Vulnerability inclusiveness in humanitarian response

By Simon J. Mone

Yes. There are many humanitarian conditions around the world today. And every compassionate organisation has thrown everything in it so that suffering people might get some compassion.

But as we talk about which humanitarian organisation is doing what, where, why and how, just pause for a moment to reflect on current practices. Can we say with confidence, that current method way of humanitarian services is all-encompassing? I leave it to you - throw up the topic to more discussions.

Humanitarian situations usually bring up wide-ranging vulnerabilities. Not only do we see women in labour struggling to find shelter to get comfort, or a health facility to carry out ante-natal, we also see elderly people struggling to find what to eat.

And Persons with Disability (PWD) pugnacious to find basic needs.

A comprehensive humanitarian project that takes care of every vulnerable group must be considered before we speak with any degree of confidence about answering questions to do with cause of pain, loss of livelihood, loss of property and loss of lives in war or natural calamity.

We live with many vulnerable communities and wonder if they get included in humanitarianprogramming. Among the worst hit vulnerable groups are; households headed by kids. Households headed by elderly people, who often take care of orphans and PWDs.

And the elderly who struggle to find food. Recent emergence of migration has now given birth to a new group of vulnerability. That of kids that lose contact with their parents during war. As often happens during an insurgency, younger people often leave their homes and flee in search for peace, shelter, food, clothing, education, health and all other basic needs.

While the energetic community members leave behind the older people and PWDs and run for dear life. Otherwise, they are finished. We live with a mix of vulnerabilities. All of whom require an assortment of needs. And these needs if not properly assessed may lead to non-inclusive humanitarian care.

The kids suffer from malnutrition; the elderly suffer from redundancy, poverty, and food insecurity, limited access to social services and health and limited options for livelihood. We see these in refugee camps, where numbers are overwhelming.

And as so often happens in humanitarian responses, the elderly, PWDs are often not visible in humanitarian response. They hardly participate in needs assessments and community decision- making meetings during emergencies.

So, they are often forgotten. And despite the growing evidence related to older people's challenges of meeting their needs in emergencies, few specific interventions targeting older people are available.

We requireprogrammes tailored to older people as well. It offers assurance that basic humanitarian principles are being handled, including the principle of impartiality and non- discrimination.

Example, some vulnerable people are not able to walk long distances to find water for example. So they have to depend on somebody to get them to access clean water and even hygiene and sanitation.

How are their needs taken care of? To make matters worse, we cannot rely on available data only, because collection and reporting data on vulnerable people is non-inclusive. Data is scarce, inaccurate and is often approximated.

This lack of reliable data has affected quality and availability of humanitarian response. Responders cannot for example, calculate important performance indicators like impact rate of support on beneficiaries of humanitarian interventions. Improvements are needed to realise impact.

Therefore, increase visibility. Raise awareness among development organisations and try to bring every vulnerable group to benefit from interventions. Improve data collection. Ensure the most vulnerable are part of programmes.

This will be a step towards achieving inclusive humanitarian interventions in the event of emergencies. And nobody will be left behind.

Writer is a civil engineer