Background: MSM and transgender persons experience humanitarian crises and engage with humanitarian action differently due to a number of reasons. While they may suffer sexual and gender based violence ordinarily in their daily lives, their vulnerability is heightening during man-made and natural disasters. In Asia, this vulnerability is exacerbated because of poor legal protections, blind spots in disaster preparedness and response mechanisms, inadequate training of service providers and responders and the unavailability of data related to MSM and transgender persons in these settings. With an improved understanding, it will become possible to design responsive approaches to reach out to these communities, before, during and after crises and create an enabling environment for them to access services and articulate their needs.
Description: APCOM conducted an online survey called the Asia Pacific Survey on Gender Based Violence in Humanitarian settings. This survey was promoted through social media channels, community list-serves and through word of mouth. 145 respondents answered the survey from across the region. The majority of the respondents were MSM and transgender persons.
Lessons learned: Some of the key lessons learned from this survey are that transgender persons are more likely to suffer from sexual and gender based violence in humanitarian settings than men who have sex with men. Sexual expression and gender identity continue to pose the most risk to vulnerable communities accessing a broad range of services including health care. A majority of the respondents indicated that they were most likely to suffer from sexual and gender based violence from immediate family members and intimate partners during crises.
Conclusions/Next steps: APCOM in partnership with IPPF Humanitarian, UNWomen and EdgeEffect is hosting a Regional Consultation on LGBTIQ inclusion in Humanitarian Action in May 2018 in Bangkok. This consultation will build on the findings of this online survey to develop a broad based consensus among key stakeholders and stimulate dialogue on how inclusion of LGBTIQ communities in the DRR, response and resilience can reduce sexual and gender based violence when these communities access a broad range of services including healthcare.

Download the e-Poster