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UNIFEM - INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN & CHILDREN

 

The often-cited statistic that as many as 80 per cent of displaced populations are women and children fails to convey the complete devastation that displacement visits upon women and communities. Leaving homes, property and community behind renders women vulnerable to violence, disease and food scarcity, whether they flee willingly or unwillingly. Internally displaced women face additional dangers as they are often invisible to the international community within the context of violent conflict. Camps for refugees and the internally displaced have been criticized for not addressing women’s needs and concerns in their design and procedure. Failure to account for women’s security and health needs can make a camp that was intended to provide refuge a dangerous and deadly place for women and girls.

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IDMC - Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004D404D/(httpPages)/2F5D3A189A81EB50802570A1004723AE?OpenDocument

 

NUTRITION & INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS - IDPs

 

Nutrition

Nutrition and health constitute the core subsistence rights of IDPs, along with shelter and clothing (Guiding Principle 18.2). But conflict, ethnic discrimination, landmines or operational diffi culties in reaching remote populations heavily undermine that right.

Caught in areas of confl ict or remote parts of the country and, as a result, deprived of access to food and means of production such as arable land, IDPs often receive inadequate support from their government or the international community. Many suffer from malnutrition, often more so than the non-displaced populations who, despite suffering similar hardships, may have been able to retain resources and coping strategies. Furthermore, the mere delivery of food may not be enough to avert malnutrition. Traumatised persons suffer more frequently from eating difficulties or digestion problems. It is well-documented that a mother’s trauma or depression has a direct effect on the nutritional status of her children.

For most countries, very little information is available on the nutritional status of IDPs, either because there are no surveys or because the displaced were not addressed separately from the general sample population. Countries with IDP-specifi c nutritional information include Myanmar, Colombia, the CAR, Chad, Ethiopia, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Timor Leste and, to a lesser degree, Angola and Nepal. All surveys indicate extremely high malnutrition rates among IDPs, with some above the critical 15 per cent emergency threshold set by the World Health Organisation.

The Right to Food


Providing food aid is complex and politically very sensitive. It can have an aggravating effect when parties to a conflict use food aid strategically, by diverting it from the intended beneficiaries for their own profit (as was the case with Somalia’s warlords), or by deliberately restricting access to food (Myanmar, the DRC, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Nepal, Sudan). A government’s inaction can also have adverse effects, as has been the case in Colombia.

In other situations, it is diffi cult to ensure that food reaches displaced populations because they live in remote areas, while conflict-related insecurity may hinder humanitarian assistance, as has been the case in the DRC, the CAR, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. In Iraq, military operations have repeatedly prevented access and delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Where food aid can be delivered, particular attention must be paid to its actual distribution to the intended benefi ciaries. If existing power structures are not taken into account, marginalised and weak groups may be further disadvantaged. Improved access to arable land and tools during displacement would greatly enhance IDPs’ access to food and reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid. While efforts are made in Uganda and northern Somalia to provide IDPs with land, in many countries, fertile land cannot be accessed due to confl ict-related insecurity (Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Myanmar, Eritrea, India and Bangladesh).





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