ABSTRACT
In Africa and around the world, the overwhelming majority of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), some 70-80 percent, are women and children. Women and children have particular protection and assistance needs beyond the needs and vulnerabilities that men suffer. In many conflicts, displaced women and children are specifically targeted for abuse, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Children, whom armed groups increasingly rely upon to fill their ranks, are at heightened risk of abduction and forced recruitment by armed groups to serve either as soldiers or in roles such as porters, guides, and sexual slaves. Conflict, as well as the separation of families that often occurs in the course of displacement, also thrusts many women and children into new roles. There are dramatic increases in the number of women who become heads of households and are suddenly burdened with the primary responsibility of protecting and providing for their families. For displaced women and children, moreover, an end to conflict does not necessarily end the risks to their physical security and well-being. Indeed, they face additional challenges in the context of return or resettlement and reintegration.
