Addressing Women Vulnerability in Refugee Camps through the Provision of Household Energy - Dissertation Example

Addressing Women Vulnerability in Refugee Camps through the Provision of Household Energy Since the management of household energy has at all times,been principally a woman’s domain, it is imperative to ensure its adequate provision, for improving the status of women, particularly those living in impoverished environments, such as displaced settings or refugee camps, where the availability of basic household energy is scant and acquiring it is a constant struggle for survival. This, in turn, raises several crucial yet basic questions: How can the issue of vulnerability of women in refugee camps be addressed through the provision of household energy? What kind of assistance can be offered to women and what types of benefits are likely to be resulted from such a support? This paper discusses the various means and alternatives available for addressing such an issue. It further discusses in depth, the various benefits that are likely to accrue from the provision of energy which in turn would elevate the status of women by catering to their realistic, prolific and tactical needs. Energy resources can be referred to as acquisitive possessions. Hence, holding a right to use such ‘valuable assets’ might help in substantially reducing the vulnerability of households based in refugee camps. The fact that energy helps in meeting several vital day to day needs of households, such as cooking, carrying and storing water, processing food etc, is undeniable. The households which receive adequate energy, for instance in the form of cooking stoves, for such activities are able to effectively manage their resources in a much better fashion, and hence contribute towards poverty eradication, in a small yet substantial way. According to the United Nations Millennium Declaration1 energy is one of the major expenditures of poor households. A majority of the people living in displaced settings or overcrowded refugee camps lives in dire poverty, where there is absolute lack of clean drinking water, and people are forced to live in dingy makeshift houses. As a result, women have to walk several kilometers away from their dwellings to fetch water and wood (to be used as fuel) and often succumb to physical injuries including snake bites, bone injuries, and backaches. They often fall prey to physical assaults, when they leave the safe confines of their homes to fetch firewood for their households. Hence, provision of adequate household energy in such refugee camps, where women have to undergo hardships, may contribute in alleviating them from the drudgery of travelling miles away from their dwellings in search of water or firewood, and hence save considerable time which they have to otherwise spend away from their families, and young children. Energy in the Global Context Energy is acknowledged one of the most indispensable contributors for supporting livelihood of people living in IDPs or refugee camps. At the most fundamental level, provision of energy facilitates availability of cooked food, clean drinking water and heat (for protection against cold weather). However, the significance of provision of energy has never been acknowledged and established extensively as a vital necessity along with food, clothing and shelter, within the refugee camps. An in depth evaluation of various reports in this regard, such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees2 for instance, reveals that a majority of needs of people living in displaced settings or in refugee camps, are related to household energy including cooking, lighting, heating etc. The review reveals that refugees mainly face five key challenges concerning household energy which includes: protection, relations between hosts and displaced people, environmental issues, restrictions on use of energy as well as the environmental concerns. Furthermore, the Inter - Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings (SAFE)3 has also acknowledged various critical issues concerning provision of household energy in such refugee camps, which mainly addresses problems related to health and education, since a significant proportion of health issues are on account of unsafe practices regarding use of fuels and other such energy production methods indigenously applied by such households. And since women and girls, are largely entrusted with the responsibility of collecting firewood they are largely affected by health related problems arising out of insufficient provision of energy. It has been universally accepted that people living in refugee camps largely use biomass as a critical source of energy and that, such a practice is leading to its acute shortage in surrounding areas, leading to large scale environmental damage. According to the World Bank report4, approximately two billion people, who are incidentally among the poorest people on earth, rely on biomass fuels for energy supply. If this trend continues to grow, it is likely to affect the surrounding environment thereby leading to global warming. It is hence essential to provide alternative means of energy to people using such means of energy, at the earliest. However, the issue was first acknowledged on a large scale and confronted effectively, by the World Bank’s Rural Energy Development for Two Billion People5 initiative, for instance, deliberated on offering cheap and effective energy services to the poor, in a bid to improve the status of the women as well as an initiative to help curb the steady environmental deterioration. The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 20026 also acknowledged the role of energy provision as an effective tool to combat poverty and health related issues, by overtly promoting the implementation of a new universal objective for energy as a prerequisite for gratifying other international development goals associated with the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations. Similarly the Department for International Cooperation (DFID, UK)7 also set out new policies aimed at providing effective energy services to the poor. The examples discussed above, substantiates the fact that the provision of household energy is being widely recognized as an inevitable means of addressing some of the most fundamental concerns faced by the poor displaced population. The United Nations agencies are actively involved in developing effective alternatives to eradicate energy poverty by acknowledging the significance of provision of household energy to refugee camps. Women are particularly being viewed as one of the most exceptional faction of people whose definite necessities are required to be dealt with, and hence, ever since the commencement of the 1995 Beijing Conference, all the UN agencies have been dedicated to addressing particular issues related to gender mainstreaming. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)8 identifies the role of women as the prime decision-makers in their households, responsible for making decisions related to the use of energy and hence it is essential to involve women in decision making concerning choices available to them regarding energy provision along with its various alternatives. UNEP is eager to encourage the utilization of renewable sources of energy and has a programme to enhance the awareness and understanding of women with respect to the choices they make. Endorsing the provision of renewable and environment friendly sources of energy are widely recognized as an effective means of balancing both: the need for energy and the need for sustaining the environment around us, and ultimately help the women in the impoverished settings in the process. The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM)9 encourages economic protection of women and authorizing them to benefit from the secure livelihoods, thus provided. Provision of household energy has been a key area of focus for such groups for instance, sustaining the initiative concerning provision of improved stoves in Senegal as well as the biogas project in Yemen. The UNIFEM, with a view to encourage economic empowerment of women, developed a range of food cycle sources including books, which contained information regarding ways to conserve energy as well as labor through technologies and which can be effectively implemented in households for income generation. Refugee Women Vulnerability The explicit requirement of providing adequate protection to women and girls in displaced settings, whether as refugees or as internally displaced persons (IDPs), has been the topic of mounting concern, and is garnering overwhelming response from international organizations and human rights alike. The topic of safety concerns of women and girls in displaced settings, on account of lack of provision of energy, has been debated vehemently by practitioners, researchers and theorists who have shifted their attention to this increasingly growing and pressing issue. The literature documenting the fact, provides ample evidence that energy, which was so far largely ignored and dismissed as a trivial aspect, is indeed a major concern triggering off a host of ancillary issues including safety of women and girls, outside the camps and that of households within their homes on account of smoke emitted from fuels. Moreover, collection of firewood is also causing environmental concerns and hence the issue requires immediate solution. The key issue here is the undeniable link between the role of women in collection of firewood and gender based violence and other safety hazards, both indoor and outside. Action Sheet 7.3 (Implement Safe Fuel Collection Strategies) of the ISAC guidelines10 states that in case communities established in displaced settings, or where surroundings where the environment around them is highly unsafe, women and girls are particularly regarded as being at high risk of sexual violence, when they leave or are forced to leave the safe confines of their dwellings. In most communities the collection of fire wood and water is the responsibility of women and young girls who often fall prey to such physical abuse11. This is largely observed in settings where the provision of energy is not adequate and where there is a severe lack of appropriate monitoring policies, where women and young girls are allowed to venture into unknown territories unattended, and carry heavy logs of wood on their heads, thereby sustaining injuries to their back in the process. The international agencies are thus offered several directives to prevent such occurrences which include effective distribution schemes for the provision of energy along with the provision of security escorts to safeguard the women refugees. Fuel Collection Initiatives: Case Studies12 Darfur, Sudan • Domestic armed conflict with extremely high occurrence of assaults and sexual aggression against civilian women and girls. Such attacks largely take place when women/girls leave the relative safety of their village or camps for various reasons particularly for collection of food, water, fuel, etc • African Union (AU) soldiers usually guard the routes which are frequently used for firewood collection for a small number of of the recognized internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. However such patrols or security is not offered regularly or on a daily basis, and does not have a specific time period during which such a facility is provided. • The GBV (Gender Based Violence) working group encouraged educating the women and young girls to create and use fuel-efficient stoves. This initiative helped in reducing the quantity of wood usually required for regular household activities such as cooking, and hence ultimately helped in lessening the time/distance required, otherwise, for gathering firewood, and hence subsequently reduce the vulnerability of women from possible physical violence against them. Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya • General allotment of fuel circulated among all the listed households funded at US$ 1.1-1.5 million per year in the late 1990s. The ration so provided accounted for approximately 30% of household firewood consumption. • The firewood distribution project aimed at reducing firewood-related exposure to physical violence and rapes, as well as reducing firewood-related environmental damage. • The project however, resulted into a highly politicized and intricate logistical endeavor, since there was no comprehensible connection to any decrease in sexual hostility, which was attributed to deficient and unpredictable data on occurrence of sexual violence. Kasulu Refugee Camp, Tanzania • Refugees were transported by truck to collect firewood, escorted by NGO staff and officials of Tanzania’s District Natural Resources Department. • The project was mainly aimed at preventing environmental deterioration and safeguarding the designated areas. Bhutanese Refugee Camps, Nepal • UNHCR offered projects which facilitated kerosene distributions to households. • The project helped in reducing the need to collect firewood and hence helped in reducing the strains between refugees and the host community. • Kerosene is part of regular rations, reduced over time with reduction in funds. Refugees report distribution does not meet their needs. Appendix Energy Poverty Source: Household Energy and Millennium Development Goals, United Nation’s Millennium Declaration, viewed: July 28, 2009, from: References UNMD, viewed: July 28, 2009 from: < http://www.who.int/indoorair/publications/fflsection2.pdf> United Nations High Commission for Refugees, (2009), viewed: July 28, 2009 from: < http://www.unhcr.org/4a1d2f422.pdf> Inter Agency Standing Committee, (2009), Safe Access to Fire Wood and Alternative Energy, viewed: July 28, 2009 from: < http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/IASC/pageloader.aspx?page=content-subsidi-common-default&sb=67> World Bank (1996), Rural Energy and Development: Improving Energy Supplies to Two Billion People, Washington DC. ISBN 0-8213-3806-4 Rural Energy and Development: Improving Energy Supplies for Two Billion People, (1996).World Bank Publications, Pp. 90 - 95 World Summit on Sustainable Development, (2002), viewed: July 28, 2009, from: < http://www.worldsummit2002.org/> Department for International Cooperation, (2009), viewed: July 28, 2009 from: < http://www.dfid.gov.uk/ > United Nations Environment Program (2009),viewed: July 28, 2009 from: < http://www.unep.org/> United Nations Fund for Women, (2009) viewed: July 28, 2009, from : < http://www.unifem.org/> Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings, (2005). Inter Agency Standing Committee Report, Pp. 60 Read More