CARE International applauds governments, employers and workers for agreeing a new International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on ending violence and harassment in the world of work.

When emergencies strike, CARE works to meet people’s basic shelter needs: protection from the elements, security and a base for their livelihoods. CARE’s approach to shelter creates an enabling environment to mobilise the skills, experience, capacities and resources of affected populations so that they are supported as active agents of their own change.

Our 5 principles of shelter are:

1. The affected population is the first responder and the most important stakeholder
2. Shelter responses are always context specific
3. Shelter programmes should be holistic and integrated
4. There is a multitude of options for the delivery of shelter programmes
5. A strong focus on the needs of women and girls

CARE shelter experts currently form part of the Self-recovery from Humanitarian Crisis research team – an interdisciplinary research project led by the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP), Oxford Brookes University, in collaboration with CARE International UK. Other project partners include Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CRAterre, the Global Shelter Cluster, Habitat for Humanity, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The project focuses on understanding and supporting people’s own choices and efforts to rebuild and self-recover following disasters. The overall aim of the project is to better understand the self-recovery process to inform humanitarian shelter practice, ensuring construction of safer, healthier homes.

CARE also co-chair the Promoting Safer Building Working Group of the Global Shelter Cluster with CRAterre.

Read more

Working towards healthier homes – report from a multi-sectoral shelter and health learning day that explored connections between housing and health in order to build back healthier, as well as safer, after humanitarian crises.

Addressing housing, land and property (HLP) rights challenges – recent HLP profiles for Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey by Hogan Lovells lawyers for CARE International to support shelter practitioners in delivering emergency shelter responses.

Why we must work with refugees from Myanmar on mid-term shelter in the Bangladesh refugee camps – James Morgan, Shelter Advisor, considers the challenges of shifting from short-term emergency response to longer-term support and ensuring families and communities are at the centre of the process

What is self-recovery? – The challenge for humanitarian agencies – reflecting on a study after Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in late 2013, Tom Newby, formerly Head of Humanitarian for CARE International UK, asks what we mean by self-recovery, and what does support to self-recovery look like?

The case for self-recovery – article in Forced Migration Review by CARE’s self-recovery research team on the sector’s development of effective and appropriate approaches to supporting the practice of self-recovery for affected people

Self-recovery in Nepal: Reflecting with practitioners – blog by the self-recovery team about a roundtable discussion held in the Dhading District of Nepal with local practitioners, academics, policymakers and affected communities to reflect on the self-recovery programmes in the area since the devastating earthquakes in 2015.

The Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and aims to enhance the economic empowerment of 300,000 women working in global value chains by 2022.

Why is dignified work crucial for women’s economic empowerment? 

Dignified work enables the economic empowerment of women through promoting decent working conditions, tackling the barriers that women face to achieving equity in the workplace, and supporting women to take control over their wages and unpaid care work.

Women workers face many barriers to economic empowerment inside and outside of the ‘workplace’, including issues at work (such as unequal working conditions), in their homes and communities, and during their commute. These barriers all have an impact on their ability to stay in work, the conditions of their work, and the economic benefits of it for women. Dignified work promotes the economic empowerment of women workers in all spheres of their lives. Find out more in this Insights blog and this video.  

Read more

• COVID-19 and the garment industry: Protect workers, transform the industry
• Needs Assessment for Cambodia and Needs Assessment for Bangladesh with female garment workers during COVID-19
• Transforming the future of work for gender equality: What's happening in Asia? 
• Made by Women – Find out more about CARE's work promoting the rights of women garment workers in Asia
• Equal Value, Equal Rights – Find out more about CARE's work supporting the Domestic Workers Movement in Latin America
• ILO Convention 190 – Find out more about CARE's work supporting the adoption and ratification of the ILO Convention on Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

What is the Family Planning Summit?

The one-day high level Summit, held in London on 11 July 2017, aimed to build on the progress made in many countries since the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012. Governments, donors, the private sector and civil society gathered together to make more ambitious and substantial commitments to achieve the goals of FP2020 – a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, freely, and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have.

Read our verdict on the Summit

Why was it important?

Voluntary family planning helps women take control over decisions about when and how many children to have. It saves lives and has the power to boost the development of entire countries. Read more in the Family Planning Summit concept note. The Summit focused on:

• innovative financial solutions to ensure quality contraceptive options are available around the world
• strengthening supply chains so that women have access to and can choose a method that best meets their needs
• empowering young people to have access to contraceptives and to be able to make their own choices
• reaching the hardest to reach, especially women experiencing humanitarian crises or facing other socio-cultural barriers

Read CARE’s key messages and policy asks (download 2-page PDF)

CARE advocated in particular for:

• increased access to family planning in fragile and emergency contexts – read CARE’s Issue in Focus report on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Emergencies
• increased accountability, including social accountability mechanisms and meaningful involvement of women and girls in family planning monitoring and decision-making

Read more

Sex doesn’t stop during emergencies – CARE’s April Houston outlines the horrific circumstances facing women and girls in emergency settings, and what is being done about it

Family planning saves lives and promotes resilience in humanitarian contexts – this report published by the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Save the Children and the Women’s Refugee Commission On behalf of the the Inter-agency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG) includes collaborative solutions and actions that need to be taken by countries, implementing agencies, and donors

Family planning in emergencies – why is it so crucial, and how can it be truly life-saving?

Let’s accelerate progress and fill key gaps – what CARE has done so far, and what we are going to do to achieve even more

CARE’s approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – an overview of our programme approach to SRHR

Designing for impact at scale – CARE’s 2016 report on progress towards our objective of supporting 100 million women and girls to exercise their rights to sexual, reproductive and maternal health and a life free from violence by 2020

Supporting access to family planning and post-abortion care in emergencies – a summary of CARE’s SAFPAC project in Chad, DRC and Pakistan

CARE’s family planning wiki – our online Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights knowledge centre