Vulnerability and socio-cultural considerations for PHE in emergencies

This Technical Brief highlights a range of vulnerability and socio-cultural related considerations for the
PHE/PHP teams and identifies a number of ways in which they can respond in the field. For example there is
a need to try to understand the power dynamics of the environment in which you are working; ask the people
themselves what is suitable for facility provision making sure that you ask each of the key groups of people
within the affected or host community. If men are unable to speak to women because of the cultural
practices of the affected community, then ensure that female staff are available to discuss with women –
which is also good practice in most situations. And where privacy is a particular issue, such as where women
usually live in Purdah, then ensure that privacy is a feature of the technical designs.