According to the humanitarian overview for Kirkuk, Iraq the key needs are Health, Protection, WASH, followed by livelihoods and shelter. The top three are all life-saving urgent needs (which livelihoods and shelter can also assist with). The Country Office to date has been working in WASH with some Shelter and NFI work so these sectors may also feature in their up-coming ‘mod-term’ strategy.

For the purpose of an urgent Gender Analysis I would prioritize these Areas of Inquiry;

Area 2: Household Decision Making

Area 4. Access to Public Spaces and Services

Area 6. Control over one’s body

Area 7. Violence and Restorative Justice

Future priority areas could be AOI 1. Division of labour, as it relates to access to livelihoods, and AOI 8 - Aspirations as this will be useful for future planning beyond the immediate needs.

What is the type of gendered information you hope you could find out about the emergency by exploring those 3-4 AOIs?

AOI 2: Household Decision making – CARE needed to understand the gender dynamics around decision making within the household as this links to domestic power structures household economics and will establish how gendered norms may have changed due to the crisis. This is important as protection/health are critical needs reported in the Humanitarian overview (HO) and according to the Gender in Brief (GiB) husbands say they must give permission for their wives to seek health services, which also poses questions about what single women are able to access, which links to AO1 4. Additionally, to provide any assistance we need to know who has the power in the household to make sure assistance gets to where it is needed and for who it is needed (be it WASH NFIs, cash or referrals) without doing harm/causing tensions. Any change in information on ownership of the house or land (security of tenure) could also be captured/updated indirectly through this AOI and feed into any future shelter programming.

AO1 4. Access to Public Spaces and Services - (protection/GBV/health/hygiene) There is a distinct lack of access to services as reported in the HO. CARE would need to better understand who can access what, where and when to best plan their programming if they consider providing protection services for example. Understanding how mobility is gendered in the context will inform planning. For example, in a more conservative culture women may be unable to leave the house/shelter unaccompanied by male relatives.

AOI 6. Control over one’s body. There are high levels or GBV incidents reported, and risk of PSEA. Both are exacerbated in any emergency/conflict scenarios. CARE will need to understand what types of violence prevalent, and what coping mechanisms are being undertaken which may mean women. men, girls are boys are at put a higher risk of violence. Early marriage for example is common at times of scare resources/ and lack of adequate shelter/overcrowding.

AO1 7. Violence and Restorative Justice - As there is a high rate of violence towards women and wider violence anticipated between different groups so this AOI will cover power dynamics at an institutional level, or inter-ethnic, inter-group tensions which may result in violence and further marginalisation of certain vulnerable groups. There is already a stigma towards Iraqis’ who were lived with/under ISIS occupation. These social tensions need to be understood with a gendered lens.

To support the information above, demographic information in the specific areas where CARE plans to intervene should be gathered if a sample of individual HH interviews are possible. Any quantitative data collected should be SADD to ensure the analysis can show how the crisis is experience by women, men, girls and boys of different ages. Special attention also needs to be paid to people with disabilities. A comprehension of needs should be re-verified at household level before CARE continues with the programming it was already doing.