This post is written by Delphine Brun, Senior Inter-agency GenCap advisor in Cameroon working in collaboration with The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

  • The problem: Humanitarian organisations often fail to adequately acknowledge boys and men’s vulnerabilities and needs in times of armed crises.
  • Why it matters: Neglecting men’s and boys’ needs is detrimental to them and can place women and girls at additional risks too: When men are affected, women are the direct or indirect victims.
  • The solution: The humanitarian community must expand its vision of who the people in need are: addressing men’s and boys’ vulnerabilities will generate positive outcomes for women and for the broader society.

Over the past six years, the North West and South West regions (NWSW) of Cameroon have been wracked by violent clashes between pro-independence groups and Cameroon’s army. More than one million people have been displaced and a major humanitarian crisis has been unleashed, with two million people in need of assistance.

The intense impact of the crisis on men’s and boys’ security situation, socioeconomic well-being and sense of self-worth has been largely neglected by the humanitarian community.

A new report entitled ‘A More Generous Embrace’ from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), GenCap and NORCAP demonstrates that the intense impact on men’s and boys’ security situation, socioeconomic well-being and sense of self-worth also affect girls and women, as well as the society at large:

  • The systematic targeting of adolescent boys and men by armed individuals and the scale of the abuses they experience severely affects their mobility, livelihood and sense of dignity. This, in turn, often results in a greater economic and domestic burden on women and girls. As women and girls move around more frequently and further away, they are exposed to heightened protection risks, particularly sexual violence.
  • The demographic imbalance created by the crisis, with many men dead, in hiding or in exile, is another factor that forces women to take on the role of household head and family provider in ever more difficult circumstances. Women are further victimised, grieving their loss and facing greater burdens and responsibilities, with more frontline activities that place their own safety at risk.
  • Men often pin their identities on the prevailing social expectation that they should play the role of financial provider. But, during periods of violence, generating displacement and high unemployment rates, circumstances outside their control often curtail their ability to live up to these dominant notions of masculinity. Not being able to play the role of “provider” is a common source of stress, men feel their sense of identity and “manhood” is threatened. Men can also experience the change in traditional family roles, with women taking up traditionally masculine-coded functions, an affront. Their inability to conform to dominant and yet unattainable models of masculinity, combined with the fact that violence is considered socially acceptable in some communities, leads to domestic violence as a way of asserting their authority and domination. Bearing the brunt of the household economy, women explain domestic violence in the home as exacerbated by men’s loss of status. Violence in the public sphere, particularly affecting women and girls, has also increased.
  • While gender-based violence disproportionately affects women and girls, it is also used against boys and men, perpetrated by armed or civilian men, as a way to disempower or emasculate them or to sexually exploit those who are vulnerable, due to displacement and increased poverty. These violations remain largely unspoken and hidden.

Connecting these dots shows the strong relationship there is between men’s vulnerability in situations of armed crises and the deepening of gender injustice, including with the upsurge of gender-based violence. Yet, the intense impact of the crisis on men’s and boys’ security situation, socioeconomic well-being and sense of self-worth has been largely neglected by the humanitarian community, despite its disturbing consequences in frustration, anger, addiction and psychological distress, as well as the upsurge in domestic violence and other forms of violence against women.

Careful considerations

It is important to keep in mind that the lives of men, women, girls and boys intersect and that their needs and realities influence each other. Whilst addressing violations against women and girls should remain a priority, it is essential too, to pay greater attention to how crises impact society as a whole.

Failing to address men’s and boy’s vulnerabilities can place women and girls at additional risks too. Hence, effective gender-based violence prevention and a collective response that uproots its causes and upholds human rights, requires the development of responses that are truly evidence-based and that are commensurate to the needs of all members of society. Insights and actions to address adolescent boys’ and men’s situations and vulnerabilities in armed crises can both lead to better outcomes for them and to improved welfare and protection of girls and women.

The report also proposes that humanitarian organisations and donors need to expand their vision of who the people in need are. That means making use of the available data disaggregated by sex and age to conduct a thorough analysis of vulnerabilities. It also means providing a response that goes beyond assistance to predefined categories. Poverty in Cameroon primarily affects women, and violence against them is horrific. Men and boys, however, also have needs, and by neglecting them, the international community is failing to address some of the root causes of gender inequalities, as well as other direct, and indirect, impacts. There is the perception that women are most in need and that men can cope. There is also the view that donors will be more interested in interventions targeting other groups amid funding restraints, and the concern that assisting boys and men risks inadvertently putting money into the hands of combatants. Understanding how the lives of men, women, girls and boys interact and how their realities affect each other will help develop responses that are truly evidence-based and that are commensurate to the needs of all members of society.

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