Paper details

Paper authors	Michelle Alm Engvall
In panel on	Transactional Sex in Humanitarian Contexts
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper studies how the issue of sex work occurring in humanitarian contexts has been addressed within the humanitarian sector and analyses how the problem itself is framed within three main approaches that are identified. These approaches are addressing humanitarian staff and their behaviour in relation to transactional sex; understanding sex work as a ‘negative coping strategy’ and addressing underlying vulnerabilities; and using a rights-based and community empowerment approach to sex work. Recurrent themes that are analysed are those of (gendered) vulnerabilities, risks, agency, and power structures. The paper further links this topic to larger debates on sex work and critique of the humanitarian sector and concludes that a simplistic and victimising portrayal of people engaging in sex work and of people living in contexts of humanitarian crises, as well as the sometimes-lacking reflection of ideologies and frameworks motivating humanitarian operations, can blind us to the nuanced and diverse needs that people in these situations might have. It also stresses the importance for more extensive research to be carried out on this topic to inform safe practices in humanitarian response, and to be wary of the processes through which knowledge about these issues is produced, and whose voices are included.

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