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Resource library: Inclusion and safeguarding in humanitarian contexts

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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 1 - 20 of 25 resources
Published: - Guidance document, Tools and templates
This resource is a how-to-note which provides guidance to help civil society organisations (CSOs) measure how effective their safeguarding policy and practice is against sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH). It is accompanied by…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource explains what intersectionality is and why it is important to organisations working in humanitarian and development contexts. It also provides advice on how to integrate an intersectional approach into safeguarding work.  The…
Published: - Guidance document
This guide focuses on disability-inclusive safeguarding in the workplace. It was developed for organisations working in the humanitarian and development sectors. This guide has three sections:definitions of different disabilitiesrisks people…
Published: - Report
The UK Government has committed to preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence and sets out the actions it will take in the UK women, peace and security national action plan 2023-2027.This resource addresses the gap in research on…
Published: - 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…
Published: - Graphic resource
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…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This evidence review aims to provide an overview of the key international legal frameworks, challenges, and legal, policy, and program responses around refugees from a gender perspective. The focus is on women and girls. It highlights major gaps and…
Published: - Guidance document
This briefing note summarises key considerations and resources to guide the inclusion of people most affected by intersecting inequalities in coordinated humanitarian, development and peacebuilding assistance programming in protracted conflicts.…
Published: - Report
This resource is a rapid review summarising relevant analytical frameworks and good practice for analysing intersecting social inequalities in crisis settings. The focus is on how to undertake contextual analysis of the vulnerabilities and needs of…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is a rapid literature review on lessons and promising practices from national-level experience with the development and implementation of legal and policy frameworks that seek to protect and assist internally displaced people.…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This research focuses on the risks of navigating access to social assistance in crises for marginalised people such as women and girls, children and youth, older people, people with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and sexual and…
Published: - Tools and templates, Video
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…
Published: - Graphic resource
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…
Published: - Guidance document
This resource explains the need for disability-inclusive child safeguarding. It builds on consultations with children with disabilities and youth with disabilities, and experience from over 20 organisations. The resource includes information about…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is a rapid literature review which summarises the available evidence on toolkits that assist the response by humanitarian and development agencies to financial inclusion of refugees. Since there were few documents defined explicitly as…
Published: - Guidance document, Tools and templates
This resource is a tool which provides guidance on how to incorporate disability inclusion within climate change programming in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), Syria, Turkey and Yemen. In producing this, a rapid desk-…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This rapid literature review summarises the key evidence on the impact of social inequalities and discrimination on vulnerability to crises. The review focuses on inequalities among groups in society arising from the discrimination of people based…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource outlines key principles to consider when applying safeguarding measures in humanitarian and development work. It makes specific recommendations around the inclusion of people with disabilities within safeguarding efforts. Also…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is a literature review which details some of the key programmes implemented to improve the economic self-sufficiency of refugee women in the UK and other wealthy countries. The review found, on average, it takes much longer for…
Published: - Guidance document
This resource explains the challenges people with disabilities can experience in humanitarian settings. These include barriers to accessing humanitarian assistance, protection risks, and stigmatisation and discrimination. The resource sets out…