Women and Girls Safe Spaces: A Toolkit for Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in Humanitarian Settings was co-created by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and International Medical Corps (IMC) and the creative energy of co-authors Melanie Megevand (IRC) and Laura Marchesini (IMC).
The development of this global toolkit would not be possible without the collaborative spirit, support, trust, and engagement of a large and diverse network of individuals, teams, and organizations. They would like to extend a sincere thank you to all those who contributed their experience, expertise, and time to the toolkit’s development and review.
Aims and Goals
The overarching aim in developing this toolkit was to fill a critical gap in existing global guidance for WGSS in humanitarian settings, harmonizing the approach while accounting for contextual differences.
The toolkit aims to authentically support women’s and girls’ sense of self and empowerment by providing a global blueprint for WGSS programming. It offers field staff 38 tools and 9 databases with step-by-step instructions and guidance on how to apply feminist principles, approaches, and strategies in practice, within an accountable, women and girl-led process.
Who is the Toolkit for?
They welcome the broad range of international, national, local, and community-based organizations as well as national institutions implementing WGSS in humanitarian settings to use the toolkit. The content is applicable to both static and mobile models of WGSS and valid for WGSS implemented through either standalone or integrated approaches, as well as through direct implementation or in partnership approaches.
This toolkit can be implemented for WGSS in humanitarian settings brought on by natural disasters or conflict at the onset of an emergency, throughout the relief and recovery phases of humanitarian responses, as well as in development settings with large populations of internally displaced or refugee women and girls. The content is applicable to WGSS implemented in camps, informal tented settlements, rural and urban environments, or border areas.
The toolkit also supports the work of staff with different WGSS frontline, support, or supervision roles. The guidance provided seeks to ensure that all those implementing WGSS in humanitarian settings, regardless of experience, staff strength and size, or available technical support, equally have access to the knowledge, competencies, and skills are necessary to implement the tools.
Download this free toolkit from here.
