Arab States RO

In 2024, over 470,000 women, girls and their families across the region, including in Gaza and Lebanon, experienced significant improvements in their lives through access to humanitarian assistance, as UN Women scaled up this assistance in response to the conflict in the region. In a survey conducted by UN Women with over 10,000 respondents across the region (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria & Yemen) in refugee camps and host communities, women reported on average a 41% reduction in the use of negative coping mechanisms, such as begging, child labor, or engaging in risky or exploitative work thanks to the delivery of food and non-food items. The surveys also indicate that women were 1.6 times less likely to accept violence as inevitable in difficult circumstances and 98% of women reported an increased understanding of their rights to seek justice when needed as a result of access to psychosocial support and legal assistance. Further, 60% of women reported they felt safer as a result of comprehensive protection programming provided with support of UN-Women. Women are now better equipped to make informed decisions about their health, protection, and personal well-being, contributing to a significant improvement in safety perceptions, including for their families. This shows the significant benefits of targeted humanitarian assistance provided by UN-Women. To address the urgent needs arising from conflict and displacement and achieve these results, UN Women, conducted rapid gender analysis to gather data on the specific vulnerabilities and needs of women and worked with and through women-led organizations to offer life-saving assistance, including food, unconditional cash transfers, dignity kits, and protection services, to safeguard the dignity and well-being of women and girls.
UN-Women's data and analysis was also used by international actors to inform decision-making and drive meaningful action. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, OHCHR, and the International Court of Justice featured this data in their global reports, noting the importance of the data for protecting women's rights and monitoring /informing adherence to International Law. The data included information on famine, harsh childbirth conditions, and women’s mortality in Gaza and Lebanon, and was further widely shared through media and social media platforms, bringing global attention to women’s rights violations and the specific vulnerabilities of women in conflict situations and crises.
These efforts directly contributed to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) and Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) by enhancing women’s access to justice, protection, and essential services, without discrimination based on gender. These responses also aligned with UNSCR 1325 by integrating women’s leadership and participation into humanitarian action, ensuring that their voices and needs are central to emergency response efforts.

The response in Syria is a flagship example of the kind of impact ROAS had in response to major crises that affected the region. Specifically, humanitarian actors responding to the crises accessed expert advice through UN-Women on gender-responsive humanitarian response. Affected women received needed goods and services through the ROs gender-responsive humanitarian assistance. Finally, women increased their voice in peace processes through the existing Women’s Advisory Board (WAB) and women’s civil society in Syria (peace-humanitarian nexus).

On 6 February 2023, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks rocked southeast Turkey and Syria. Capitalizing on its coordination mandate, ROAS ensured the activation of a gender-responsive humanitarian action through the Gender Working Group (GWG). The GWG influenced the work of the protection cluster and the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse working group, and advised the Humanitarian Leadership Group for the Syria-Türkiye cross-border response. Humanitarian response actors could rapidly access UN Women’s gender analysis to inform response plans due to the production of the only post-earthquake analysis. The analysis findings were integrated in the 2024 Humanitarian Needs Overview for Syria. The GWG diligently advocated for women's enhanced participation in decision-making around earthquake response and introduced reforms in collaboration with the UN and other entities. Similarly, the regional Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group, co-chaired by ROAS with OCHA, produced gender analysis and engaged in advocacy to strengthen the gender sensitivity of the humanitarian response to the earthquake.

On gender-responsive humanitarian assistance, 240 vulnerable women and girls in camps accessed psychological support and care services, alongside longer-term livelihoods interventions. Of these, 150 women in 4 widow camps enhanced their digital skills through vocational trainings, followed by job placements in civil society organizations. Additionally, 90 women increased their media and life skills through trainings and coaching. Women also enhanced their participation in the management of their camps by establishing and running women-led committees. The committees focus on voicing internally displaced Syrian women’s needs and priorities to camp management and humanitarian actors, to ensure that humanitarian response integrate and address those needs.

On women’s voice in peace processes, the political access and influence of the members of the WAB in Syria increased, despite a stalled political process. WAB's outreach efforts increased, opening opportunities for dialogue with grassroots women and strengthening constituency building. The support ROAS provided strengthened WAB's position as a women-led peacebuilding entity, contributing also to the work of UN Special Envoy for Syria.