality and prevent and mitigate the risks of gender-based violence in the fight against hunger. In 2017, Action Against Hunger launched the two year Enhancing the Accountability for Gender-Based Violence with Humanitarian Nutrition Organisations pilot project with support from the United States Government’s Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration (BPRM). The project was implemented in three countries (Bangladesh, Mauritania and South Sudan), and looked at how Action Against Hunger and its partners could improve their accountability to mitigate and prevent GBV in the fight against hunger. The project focused on training and sensitizing staff on core gender equality and GBV concepts, standardizing core requirements for mainstreaming gender with the rollout of the organization’s Gender Minimum Standards and adapting key tools used by country offices to consider gender equality and GBV.

This guide will focus on the third pillar of this project – adapting the tools – and includes an overview of key tools adapted by country team in addition to key indicators and a performance measurement framework to help track the impact of the tools.

SUMMARY OF TOOLS

Action Against Hunger adapted tools used by teams in the three pilot countries based on the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action[1]. Working closely with partner organizations and the clusters Action Against Hunger piloted and evaluated eleven different tools including surveys, guidance documents and procedures with questions to better understand, mitigate and prevent GBV and promote gender equality.

The following tools were those used and/or piloted and evaluated by Action Against Hunger.

DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS

SOUTH SUDAN

SAFETY AUDIT

Sector: Nutrition

Adapted and Piloted in: South Sudan

About the tool: This collects data on the safety of clients at, and on the way to, nutrition sites and stabilization centres. There is a separate tool for nutrition sites and stabilization centres.

What was adapted: This was a new tool developed by our nutrition team in South Sudan with specific consideration on gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV) risk mitigation.

MULTI-SECTOR EMERGENCY TEAM (MET) PRE-ASSESSMENT HOUSEHOLD SURVEY

Sector: Nutrition, WASH, FSL

Adapted and Piloted in: South Sudan

About the tool: This survey is a tool used to assess household characteristics before interventions and includes questions around water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, and food security and livelihoods (FSL).

What was adapted: The tool is modified with specific protection and GBV-related questions in order to assess the level of knowledge of the communities on GBV during a deployment of the MET team.  Given the fact that this tool is used widely in different emergency deployments, there is a need for translation of the tool in multiple local languages.

MEN’S FORUMS

Sector: Nutrition

Adapted and Piloted in: South Sudan

About the tool: This tool is a nutrition community outreach tool used by staff at nutrition sites. The tool involves 1) group discussions between men facilitated by a Community Outreach Worker and a Community Volunteer and 2) household visits. The objective of holding men forums is to enhance men’s awareness on existing GBV issues so they can act as agents of change in their respective communities.

What was adapted: This tool is part of community sensitization materials that was adapted to include discussion topics around GBV and gender equality.

BANGLADESH

GBV GUIDANCE REFERRAL GUIDANCE NOTE

Sector: Nutrition

Adapted and Piloted in: Bangladesh

About the tool: This guidance note aims to ensure frontline staff (non-GBV or child protection specialists) in nutrition centers know how to refer cases of GBV and child protection to relevant actors. This guidance note should be used in tandem with a poster which features a flowchart of key information to be considered to understand and refer any cases for GBV services.

What was adapted: This was a newly developed tool developed by the team.

COMPLAINTS AND FEEDBACK MECHANISMS

Sector: Institutional

Adapted and Piloted in: Bangladesh

About the tool: This guideline outlines how the office addresses complaints and feedbacks from beneficiaries, volunteers, staff and other stakeholders. Complaints can range from those concerning major abuses of power and accusations of GBV and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) to more minor complaints and feedback on program effectiveness.

What was adapted: This was a new tool developed by the team.

PARTNER AUDIT TOOL

Sector: Institutional

Adapted and Piloted in: Bangladesh

About the tool: This tool assesses partner organizations’ accountability towards gender equality and GBV through twenty questions that inquire about the presence of an adequate gender policy and capacity to implement it. Partners who are identified as “at risk” can receive support from Action Against Hunger to achieve the minimum standards on having gender integrated into the programs.

What was adapted: This was a new tool developed by the team (the link below is a direct download).

HUMAN RESOURCES RECRUITMENT TOOL – INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE

Sector: Institutional – Human Resources

Adapted and Piloted in: Bangladesh

About the tool: This tool outlines potential questions to ask during an interview with a candidate to assess their understanding of gender and GBV.

What was adapted: This tool was adapted to include specific questions around gender, protection, and GBV which are now a compulsory section in interviews.

MAURITANIA

POST DISTRIBUTION MONITORING SURVEY

Sector: FSL, Cash for work

Adapted and Piloted in: Mauritania

About the tool: This survey aims at a systematic data collection and analysis of information. It is used by teams after an intervention to improve the way assistance is provided and delivered, the assistance is responsive to beneficiaries’ preferences or needs, and the assistance is sensitive to potential protection risks that could be caused by cash distribution.

What was adapted: Additional questions were added to the survey used by teams to better understand gender inequality, GBV and protection risks around FSL and Cash for Work. A training is also provided for the enumerators to conduct the survey to ensure they understand why additional questions were added and how to ask such questions.

BOÎTE À IMAGES (PICTURES BOX)

Sector: Nutrition, Health, WASH

Adapted and Piloted in: Mauritania

About the tool: An information, education and communication material that is used to sensitize affected populations on good practices related to health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.

What was adapted: Some of the images and messages were modified to incorporate male characters in order to highlight the role of men and boys within the household and the fields. This tool was adapted in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health in Mauritania.

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, PRACTICE (KAP) SURVEY

Sector: Nutrition

Adapted and Piloted in: Mauritania

About the tool:  This survey is a widely used tool to collect information on what is known, believed and done in a specific community.

What was adapted: Additional questions were added to the survey used by teams on gender equality and GBV and used in the field for various projects.

BASELINE COOPERATIVE SURVEY

Sector: FSL

Adapted and Piloted in: Mauritania

About the tool: This is a survey used prior to an intervention to better understand the needs of the affected population in a cooperative. This includes questions around the distance travelled to get to the cooperative, food consumption patterns in the larger community and land ownership, for example.

What was adapted: Additional questions were added to the survey to better understand gender inequality, GBV and protection risks around FSL. A training is also provided for the enumerators to conduct the survey to ensure they understand why additional questions were added and how to ask such questions.

PERFORMANCE MATRIX AND INDICATORS

In order to better support teams in using these adapted tools, Action Against Hunger also developed a set of indicators and a performance matrix that can be used to collect gender-related data on the surveys and assessment conducted. Contact the gender unit for more details.

CONCLUSION

At Action Against Hunger we recognize that gender inequality and GBV are both a cause and consequence of hunger. We are continually working to promote gender equality as well as mitigate and prevent risks of GBV in our programs and throughout our organization. One way we have tried to do this was through adapting tools used by our teams to align with international guidance, such as the IASC Guidelines for Integrating GBV in Humanitarian Action.

Action Against Hunger’s International Gender Unit is looking forward to hearing about your experience, feedback and data collected with the indicators using these adapted tools and indicators. Reach out to us today at: genderunit@actioncontrelafaim.ca.

References:

[1] IASC (2015). “Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action”. Available at: https://gbvguidelines.org/en/