In Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Girls and Disasters

"For too long, girls have been ignored; their views unheard, their needs unmet. But research over the past two decades has shown that girls hold the key to solving some of the most intractable and complex problems faced by developing societies, particularly in countries in the midst of a prolonged humanitarian crisis." Valerie Amos - Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

This is the seventh in the annual 'Because I am a Girl' report series, published by Plan, which assesses the current state of the world's girls. The focus of this study is adolescent girls in disasters around the world and the kinds of discrimination they face when they are at their most vulnerable. According to Plan, adolescent girls have particular needs for protection, healthcare, and education in emergencies that are not being met or even recognised by governments and humanitarian organisations. The report also uses information from primary research - in particular, an on-going study set up in 2006 following 142 girls from nine countries.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) points to three sub-groups of adolescents that are particularly at risk in disasters and emergencies, one of them being very young adolescents (10-14 years), especially girls, who are at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse because of their dependence, lack of power, and their lack of participation in decision-making processes. Because girls are often marginalised, they are less likely to be fed in times of scarcity, less likely to be rescued in disaster, and more likely to be taken out of school and treated as a commodity for marriage, prostitution, labour, or abuse. The report states that donors, governments, decision-makers, and the humanitarian community must start listening to what girls have to say in order to understand their different needs in emergencies and to empower them to play a role in planning for, preparing for, and enduring disasters.

Communication with and for girls involves: extending safety and protection (e.g., an emergency hotline for women and girls); health strategies (e.g., adolescent mapping of HIV risks); education during disruption (e.g., radio education); and inclusion in risk planning and participation during disasters (e.g., gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction training), among others. For example: "The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) notes three ways in which education can benefit adolescent girls in disasters:

• It can provide physical protection. When a girl is in a safe learning environment, she is less likely to be sexually or economically exploited or exposed to other risks, such as child marriage.
• It can offer a psychosocial safe space that helps girls make sense of what is happening around them. It can provide a sense of routine and longer-term benefits for the promotion of the right and responsibilities of children.
• It can be the vehicle for the communication of life-saving messages: schools may act as hubs for communicating messages on hand-washing, reducing the risk of disease, how to avoid HIV infection and how to access healthcare and food in an emergency."

An online survey by Plan showed that "meaningful consultation with adolescent girls" is low in humanitarian planning and programming for disaster scenarios. Women are less available to ensure that girls are consulted. Disaster risk reduction training, for example, that includes empowering girls can, as suggested here, result in strong community leadership among girls as they become young women because they are willing to participate and speak out. When families make strategic decisions that will help to ensure that girls are less at risk, these include building strong social networks, increasing their livelihood opportunities, and lessening the burden of household work on school-age girls. In addition, communities may need to reduce the risk for girls of attending school.

Recommendations and key action points emerging from the report include "Girls' Rights in Emergencies":

• Consulting adolescent girls in all stages of disaster preparedness and response so they have a say in the issues affecting them.
• Training and mobilising more women to work in emergency response teams so adolescent girls have someone with whom they feel comfortable raising their specific needs and concerns.
• Providing targeted services for adolescent girls in the core areas of education, protection, and sexual and reproductive health, including raising the current level of humanitarian aid for education in emergencies from the 1-2% of the total humanitarian assistance it has been to the 4% needed to support girls' education in emergencies adequately.
• Including funding for protection against gender-based violence in the first phase of emergency response.
• Collecting sex- and age-disaggregated data, to show the needs of adolescent girls and to inform programme planning.

The document concludes with: results of surveys on girls' safety concerns in Bangladesh and Ethiopia that outline girls' priorities and recommendations for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), United Nations agencies, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), and national and donor governments, along with promising practices.