IASC Sub-Working Group on Gender and Humanitarian Action

IASC Sub-Working Group on Gender and Humanitarian Action IASC GENDER SWG - MONTHLY MEETING, 3 April 2013, 9:30-10:30 EST DRAFT MINUTES Meeting Chair Elizabeth Cafferty, Women s Refugee Commission Participants Puk Ovesen, UN Women Siobhán Foran, UN Women Nora Malikin, InterAction Frank Elbers, HREA Anne Hoseth, NRC Birgit Velte, IASC Secretariat Elen Costigan, IASC Secretariat Katharina Samara ICVA minute taker Luisa Cremonese, UNHCR Anna Monroy Orta, UNHCR Nurten Yilmaz, UNICEF April Pham, GenCap Adviser with UNHCR-led Clusters, Geneva Angie Wiens IMC Kristi Tabaj, Save the Children Anne Christensen, IFRC Apologies: Kate Burns (OCHA), Jahal de Meritens (UNDP), Sibi Lawson-Marriott (UNICEF) Introduction Welcome by the chair and introduction of participants. Approval of minutes of meeting of 6 February 2013 and follow up to action points There was no meeting in March so the chair gave a brief status on the action points in the draft minutes of 6 February shared prior to the meeting. Most of the action points from those minutes were to be reported on as separate items in the agenda. Additionally, it was noted that the IASC Secretariat uploaded the preliminary text on the SWG to their website as agreed.. There were no additional comments from the participating members. Decisions The minutes were approved by the participating members The approved minutes will be posted on humanitarianresponse.info 1

Siobhán will contact Niels Scott at OCHA Geneva to determine the status of the Crosscutting issues paper. Some organisations are missing from the membership list e.g. IMC. If members note any other gaps, they should send an email to Puk to ensure that everyone is included. An updated list can be found at the end of these minutes. CSW 57 update Due to urgent matters, the Executive Secretary of the Commission on the Status of Women, Christine Brautigam (UN Women), was unable to attend the meeting to provide the briefing on the CSW as planned. An update will be shared with members by email Action points UN Women to circulate a brief CSW 57 update with the minutes of the meeting Resource Mobilisation and Communication Strategy The SWG s draft Resource Mobilization and Communication Strategies were discussed. Siobhán presented a short paper, Five More ways to Strengthen Gender Equality Programming in Humanitarian Action April 2013, which captures potential new activities for the SWG, including an update of the 2006 IASC Gender Handbook, (which is timely given the current work to update of the IASC GBV Guidelines 2005); the translation of the e-learning to Spanish and Arabic; building capacity on gender issues for humanitarian actors through the development of a training package with an academic institution on programming for gender equality; using sex and age disaggregated data for decision making; and building partnerships for increased predictability on gender programming in crises. It was suggested that the update of the IASC Gender Handbook should be prioritized. On the Communication Strategy, UNDP Geneva has offered the assistance of a JPO to help develop the Communication Strategy. It was agreed that the Resource Mobilization and Communication Strategies should be coherent if our fundraising goals are to be realistic. The task group on the development of this strategy will send the paper to the group for feedback. Decisions Siobhán will share the resource mobilization paper with the minutes of the meeting and an indication of the time frame for comments. Given UNHCR s interest and work on the issue of sex, age and diversity disaggregated data, Luisa will make a 30 minute presentation at the May meeting to share the UNHCR approach. 2

ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) Side-event The co-chairs reported that in the interim since the SWG s last meeting it had submitted a suggested theme for a side event to OCHA for a SWG suggested panel on Gender Equality and Resilience in Humanitarian Action as a side event at the upcoming ECOSOC HAS meeting. The SWG has until 30 April to develop a concept note on the topic. It was agreed that, given the short time frame, there needs to be an assessment of the feasibility, costs and potential panel participants. Members are encouraged to suggest names of potential panelist, particularly suggestions of high level panelists that could be secured and lead to a high rate of attendance. It was agreed that, if the SWG is to make best use of this opportunity, the topic for the panel should be relevant to the issues currently of significance to the SWG and the UN s schedule of meetings (HFA 2, Post-2015, etc.) such as incorporating a gender equality perspective in disaster risk reduction. Members were requested to contact the co-chairs directly with ideas for topics and panel discussants. Co-chairs to draft a concept note and circulate for comments before the end April Gender and Age icons OCHA approved icons for gender and age have been shared with the SWG and for consistency; member organisations should utilize these where relevant. The format of the icons has been verified and the shared icons are the high-resolution version. The icons will be re-circulated with the minutes. Co-Chairs for the SWG As Katharina is leaving ICVA and resigning from her co-chair position, the group considered the process for recruiting a new, preferably Geneva-based NGO co-chair. It was agreed that, as a first step, the selection criteria would be agreed based on earlier criteria discussions taking into account a balance of chairs between New York and Geneva and a preference for a co-chair from an organisation working on gender equality issues on the ground. Elizabeth will recirculate the minutes of the earlier discussion at the face-to-face meeting in October 2012 on the criteria for membership and co-chairs as a next step. E-learning hosting and management HREA gave an update on the management of the E-learning. HREA reported on the recent use and completion rate of the tool. In last two months there have been 441 humanitarian workers beginning the course of which 60% completed the course. A large number of users are staff of UN, OCHA and UNHCR, large INGOs, academic institutions and Ministries of Health. Fifteen per 3

cent of participants are from the IOM (including managers, drivers, etc. so broad usage), suggesting IOM is championing the course among its staff. It was suggested the SWG liaise with IOM to discuss their efforts on this front. It was noted that OCHA and NRC have both made completion of the tool mandatory for headquarters staff. A small task force has been developing the French version of the e-learning course. The group now has a week to provide final comments on the French version, which will be completed by April 29 th (as the grant finishes on 1 May). The materials will be launched formally after 1 May. It was suggested that promotion materials be shared with the SWG. Frank volunteered to support the development of such materials based on material used for the launch of the English version. There was also a suggestion to tie the launch in with the ECOSOC HAS side event in Geneva. It was furthermore recommended that the SWG approach the Paris consortium of French-based NGOs and VOICE in Brussels to promote the course. UNHCR to check with IOM who is championing this. Members of the Gender SWG are encouraged to champion the e-learning tool in their own organisations report back regularly at SWG meeting on how they are promoting the tool with staff in their organizations, or what barriers they have faced while trying to do so. Frank will coordinate with InterAction to discuss learning from the information that they are gathering through survey monkey and the potential for including the survey in the course. Katharina will contact Frank to put him in touch with the Paris-based NGOs and VOICE in Brussels Decision Members will report back at the next meeting regarding any efforts undertaken to promote the tool with staff in their organisation. Member criteria At the Gender SWG meeting of 6 February, it was agreed that the co-chairs were to provide a suggestion to criteria/process for membership of the SWG. According to the current TOR of the SWG, an organization has to be an IASC entity to participate in the SWG. However, this has not be adhered to given that e.g. UN Women is, for instance, not a member of the IASC. The generic TOR template for subsidiary bodies of the IASC on the IASC website, suggests that participation is open to all interested humanitarian organizations, bringing together NGOs, UN, and other international organizations together on equal footing. Cluster lead agencies participating represent both their agency and their respective cluster. Participants are expected to be at an appropriate level (specify whether technical expert or senior adviser level). Experts and donors may be invited as observers to provide technical input or to discuss certain relevant issues, when needed. Operational NGOs are encouraged to participate actively. 1 1 IASC website : http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-subsididefault&mainbodyid=2&publish=0 access date 25/03/2013 4

The co-chairs will review the ToR of the SWG, as well as the ToR for subsidiary bodies and come to a conclusion on members and co-chairs criteria. AOB 1. The co-chairs received an email from the Chief of the IASC Secretariat noting that the WG of the IASC want to replace the current SWGs with Task Teams. There was discussion that more information is needed and that this could be an opportunity to reconsider how we can re-envisage the role and the work of the SWG. The co-chairs will discuss this issue and then reach out to the Secretariat for clarifications and to advocate for continuing the SWG in the most appropriate form, as the SWG is a crucial platform. IASC colleagues at the meeting advised that the IASC envisages a more standardized approach to the subsidiary bodies. Action The co-chairs will discuss this issue and reach out to the Secretariat for clarifications as necessary. The co-chairs will follow this issue very closely and will revert back to the members for contributions and to update as necessary. 2. It was raised that there have been problems with the Google group emails going into the spam filter. Action All members are requested to check that the SWG emails are not going into their spam folder. The SWG group will continue to use the google group to communicate. Briefing from GenCap April Pham, on work in Sudan At the February meeting, members requested, closer connection between field and HQ activities and suggested that this could be achieved with briefings from members working in field locations. This month, April Pham, who is currently the GenCap Advisor with UNHCR-led Global Clusters in Geneva, gave a briefing on her work as the GenCap Advisor in Sudan. Action April will forward the documents that she produced in Sudan to Puk and Siobhán for wider distribution. News and notices facebook.com/friendsofiasc The IASC has recently launched the Friends of IASC facebook page and to" spread the word". Please be aware that the public (meaning other users than your "friends" will not be able to see that you "liked" the page. Liking the page does not allow anyone else to see anything of your private profile). 5

Next meeting The next meeting of the SWG will take place on 8 May. Information on call-in details and faceto-face locations will be shared prior to the meeting. Suggested agenda points for the March meeting: Approval of meeting minutes of 3 April 2013 SWG meeting ECOSOC HAS side event New co-chair Communication and Resource Mobilization Strategy/ies Progress on the Annual Work Plan E-learning update from members Update on Humanitarian Outcomes Study AOB Briefings: Luisa on Diversity and SADD work of UNHCR Revised list of organizations participating in SWG Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) IASC Secretariat Norwegian Refugee Council MSF UNDP Gender and Mine Action Programme UNOCHA Gender Standby Capacity Project InterAction Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Mercy Corps International Committee for the Red Cross GBV Prevention Group Save the Children Humanitarian Assistance Program, Josef Korbel School of Int'l Studies UN Women ICVA WRC UNHCR UNICEF Counterpart International International Medical Corps Relief International UNFPA CARE MSH 6

HelpAge USAID GenderConsult 7