Humanitarian action provides lifesaving services and facilitates recovery for communities affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and other complex emergencies. The responsibility of humanitarian actors to promote gender equality is supported by a normative framework validated by extensive field experience. This handbook sets out the rationale for integrating gender equality into humanitarian action and provides practical guidance for doing so across sectors. The main objective is to support humanitarian actors in reaching all people affected by crisis by:  

• Ensuring that the specific needs, capacities and priorities of women, girls, men and boys are identified and that assistance targets the persons and groups most in need;
• Informing women, girls, men and boys of their entitlements and available resources and engaging their participation and women’s leadership in programme design;
• and Monitoring and evaluating the impact of our programmes and strategies on those we assist, including identifying and dismantling barriers and discrimination, including by promoting and enabling women’s leadership at the community level and in other decision-making processes.