Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10th, 2016

[The Chair (Hon. Robert Nault (Kenora, Lib.)), Liberal, Bob Nault]

Colleagues, I'd like to bring this meeting to order. We have presenters today, some in the first hour, and others in the second hour.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), our study is on women, peace, and security.

For the record, our witnesses today are CARE Canada and Oxfam Canada. From CARE Canada we have Jacquelyn Wright, vice-president of international programs, and Margaret Capelazo, gender adviser for international programs. From Oxfam Canada we have Julie Delahanty, executive director.

Welcome to all of you. I think you've been here before us in the past.

I understand there are two presentations, one from each group, and then we'll go to questions.

I'll turn it over to you.

[Jacquelyn Wright, Vice-President, International Programs, CARE Canada]

Thank you very much.

It's really an honour to be here today, and thank you so much for inviting CARE.

CARE Canada is honoured to have been invited to contribute to the committee's deliberations on women, peace, and security.

CARE is a rights-based, international non-governmental organization. We support life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection, recovery and peace building, as well as longer-term development work. Last year, CARE's development and humanitarian projects reached more than 65 million people in 95 countries around the world. We continue to respond to the needs of people touched by conflict in Syria, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, and elsewhere.

Our comments today are rooted in our on-the-ground experience working with women and girls affected by conflict. Women and girls are typically portrayed as victims of war rather than survivors and actors. It is well established, for example, that gender inequalities that exist in society before conflict are always exacerbated by conflict. Less attention is given to women's and girls' enormous contributions to the prevention of violence as responders when crisis hits and to the reconstruction and resilience of communities.

In CARE's experience, working with girls and women is indispensable for durable humanitarian and development interventions. This requires policies and approaches that view women as agents rather than beneficiaries.

Involving women in key decisions on refugee camp design and management, such as where to build latrines in refugee camps, can help reduce gender-based violence. Involving women in humanitarian response and development projects cultivates their capacity to participate in decision-making and ensures that women's perspectives are part of the local governance agenda. Syrian women, for example, have demonstrated unimaginable strength and energy during five years of conflict and displacement. One in eight families in Syria and one in three Syrian households in neighbouring countries is now headed by a woman.

As women assume increasing responsibilities as income generators and decision-makers, domestic violence has increased. Adolescent girls throughout the region are being forced into marriage in order to reduce their families' expenses. In situations of extreme economic distress, cases of adolescent girls engaging in survival sex have also been reported.

As war and displacement trigger fundamental shifts in gender roles and responsibilities, however, women can transform the societies in which they live. Syrian women have supported food aid delivery, hygiene promotion, water management, community health, and many other humanitarian activities. They have also campaigned for a voice in peacemaking.

In post-Taliban Afghanistan, CARE has worked with some 9,000 widows through solidarity groups. These groups help women build a collective voice and to advocate for their needs, rights, aspirations, and entitlements. Some have challenged warlords over their right to land. Others have intervened to stop forced marriages in their communities. Such are the on-the-ground changes that the women, peace, and security agenda aims to inspire.

The evidence is clear that women's involvement in the development and application of policy and programs in conflict situations supports violence reduction and the prevention of conflict, the attainment and sustainability of peace, the effectiveness of humanitarian relief and recovery, and the protection of women and girls from gender-based violence.

Much has been achieved in the 15 years since the adoption of Resolution 1325. Thousands of women have used the women, peace, and security agenda to mobilize political action and resources in support of their rights and participation in peace and security efforts. Huge volumes of policy statements and reports have been issued on the women, peace, and security agenda.

The original and innovative spirit of Resolution 1325 has, however, often been lost in the process. Women's participation in discussions about how to respond to crises and rebuild communities remains inconsistent and often tokenistic.

There are, however, a number of practical steps Canada can take to translate the women, peace, and security agenda into impacts for women on the ground. ARE Canada offers three recommendations.

First, the Government of Canada should consider appointing a high-level authority on gender-responsive foreign policy. In his September 2015 report on women, peace, and security, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored that national action plans' effectiveness depends on strong leadership and effective coordination. The 2013-14 progress report on Canada's national action plan reached similar conclusions. Other countries, such as Australia and Sweden, have created ambassadorial positions on global gender equality and rights.

A respected and visible Canadian authority could be mandated to do the following: coordinate and monitor the implementation of Canada's national action plan on women, peace, and security across departments; ensure that gender is central to Canadian diplomatic, peace-building, and development efforts; manage linkages with key processes, such as the 2030 agenda for sustainable development; and advocate for women's and girls' human rights.

The second recommendation is that the government should launch a cutting-edge, second-generation national action plan on women, peace, and security. The plan should have the status of a policy directive and be underpinned by dedicated and flexible funding, driven by results-oriented indicators, concrete targets, and timelines, and backed by robust monitoring and evaluation.

Reports on the implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda have repeatedly called for these elements to be included in national action plans. Adequate funding for women's civil society organizations is critical for building local capacities to engage in decision-making and to respond in emergency situations.

The Secretary-General, for example, has committed the United Nations system to allocate at least 15% of funding for conflict-affected areas for initiatives whose principal objective is gender equality and women's empowerment. Gender, age, and diversity disaggregated data, meanwhile, is critical for quality program design as well as for fostering accountability for investments, results, and impacts.

The third recommendation is that the government should lead efforts at the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit to integrate local women's groups more meaningfully in a reformed global humanitarian architecture. The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May was conceived as a means to establish new ways to address global humanitarian challenges. A focus on women and girls at the summit provides an opportunity to revitalize the women, peace, and security agenda.

Canada can lead these efforts by championing efforts to empower local women's groups and ensure their involvement in emergency preparedness and humanitarian assessments, program design, quality, and accountability efforts. Canadian parliamentarians can help set the stage by advocating for women's and girls' rights and agency, as humanitarian and policy actors in their own right, through their engagement with parliamentary counterparts, policy processes, and institutions around the world.

Conflict is always devastating for the individuals, families, and communities they affect, women and girls especially. Effectively integrated in our humanitarian responses, however, women can conquer new spaces within their families, communities, and nations that had previously been closed to them. Time and time again, CARE witnesses how women in desperate situations discover new strengths and capacities, how they acquire new degrees of self-consciousness and skills, and how they gain decision-making power within the household, their communities, and their countries.

Canada has long been a leader on women, peace, and security. As our national action plan comes up for renewal, amid new international attention on sustainable solutions to the world's most pressing challenges, Canada has an opportunity to reinvigorate its commitment to help ensure that women and girls are meaningfully engaged in developing and delivering responses to the multiple protracted crises confronting the world today, and to ensure that future policies and programs are driven by women's voices and aspirations.

I'd like to quote from what one Syrian woman recently told a CARE researcher: “If I had the ability, first, I would stop the death that is surrounding us. Then, I would think how to compensate all the affection that our children are missing. If I had the freedom to choose, I would choose a job for my husband first, then a job for myself that can ensure our family's stability. I wish to participate in decision-making in our society. I wish to learn English, then go to Damascus and join the English language faculty.”

Such are the aspirations that the women, peace, and security agenda seeks to put into action.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

Julie, I think you're next.

[Julie Delahanty, Executive Director, Oxfam Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon.

Given Oxfam's focus on women's rights, we are particularly pleased to be here. Thank you for the opportunity. We applaud the committee for taking on this timely study of Canada and the women, peace, and security resolutions.

Oxfam is an international confederation working in 90 countries to support long-term development, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy and campaigns to address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability. In everything we do, we put gender justice and women's rights at the centre.

Oxfam is involved in programs and projects around the world that support women, peace, and security objectives. To name just a few, the young women peace-builders program in Colombia brings together young women to discuss and learn from each other's experiences. Together they are developing a national strategy to create a culture of peace in Colombia and present their ideas to the government. In Myanmar, Oxfam supports the women's initiative network for peace, which brings together women's organizations from diverse ethnic groups to support women's engagement in peace processes. In Afghanistan, our project trains both men and women on the importance of women's participation in society and on ways for women to access the formal justice system.

Last autumn the global community celebrated the 15th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. One of the overwhelming conclusions of these discussions was that progress on the ground has been disappointing. It's clear that implementation has lagged behind commitments.

How can Canada play a leadership role on women, peace, and security? Oxfam has identified six global areas for action. In each of these areas I have recommendations for Canadian priorities and actions.

First, we note the importance of international support for women's meaningful participation and leadership in all peace processes, in the security and justice system sectors, and in post-conflict reconstruction. A growing body of research documents how, when women are involved in peace processes, there is a greater chance of success, yet these processes continue to be closed to women and women's organizations. In recent years only 4% of signatories, 2.4% of chief mediators, 3.7% of witnesses, and nine negotiators were women. In Canada we could mobilize diplomatic support to ensure that women's organizations participate in a meaningful way in the Syrian peace talks, for example, and in all other peace processes. Canada could also provide support and training to these organizations so that they can increase their effectiveness.

The second area for attention is increased financing from donors and governments for implementing the women, peace, and security agenda. According to the United Nations, although there is a great deal of rhetoric supporting women, peace, and security, funding for programs and processes remains abysmally low across all areas of the agenda. This is a key dimension of leadership, so I have several recommendations.

First, increase the percentage of our development assistance in crisis contexts and our humanitarian spending that addresses women's needs and targets gender equality as its primary, principal objective. The United Nations has adopted a specific target for this type of spending. Their goal, as Jacquie said, is to have 15% of peace-building initiatives with women's rights and gender equality as their principal objective. Right now, the reports on Canada's action plan for implementing the women, peace, and security agenda don't provide this figure, so we do not even know what Canada is investing in and whether or not this amount has increased or decreased as a result of the action plan.

Second, we need to provide multi-year core funding and sizable grants for women's organizations. We need to ensure that the next iteration of the national action plan is fully resourced with a clear budget and human resource allocations. Our current plan has no dedicated budget.

Our third area is more effective prevention of and responses to gender-based violence in crisis contexts. Globally this includes tackling the socio-political causes of gender-based violence, more support for gender-sensitive security sector reform, implementation of the arms trade treaty, and gender-sensitive strategies for countering terrorism and extremism.

In recent years, Canada has spoken out, at the G8 and other international forums, on gender-based violence in conflict. We applaud the funding of various initiatives, including support for the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. However, we believe Canada's investments in this area would yield stronger results with a clear strategy and greater investments in women's grassroots organizations.

One area of disappointment to many global organizations has been Canada's failure to fund the full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including those relating to pregnancy during crisis. We are encouraged to note that the mandate letters to the relevant ministers include direction for a progressive stand on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Our fourth area for attention is the importance of effectively addressing women's needs, rights, and roles in humanitarian responses. Oxfam's been working for several years to increase the profile and role played by women's organizations in humanitarian response. We're committed to promoting gender equality and women's rights in our humanitarian response by consulting with women, ensuring our programming is safe, and working with women's organizations from the start of the crisis to ensure that women's and men's different needs are understood and met equitably.

For example, we work with women to guide the design of the programs, from ensuring that the locations of water points are easily accessed, that communal latrines are safely separated and have locks, and that bathing and clothes-washing facilities are private. Hygiene messages for men and women, boys and girls, also need to be different. Oxfam tries to ensure hygiene or dignity kits contain pads so that women can manage their monthly periods in comfort and in dignity.

Our staff also co-authored and recently participated in the Canadian launch of the new guidelines for integrating gender-based violence interventions in humanitarian action. To more effectively address women's needs, rights, and roles in humanitarian response, Canada could take concrete and specific measures to strengthen women's participation in humanitarian assistance, protection, and recovery programs. We could strengthen the capacity of partner governments to address gender equality and gender-based violence in national disaster risk reduction strategies and programs, require sex and age disaggregated data in all emergency response initiatives, and provide funding for training on the gender-based violence guidelines.

Our fifth area is greater international attention to conflict prevention and tackling the root causes of conflict. This is one area where the national action plan was particularly weak. One of the key insights of the women, peace and security agenda is that supporting women's leadership is a key lever in building more sustainable and peaceful societies.

In terms of Canadian priorities, this involves emphasizing conflict prevention and the role of women activists and women's rights organizations in conflict prevention in the revised national action plan, providing increased support to women's rights organizations working on peace-building, and ensuring that all efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism include agenda perspective.

Our sixth and final area is related to the effective implementation and accountability for women, peace and security commitments by the United Nations and member states. Bridging the gap between rhetoric and implementation requires stronger monitoring and accountability. In Canada's case our national action plan does have some positive features. It was the first national action plan to include indicators and assign responsibility for specific actions, but we could create new, much improved second-generation action plans.

First, we need an action plan that has ambitious priorities that are grounded in a rights-based perspective. The Canadian national action plan should outline how Canada will address the previous five issues I've highlighted.

Second, the independent mid-term review of the plan found that it doesn't seem to have a significant impact on Canada's overall policy direction with respect to conflict-affected and fragile states. This is an enormous weakness and requires efforts to increase its profile, including through the World Humanitarian Summit.

As mentioned earlier, we need a dedicated budget, including significant multi-year, consistent resources for women's rights organizations. We need to include a results focus. The current Canadian national action plan reports tend to focus on outlining activities, and there's little effort to understand if these activities are leading to much needed change on the ground.

Finally, we need to improve reporting. The progress reports on the national action plan have been consistently late, raising questions about the priority given to the plan within the government. Although the progress reports are full of details, they do not outline a clear picture of progress, challenges, and lessons.

In conclusion, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2122 stated that UN member states were deeply concerned about persistent implementation deficits in the women, peace and security agenda. It's time to move from deep concern to effective action. Canada has played a role, but this role has not been one of a global leader. It has not been commensurate with our national and international commitments to gender equality and women's rights. Our rhetoric has not been backed by sufficient resources and expenditures of diplomatic capital. We have the chance to change this. We urge this committee to recommend a bold and ambitious agenda for Canada, an agenda backed by resources, and an agenda that puts women at the centre of peace building.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, CARE Canada and Oxfam Canada. Those were very good presentations.

Colleagues, we have about 40 minutes. We'll go right to questions and start with the Liberal side.

Peter, you're on.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

We all want to thank you so much for being here today. It means a great deal that we have the opportunity as MPs to hear from experts and practitioners in the field.

I want to ask a question about microcredit, the issuing of small loans, particularly to women in places such as Bangladesh, as pointed to by development scholars and organizations such as Oxfam, which I believe has talked about it positively in the past. I'm not sure about CARE Canada, but you're nodding, so that probably means yes.

My question is not only with respect to the Bangladesh experience, but beyond that. In particular, I wonder about the value of microcredit in post-conflict settings. It's this idea of giving women small loans so they can start their own businesses. They lack access to collateral that they can put up to show a bank that they have something. Banks tend not to give out loans in these kinds of situations where poverty is the issue. I don't have to expand on that; you know the issues that are at stake.

Specifically for post-conflict settings, what might the merits of microcredit be, in your view? That question is a general one for anyone who wants to take it.

[Julie Delahanty]

Thank you very much for the question.

Microcredit has many uses. It also has some limitations, I think. It's certainly not a magic bullet. It has to be done in conjunction with broader programming around violence against women. There are a lot of issues about who controls the money. You have many issues there.

In post-conflict and humanitarian settings generally, it can be useful. We have a program in a refugee camp in Uganda. It's providing microcredit to help women in making menstrual pads, which are then being provided in kits for the community, so it has a double purpose.

When it's being used in a way that's both helping women to find ways to make income but is also making something of use to the community, and when that programming is connected to broader programming such as gender programming around women's rights, and also when it's really using women's rights organizations to deliver that kind of programming, it has also been found to be quite useful.

My colleague will take this question.

[Margaret Capelazo, Gender Advisor, International Programs, CARE Canada]

Yes, I'll add to that. Especially in relief and recovery contexts, how do you get to the legislature, how do you get to the justice department, and how do you get to health services in order to put forth a claim about gender-based violence to get justice? You have to take the bus. How do you get money to take the bus? You join a microcredit organization. You earn some money in the microcredit organization.

What happens if the other breadwinner in the family is absent or has died? What happens if you're a war widow or a woman who used to be in the war effort somewhere and is now ostracized by your community? All your community support is gone. How are you going to make a living for yourself? Join a microcredit organization.

I won't say that this is, in terms of justice, the first thing. As noted in the presentations, it's equally effective or more effective to also include women in local peace-building efforts, in local governance efforts on community development, or on village governance bodies. But along with that, it's extremely effective to have the economic means to be able to recover for yourself and your children.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

That's a great point. I obviously wouldn't think that it's a magic bullet, not to imply you were suggesting that I thought that. It's about empowerment, right? It's about making sure that women have a voice. Those are some great examples you've cited. I look forward to looking more into the situation in Uganda.

In the time I have left, Julie, you wrote an article recently for the The Huffington Post on the Zika virus, but there are so many overlapping issues there. I just want to take a quote from it, “Whenever crisis strikes in the world, women are the hardest hit—they are the poorest of the poor, the most unequal of the unequal.”

You talk about the Zika virus with specific reference to Brazil, and then you make a connection between poverty, climate change, and disease and note how the poorest women are impacted by Zika. Not just because Zika is in the news, I think this speaks to a much broader issue, which is the interconnection between all these things: poverty, climate change, and health issues.

Can you expand on that? You can focus on the article if you wish, or you can answer in any way you like.

[Julie Delahanty]

I wasn't expecting to talk about Zika here today, but that's great.

In any kind of crisis.... I think at the time I wrote the article it was because it wasn't being highlighted, it wasn't coming out clearly, that the real issue around Zika, the real missing element, was men. Everyone was talking about women. There was this idea that women shouldn't get pregnant, to tell women not to get pregnant.

The absurdity of that statement was pretty obvious to many of us, especially those who work in the field and see the kind of access that women have to sexual and reproductive health services and the kind of powerlessness they have in negotiating sex with their partners. It was the whole idea of how you can tell a woman not to get pregnant. If they could do that, they would have done that.

In terms of Zika generally, women are living in the poorest circumstances there. They are more vulnerable to mosquito bites, poor health, and all of those things.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Could you touch on the point about family planning? When members of the general public, or even politicians sometimes, unfortunately, see something like Zika hit, they think this is just what happens over there. You actually make the point in the article that there are deep systemic issues here, issues of inequality, and you talk about family planning. Could you elaborate on that and tie it to Zika, or whatever. There are many issues we could talk about.

[Julie Delahanty]

It is not just Zika. It is an issue in many contexts, but particularly in humanitarian contexts, where humanitarian organizations go in, and it's about water, sanitation, latrines, shelters, and food. However, women don't stop getting pregnant just because there is a crisis, or an earthquake, or a conflict. Women menstruate and get pregnant. They have to have services and the ability to address the needs they have.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Hence there is the need for effective family planning policies and development policies.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you. Now we'll go to the Conservative side.

Peter, go ahead.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to both of you and your organizations for the magnificent work delivered over the decades. In my former life as a journalist, I had all too many opportunities to see both of your organizations and others share in the often very dangerous delivery of humanitarian services, both after natural disasters—the Haitis and the Ethiopias—and in areas of conflict.

I want to speak to Ms. Wright's point about the devastating impact on victims of natural or man-made tragedies, but also in the context.... This may address your comments about the gaps in everything from Resolution 1325 to the most recent, with regard to women, peace, and security. What about those who deliver the aid for you and the greater risks that they have today in unconventional conflict, where sides do not negotiate? There are no winners and losers. Very often now we are seeing a phenomenon where a force will fight to absolute self-destruction if necessary. Will the increased funding and improved action plans better your ability to safely deliver to the recipients?

[Jacquelyn Wright]

One of the points Julie brought up a couple of times was about local women's organizations and groups, and their role in conflict prevention, humanitarian response, etc. Gone are the days when a group of international expatriates descend on a community and deliver food and water. It is much more sophisticated than that. We work very closely in partnership with local women's and other civil society organizations. The extent to which their capacity is built, their empowerment and access to decision-making, to designing the humanitarian response, is a really key part.

In terms of actual care staff, whether they are international or local, particularly in these conflict situations, we have to go back to international humanitarian law and principles. Again, women's voices need to be heard on that stage, and they are not right now. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

There is no real way to protect either the people who are being affected or the workers helping them if there isn't some sense of humanitarian principles being first and foremost.

[Julie Delahanty]

I'll add two small things.

One is about the knowledge of risk that the local organizations have. They have a much better sense of the risk on the ground, and so they're better able to manage those when we provide more support to local organizations rather than having that step-aside policy where humanitarian actors come in and move local organizations out of the way in order to deliver.

I think that's been a theme in the last few years in recognizing the importance of local organizations and how they work.

Another thing I'd point out, and I said it briefly in my comments, is around the arms trade treaty and the importance of signing and implementing that treaty. It would make people much more safe, especially women, because those small arms are used for gender-based violence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Mr. Clement.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this discussion as well. I thank you very much for your presence here and your insights.

I wonder about the impact of corruption in some of the countries you're active in. Surely that's also an issue that has a direct impact on the ability of women to feel secure and to develop. Perhaps you could give some of your insights into what you've seen, how we can best tackle that with how we deliver aid, how we deliver our best practices, and those kinds of things.

[Julie Delahanty]

I'm sure I'll think of more after, but supporting public financial management in a country's general governance issues is something I think everybody is recognizing we need more of. Those revenues that would be gained by increasing the tax base should be used for supporting things like better public services that are free and fairly available to women, such as child care, things that would help with greater equality. Corruption is particularly stronger with the greater inequality that you have in countries. I think the kind of governance that's needed in a country and making sure that the revenues are being spent in the right places, through advocacy and through supporting civil society organizations to advocate to their governments about what it is they need, including women's rights organizations.

[Jacquelyn Wright]

I would build on that by saying working with local organizations is about partnership. Partnership is about building trust and knowing each other. Security is created through trust as well. Corruption often exists because you lack that and you work around the system. I think it's often less risky if you have that kind of relationship. You're not necessarily going to have that if you have a subcontracting relationship. I'm talking about true partnership.

[Margaret Capelazo]

I'll just add that there is a Chatham House study that came out for DFID recently that showed a correlation between women's participation in governance at national levels and other levels, and a decrease in corruption.

I'm not going to remember the statistic, but one of the reasons we're here today, and why we're putting the point on including women in peace negotiations and in governance, is that we can see in the work that we do a benefit not only to the issues that cause insecurity in countries in the first place, but with a more rapid response and recovery at the end the greater that women are included.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

I'm going to Mr. Aubin now.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being with us this afternoon and for sharing your expertise. Your presentation contained some very specific information that will help us in our analysis and our work.

So far, I have the feeling that we are talking about this a bit intellectually. I have never been out in the field, but you, you are our eyes on the ground. Could you tell us, giving an example, how Canada, through diplomacy or through a program ensuring stable, predictable, and recurring funding, could help you carry out your work?

It is well known that women are always the first victims. Specifically, on the ground, how could we go from action to protect women to action that would give them a status of important players in an era of change, especially in countries in crisis? Unfortunately, the crises are lasting longer and longer. I would like you to help us experience, for a few minutes, the reality of what is happening on the ground.

[Jacquelyn Wright]

I think one of the best ways to understand that is to understand the root causes, or where the inequalities are happening.

I was just in Jordan. One of the things that struck me the most there is that most of the refugees are in urban settings, and we think of them in refugee camps. Urban refugees have a very specific set of circumstances.

We run a program where we do something like a case management, almost like social work, where a woman and her family can come to the centre, sit with a worker, and really look at what their needs are. Really, it's everything from protection, to children, to schooling, and we either provide some cash assistance or referrals or whatever.

In talking to those women, you really see what the impacts are, like the changing role of women. Men aren't able to work and they're now at home with the kids, and women are better able to access the informal working system by cooking or cleaning at someone's home. Suddenly the man is home looking after the children, which is a different way for them, and that becomes a tension in the family.

Another woman I spoke to was newly married and pregnant. There was a lot of physical abuse, and she decided to leave her husband and get a divorce. In order to receive assistance as a refugee, you need to be registered through UNHCR and have your registration card. Because of the way the UN system is set up, it was under the man's name, which meant that when she went to get divorced she no longer had access to any services because she didn't have her own card. She was not able to register herself until she got her court documents to say that she was now divorced.

Those are some of the real, practical things you see.

It's just about having enough money. You get a cash transfer. Well, what do you pay for? Hopefully, you're paying for the basics, such as shelter. Well, you're living in an urban situation where now you have to pay rent, and these are not the nicest of houses. These are often houses where things are just built on top. A tin roof is put on, etc. But then there is a medical emergency, so now you have to use the money you would have used for rent to go to the hospital.

Often it's women who are bearing the burden of all of those types of things that are happening, and it's a complicated web. If we don't recognize those needs, if we don't design our programs, we are discriminating against them and they're having even further difficulties.

I think those are some practical examples.