<em data-start="867" data-end="922">Constructing Gender Inequality in Humanitarian Policy : A WPR Analysis of the IASC Gender Policy (2024) and Its Implications for Climate-Induced Displacement

Sammanfattning

This study examines how gender inequality is constructed as a problem in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Policy (2024), and what implications these representations have for understanding the gendered dimensions of climate-induced displacement. The study uses Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) approach together with intersectional and postcolonial feminist perspectives. The research is based on qualitative policy analysis and close reading of the IASC Gender Policy (2024). The analysis focuses on how gender inequality is represented in the policy, the assumptions behind these representations, what is left unaddressed, and the effects these representations produce.The findings show that gender inequality is mainly represented through vulnerability, protection, and unequal inclusion and participation in humanitarian response and decision making during crises. Women and girls are often framed as disproportionately affected groups in need of protection and support, while broader structural issues such as climate injustice, unequal access to resources, migration governance, and long-term displacement receive less attention. Although the policy refers to climate-related crises and intersectionality, climate induced displacement is not fully developed as a central gendered issue. The analysis also shows that intersectionality is present in the policy but is not always fully operationalised within the policy framework. The study argues that these policy representations shape how gender inequality and climate induced displacement are understood within humanitarian policy. By focusing mainly on vulnerability and humanitarian response, the policy risks simplifying complex forms of inequality and limiting attention to the structural and long-term dimensions of climate-induced displacement