WUNRN
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.
_______________________________________________________________
IDMC - Internal Displacement
Monitoring Centre
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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