Co-creating accompanying systems to improve adolescent girls' and women's access to services

Abstract

Empowered Aid is a participatory action research project led by the Global Women's Institute (GWI) in partnership with humanitarian aid actors. It aims to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation (SEA) from occurring, through models that actively reduce power disparities and give girls and women sustained voices in how aid is delivered. Empowered Aid began working in Jordan in September 2022, in partnership with World Vision, to contextualize and scale up interventions arising from completed research in Uganda, Lebanon and Bangladesh. The Empowered Aid team worked with World Vision Jordan to consult refugee girls and women on the SEA-related risks they faced in Al Azraq camp when accessing aid services and centers, such as the “Road to Resilience” Peace Center – a space where educational and life-skills activities are organized to promote resilience for children and youth. This practice insight suggests a low-to no-cost participatory solution towards mitigating SEA and other GBV risks in accessing services, for example when girls and women are prevented from accessing non-governmental organizations' (NGO) services safely due to verbal and physical harassment by other camp residents. The underlying cause of this harassment are the power imbalances that limit the movement of girls and women, which must also be addressed through longer-term violence prevention and response programming that incorporates their contextual knowledge. Alongside such efforts, creating accompanying systems for girls and women can serve to quickly enhance their safety and access to services, while helping them feel more empowered and secure in navigating gender-unequal environments.