News and Events

Join the Global Women's Institute’s Empowered Aid team for a webinar series exploring policies and practices that support mitigating the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) as a way to make aid delivery safer and more accountable. In the final installment, we invite you to a moderated panel discussion on monitoring SEA risks in organizational processes to create a safer workplace. We will hear from safeguarding, protection, and PSEA experts on how they have incorporated SEA risk reduction strategies into recruitment, training, and other institutional processes. Join us Wednesday July 31, 2024 at 8 AM EDT with panelists:

• Rima Karim, Head of Safeguarding and Organizational Culture, BRAC International
• Emily Galloway, Senior Advisor, Global Protection, Global Communities
• Tina Tinde, Head of IFRC Haiti office and Deputy Head of IFRC Delegation to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

This webinar will be moderated by Hope Harriet, Empowered Aid Consultant at The Global Women's Institute.

Register for the webinar here.

Join us for a webinar where we'll dive into contribution analysis and its role in understanding the impact of our project, Empowered Aid. We'll explore how this method helps us dissect the outcomes of our multi-year, multi-component initiative spanning multiple countries aimed at preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian aid. Through practical insights and the examination of our case study, you'll learn how to use contribution analysis to track the effects of your work on policy, practice, and discourse in your field. Panelists include: 

• Alina Potts, Empowered Aid Principal Investigator, The Global Women's Institute
• Andrea Koris, Senior Research Associate, The Global Women's Institute
• Dr. Sarah Morton, Director, Matter of Focus

This event has already occurred. Watch the recording by visiting the Empowered Aid YouTube Channel. 

The Empowered Aid team continues its webinar series exploring policies and practices that support mitigating the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) as a way to make aid delivery safer and more accountable. This installment features a panel discussion on adapting monitoring and evaluation tools to better monitor SEA risks in programming. We will hear about specific examples from GWI’s partner World Vision on Empowered Aid activities in Uganda and Lebanon. Join us on Thursday June 6, 2024 at 8 AM EDT with panelists: 

• Mercy Atim, Independent Protection & Gender Consultant, Uganda
•  Chourouk Kouteich, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Coordinator, World Vision Lebanon
• Nigusu Zelelke, Design, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, World Vision US Program Lead for Empowered Aid

This webinar will be moderated by Hope Harriet, Empowered Aid Consultant at The Global Women's Institute.

This event has already occurred. Watch the recording by visiting the Empowered Aid YouTube Channel. 

As a part of the 2024 Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks, Empowered Aid consultant Hope Harriet will engage in a hybrid panel discussion organized by the World Food Programme focusing on cultivating positive and lasting change towards championing protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and harassment. Hope will share the contributions of Empowered Aid in informing prevention efforts led by refugee women and girls. 

This event will take place on Tuesday May 7, 2024, at 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM CET/10:00 AM -11:30 AM EST in Geneva.  Register for online or in-person attendance here. 

In the second installment of  we invite you to a moderated panel discussion on conducting risk assessments to identify risks for SEA in aid programming and inform measures to address these risks. We will hear about specific examples from GWI’s partner World Vision, on Empowered Aid activities in Jordan, and from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Join us Wednesday May 9, 2024 at 8am EDT/2:00 PM CEST/3 PM UTC+3 with panelists: 

• Maha Al-Saudi, Child Protection and Safeguarding Officer, World Vision Syria Response 
• Kate Kobaidze, Regional Strategy and Ministry Quality Director, World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe 
• Mariska De Keersmaecker, Project Manager, Protection from SEA and Sexual Harassment Unit, IOM 

This webinar will be moderated by Loujine Fattal, Empowered Aid Consultant at The Global Women's Institute.

This event has already occurred. Watch the webinar recording by visiting the Empowered Aid YouTube Channel. 

Join GWI's Empowered Aid team for a webinar series exploring policies and practices that support SEA risk mitigation as a way to make aid delivery safer and more accountable. In this first installment, we invite you to a panel discussion reflecting on progress and gaps in funding and evaluation. Hear from experts and advocates in the field, including members of Empowered Aid’s Global Technical Advisory Group. The webinar will take place on Wednesday April 3 at 9am EDT / 2pm BST / 3pm CEST with panelists: 

• Christian Saunders, Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, United Nations (UN) 

• Natalia Macdonald, PSEA Senior Advisor, World Food Program (WFP) 

• Alina Rosenfeld, Principal Safeguarding Consultant, Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub (RSH) 

The webinar will be moderated by Alina Potts, GWI Research Scientist and Empowered Aid lead.

This event has already occurred. Watch the webinar recording by visiting the Empowered Aid YouTube channel.

The Empowered Aid team is excited to be co-hosting a joint dissemination webinar with COVAW on March 27 from 3-4pm EAT / 8-9am EDT: Working to End Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the Economic Exclusion of Women and Girls. In this webinar, Fridah Wawira Nyaga, Acting Executive Director of COVAW, will share findings from their research on economic exclusion of women and girls in marginalised communities; and Hope Harriet, Empowered Aid lead consultant in East Africa, will share findings from our work adapting distributions based on refugee women and girls' recommendations in Dadaab, undertaken in partnership with World Vision Kenya.

This event has already occurred. Watch the webinar recording by visiting the COVAW Kenya YouTube Channel.  

In March 2023, Mathilde Belli, Empowered Aid's Research & Learning Lead, and Amal Hassan Research Assistant at The Global Women's Institute, presented on Empowered Aid and the importance of language capacity in humanitarian work when trying to equalize power dynamics for people living through displacement and other emergency contexts. This was done in collaboration with Clear Global and Translators without Borders, and a speaker from their team also gave a great presentation on the way word choice needs to be considered when working across languages and cultures, and how this can impact programming and perception of services and power dynamics.

In July 2021, the Global Women's Institute (GWI) hosted a virtual launch of the Empowered Aid Toolkit for Planning and Monitoring Safer Aid Distributions. This toolkit is based on six pilots conducted in Lebanon and Uganda by GWI and partners CARE and URDA in Lebanon, and IRC and World Vision in Uganda. You can watch the full recording, with team members from GWI and partners in both countries who review the contents of the toolkit, share case studies of using it, and host a Q&A with practitioners and researchers on how to further adapt and apply it. The team provided written answers to the questions during the Q&A portion of the webinar, which can be accessed here.

The Toolkit for Planning and Monitoring Safer Aid Distributions can be found under the “Manuals and Toolkits” tab, and a shared drive of additional resources and templates to support toolkit users is available to anyone.

Speakers:

GWI: Alina Potts (PI), Research Scientist, Elizabeth Hedge, Empowered Aid Research Associate, & Amelia Reese Masterson, Empowered Aid Research Consultant

Lebanon partners: Loujine Fattal, Empowered Aid Research Manager & Tala Chammas, Empowered Aid Project Officer, CARE Lebanon

Uganda partners: Hope Harriet, Empowered Aid Research Manager, & Fatuma Nafish, Empowered Aid Project Officer, IRC; Godfrey Twesigye, MEAL Coordinator,  Brian Matsiko, MEAL Officer, & Fred Nyero, Gender and Protection Officer, General Food Assistance, World Vision

On October 12, 2021, The Empowered Aid team held a virtual launch of the new online course to mitigate risks of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in aid distributions, which you can watch the live recording of here. The course aims to help learners gain a better understanding of SEA risks and shares recommendations and tools to mitigate them, drawn from Empowered Aid’s participatory action research with refugee women and girls in Uganda and Lebanon over the last three years. Interactive case studies, quizzes, and video interviews share Empowered Aid’s findings, recommendations, and participatory processes for listening to women and girls, and increasing their safety by putting their words into action. In the webinar, our multi-country team who co-designed the course shared “sneak peeks,” demonstrated course features, and hosted a Q&A. If you are interested in enrolling in the course, visit the Course webpage.

Speakers:

GWI: Alina Potts (PI), Research Scientist, Elizabeth Hedge,

Uganda:  Hope Harriet, Empowered Aid Research Manager, Brian Matsiko, MEAL Officer, & Fred Nyero, Gender and Protection Officer, General Food Assistance, World Vision

Lebanon:  Loujine Fattal, Empowered Aid Research Manager & Tala Chammas, Empowered Aid Project Officer, CARE Lebanon

Empowered Aid’s Principal Investigator, Alina Potts, and Uganda Research Manager for Phase 1, Harriet Kolli, joined the University of Cambridge Network for Participatory and Collaborative Research Methods to talk about “Shifting Power to Refugee Women and Girls: Using Feminist Participatory Action Research in Humanitarian Crises”, based on Empowered Aid’s participatory action research in Uganda and Lebanon. The webinar recording can be viewed here. 

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Empowered Aid's Primary Investigator Alina Potts, alongside Empowered Aid Lebanon Research Officer Tala Chammas, recently participated in a webinar organized by the UK Government's  Safeguarding Resource & Support Hub (RSH). Through this webinar, participants were able to understand and consider what needs to be in place specifically when making research, programs, and monitoring and evaluation safe for both participants and researchers. Alina and Tala share their own experiences on the ground in both Uganda and Lebanon and explore in what ways Empowered Aid utilizes various participatory methodologies in relation to training and risk management, especially given the sensitivity of sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment (SEAH) in the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar recording can be accessed here, as well as follow along the Q&A and presentation slides here.

Alongside colleagues in the humanitarian aid sector, GWI Research Scientist Alina Potts discussed the implications of continuous and widespread sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) from within the humanitarian aid sector. Utilizing her decade-long experience as a GBV practitioner and key findings from Empowered Aid, Alina asserts the importance in developing and implementing feminist-centered policy change in order to give women and girls a sustained voice and power in the aid system. Key topics discussed include lack of accountability in the aid sector, a dearth of female representation in positions of power, and the need to shift to a transformative, feminist approach. You can watch the video here.

On the second day of the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream meetings, GWI Research Scientist Alina Potts joined practitioners, funders and researchers from CARE, BPRM, the Women’s Refugee Commission and Oxfam for a conversation on how aid actors can further reduce GBV risks in cash and voucher assistance for women and girls. You can watch the video here, and read more about Empowered Aid’s cash findings in Lebanon here. 

Moderated by GW’s Alina Potts, Global Women’s Institute, & Ramin Asgary, Humanitarian Health Program, with a student-led Q&A

The Global Women’s Institute and GWU Humanitarian Health Program at the Milken Institute School of Public Health hosted the United Nation’s first Victim’s Rights Advocate Jane Connors in a conversation on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in the humanitarian sector and centering victim’s rights in its approach. The Question & Answer portion was hosted by students from the George Washington University, engaging Ms. Connors on challenges, solutions, and next steps for her role and office. You can watch the recording here and for more information on the speakers, click here. 

GWI Research Scientist Alina Potts served as a witness in the UK Parliament International Development Committee’s first oral evidence session on sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. Alina delivered oral evidence to the committee members from her experience as an aid worker across emergency responses from DR Congo to Syria to Bangladesh, and shared the voices of Syrian and South Sudanese women and girls engaged in Empowered Aid's action research in Uganda and Lebanon. Key aspects of the conversation centered on the importance of contextual safeguarding to prevent SEA before it happens, and addressing the unequal power dynamics and lack of participation across the sector which underpin this type of abuse. The video and audio recordings are available here and the transcript is available here.

In honor of World Refugee Day 2020, the Global Women's Institute (GWI) hosted a webinar launch sharing Empowered Aid's Phase I findings and recommendations on reducing risks of sexual exploitation and abuse when accessing humanitarian aid in Lebanon and Uganda. You can watch the full recording with the Empowered Aid team, including the presentation and Q&A discussion.

Speakers
GWI: Alina Potts (PI), Research Scientist & Elizabeth Hedge, Empowered Aid Research Associate
CARE International in Lebanon: Loujine Fattal, Empowered Aid Research Manager & Farah Hallak, Empowered Aid Project Officer
IRC Uganda: Harriet Kolli, Empowered Aid Research Manager & Fatuma Nafish, Empowered Aid Project Officer

Please note: The audio of our Uganda project officer, Fatuma Nafish, is a bit difficult to hear; it is captioned however you can also watch Fatuma speak here. You will have the option to turn on closed captions.

The Empowered Aid team’s presentation at the 2019 Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum held in Cape town, South Africa. 

Since its magnitude first came to light in 2002, the aid community’s focus on addressing sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) has primarily rested on establishing reporting mechanisms and only recently shifted toward proactive measures to mitigate risk and prevent such abuses from occurring. In this episode, Alina Potts of the Global Women's Institute, Harriet Kolli of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Uganda, and Loujine Fattal of CARE Lebanon, discuss Empowered Aid: Transforming gender and power dynamics in the delivery of humanitarian aid on an episode of Women's Protection and Empowerment podcast.