Browse by Theme: Conflict & Fragility

Women and girls are the hardest hit by conflict and disasters but often have little or no say in the design and delivery of humanitarian aid. CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies approach is the first practical toolkit for frontline humanitarians to support women to take the lead in responding to crises that directly affect them and their communities. Below are some of the lessons we have learned piloting this approach with women’s groups in the Omugo refugee settlement in the West Nile in Uganda. 

As the USA inaugurates a new president in an atmosphere of heightened security in the wake of shocking violence at the Capitol earlier this month, the partners CARE works with in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia are celebrating some of the successes they have had running programmes to counter violent extremism, especially with young men.

“Initially, we opposed and resisted the [displaced people] from being settled in our community land. [These] are people who came in with nothing and wanted to use and enjoy our local resources at the expense of our community. But with time, meetings between the refugees and local communities chaired by local leaders … peace has returned.”

For the first time in history, the United States has elected a woman of colour as Vice-President. It’s a historic moment for celebration. But the election also showed that America is a country deeply divided, with a lot of work ahead of us to make sure Americans are all constructively working for a better future – a just future – for everyone. As often happens, I find hope for that future in the amazing stories from CARE around the world, and the people who have found ways through divisive conflict. As always, Americans can learn a lot from people in all parts of the world. They show us it’s possible.

After disasters and in post-conflict returns, many families will rebuild relying on their own resources, with little or no support from formal institutions or the humanitarian community – they self-recover. Previous research indicates that support after a major disaster is likely to meet only around 15% of the shelter needs, often less. Yet, many people will rebuild homes incorporating the same housing vulnerabilities as before and the opportunity to build safer, healthier homes can be missed. So what more can we do to support this inevitable process of shelter self-recovery?

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge threat to billions of people around the world, but it can’t be the only priority for aid. Other humanitarian disasters and emergencies have not gone away. Countries that still don’t meet the UN target of sharing 7p in every £10 with people in poorer countries, should try as hard as possible to increase their aid budget to respond to the new COVID-19 pandemic, and try to avoid taking aid away from other emergencies.  

Just as in the UK, trust, speed and scale is needed to meaningfully limit the impact of COVID-19 in communities already living in poverty. Unlike the UK, countries like Chad, Mali and Niger already had 12.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance due to conflict and climate change. With support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), CARE will be able to reach thousands of people here, but we and our peer NGOs have the capacity to scale this work up significantly, and the experience to make a real impact. The window we have to reach those communities is closing quickly – the international community must accelerate its response before it’s too late.