Good Practices Brochure: Stateless Women and Girls
In discussions with camp and religious leaders, WFP explained how
SFHH have very limited access to livelihood opportunities to provide
for their families. The Country Director engaged directly with the male
leaders to support the livelihood proposal and this proved persuasive.
An agreement was reached that all labour relating to measuring
pulses, oil and salt for distributions would be by SFHH. Men would
work separately on rice, and both men and women would receive the
same daily rate of pay.
To assure camp and religious leaders, WFP and partner staff invited
them to visit and monitor the work women performed at the distribution
points, and they expressed satisfaction with it. Monitoring found no
violence or discrimination resulted from the women’s involvement.
The table below provides a summary of the implementation of
women’s empowerment initiative.
Location
Percentage of SFHH labourers as compared to
all labourers involved in food distribution
2017
2018
2019
Central Rakhine
Less than 30%
50 – 65%
35 – 45%
Northern Rakhine
None
None
More than
39%
According to interviews with women participants in the empowerment
initiative, they are happy with their income and use it for food, clothing,
health and education for their children.
The project served a women’s empowerment function, as women
labourers are speaking up more and organizing. For example, they
created an informal union with representatives to communicate with
the WFP focal point on their perspectives and to make suggestions,
and they learned well the ration entitlement per person and avenues
for complaints and feedback, which they shared with other women.
WFP data show the proportion of people accessing the mechanisms for
complaints and feedback in 2019 doubled from the previous year, with
women raising suggestions for moving distribution points, providing
feedback on unsatisfactory attitudes of some individuals working
in distribution points, and alerting WFP to interference with some
people’s food assistance by those holding power. In some instances,
labour participation has translated into women achieving membership
and leadership positions on WFP food assistance committees.
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