Resource library: Inclusion and safeguarding in humanitarian contexts
Welcome to our comprehensive resource collection dedicated to inclusion and safeguarding in humanitarian contexts.
Here, you'll find a wealth of resources aimed at guiding organisations on how to operate safely and inclusively during humanitarian crises, with a focus on adopting appropriate safeguarding measures and programming approaches that consider the needs of people who experience discrimination - for example, women and girls, people with disabilities, LGBT+ individuals, amongst others.
A humanitarian crisis is a situation of extreme need and suffering that may be associated with a natural disaster, extreme weather event, or conflict (or a combination of these) and results in either short or long-term damage. Conflict and crises disproportionately impact people who already experience discrimination and oppression. For example, gender-based violence typically increases, children are more likely to be forced to drop out of school, rates of unwanted and unintended pregnancy increase, and the informal and often hidden support networks used by LGBT+ people can be significantly disrupted.
A range of individuals and organisations are typically engaged in responding to conflict and crises, with increasing emphasis on the importance of local, grassroots organisations’ experience and expertise in ensuring the safety and appropriateness of humanitarian response efforts.
However, humanitarian responses often deprioritise the people who experience the greatest discrimination, and there is a risk of inadvertently causing harm while aiming to provide support. Working inclusively in humanitarian settings requires proactive consideration of different people's and groups' needs and experiences, including at the start of and throughout the programme life cycle.
Safeguarding is also a critical component of inclusion in emergencies. It should include a set of robust practical measures aimed at reducing organisations’ potential to cause harm in the process of their work, and to rapidly and appropriately respond to any harm caused.
Displaying 22 - 42 of 50 resources
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- Podcast
This 23 minute podcast focuses on young people’s voice, agency and civic engagement. Gender and adolescence global evidence (GAGE) researcher, Sally Youssef, speaks to Dr Bassam Abu Hamad (Al Quds University, Gaza) and Aous, a young Palestinian…
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- Fact sheet
This resource outlines the safeguarding risks faced by refugees with physical disabilities. It provides guidance on how civil society organisations and humanitarian actors can adapt their safeguarding measures to prevent harm from occurring to…
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- Guidance document
This guidance document highlights practical examples of ensuring that women and girls with disabilities participate and benefit from programming, drawing from a content analysis of projects from across the work of Inclusive Futures between the…
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- Evaluation, Lessons from a programme
This think piece explores the role of women’s rights organisations (WROs) in creating enabling environments for girls’ education and challenging harmful gender norms. It examines the constraints WROs faced and how they were overcome, their impact on…
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- Guidance document
This resource focuses on the safeguarding risks that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQI+) staff face when working in or collaborating with civil society organisations. It makes recommendations for how organisations can make…
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- Graphic resource, Multimedia
This resource aims to provide civil society organisations with a simple means of remembering key facts about safeguarding. The infographic focuses on four areas referred to as the ABCD of safeguarding:accountabilitybuilding…
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- Report
This report reviews existing technical guidance on ethical and equitable inclusion of marginalised groups in humanitarian health research. Commissioned by the International Rescue Committee, it identifies gaps in current research standards and…
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- Tools and templates
This toolkit shares guidance on how to implement participatory approach within research and innovation projects, for, with, and by people affected by crisis. It also sets out how to monitor levels of participation in research and innovation projects…
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- Evidence/literature review, Report
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) helpdesk sets out available evidence from the humanitarian and development sector related to accountability processes in crises. It also explains the importance of…
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- Guidance document
This briefing note from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme summarises key considerations and resources to guide the inclusion of people most affected by intersecting inequalities in coordinated humanitarian,…
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- Evidence digest
This evidence digest presents the contextually specific challenges of providing social assistance to displaced populations, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and irregular migrants. It highlights the complexities introduced by…
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- Evidence digest
This evidence review explores the importance of prioritising the inclusion of marginalised groups in social assistance in contexts of recurrent shocks, climate and humanitarian crises, protracted conflict, and forced displacement. Crises often…
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- Mapping, Tools and templates
This resource provides a catalogue of innovations taken to increase the inclusion of people with disability and older people in humanitarian aid. It is based on the Humanitarian Innovation Fund’s 2020 Gap analysis: the inclusion of people with…
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- Report
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme is a rapid review summarising relevant analytical frameworks and good practice for analysing intersecting social inequalities in crisis settings. The focus is on…
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- Report
Analysis of policy approaches to social protection has become detailed and sophisticated, but does not typically extend beyond the formal rights-based policy provision. The authors investigate how this can be extended to contextualise provision…
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- Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme is a rapid literature review on lessons and promising practices from national-level experience with the development and implementation of legal and policy…
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- Tools and templates, Video, Multimedia
This resource is a child-friendly animated video published alongside disability-inclusive child safeguarding guidelines and a toolkit. The aim of this resource is to inform children with disabilities about their right to be and feel safe…
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- Graphic resource, Multimedia
This infographic explains how civil society organisations can design and deliver programmes that are safe for programme participants and general community members. The resource defines what safe programming is and sets out ways in which civil…
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- Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme is a rapid literature review which summarises the available evidence on toolkits that assist the response by humanitarian and development agencies to financial…
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- Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) helpdesk examines available evidence on policy and administrative barriers faced by internally displaced persons. It looks at how they are impacted while accessing basic…
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- Guidance document, Lessons from a programme, Tools and templates
The guidelines provide recommendations on how to conduct participatory research with people with disabilities. The guidelines are based on reflections, lessons learned, and examples of practices researched by the authors. These resources can be used…