Addressing gender disparity of rural women and girls of Mongolia through Mongolian Disaster Emergency Response (MONDER)
The dry Mongolian summer of 2022 progressed into winter’s heavy snowfalls and extreme cold, causing approximately 70 percent of the country to experience high to extreme dzud situation. This has affected the livelihoods of over 190,000 vulnerable herder households, disproportionately affecting women and girls. The needs and priorities of women and girls are different, and crisis such as dzud can deepen gender inequalities.
For Mongolian women and girls, gender disparity is significantly higher in rural and remote countries, where they are isolated from communities for extended periods of time with little to no access to any type of social and health services. The risk of gender-based violence/domestic violence (GBV/DV) is believed to increase during dzud due to mental stress of losing livelihoods and shortage of goods and supplies, particularly impacting vulnerable women and girls. Currently there are no data available on GBV/DV cases as a result of dzud.
Thus, we wanted to assess the situation of GBV/DV in dzud-affected herder households. Through our MONDER project funded by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the USAID, we are conducting a GBV assessment to capture the situation to be better informed for action and programming. Also, we are providing dignity kits to 1000 women and girls which consist of sanitary products, toiletries, clothing items such as socks and underwear, all curated with the aim to respond to the unique needs of women and girls and to help them maintain a certain level of hygiene, well-being and dignity in the face of difficult conditions.