Edge Effect

Mission

Edge Effect assists humanitarian and development organisations to work in genuine partnerships with sexual and gender minorities (aka people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, and sexual characteristics (SOGIESC), or LGBTIQ+ people).

Since 2006 the global human rights field has made leaps and bounds in recognising the human rights of sexual and gender minorities: from the original Yogyakarta Principles (and the 2018 revision), to multiple UNHRC resolutions starting in 2011, to the appointment of a UN SOGI Independent Expert in 2016, to the extensive use of the UPR mechanism to address state obligations. However many development actors that call their work rights-based have not yet operationalised SOGIESC rights, and amongst those that have, there is is still much work to do to move LGBTIQ+ commitments beyond statements of intent or tokenistic moves to add some version of LGBTIQ+ to the end of already long lists of marginalised people. Likewise humanitarian actors that prioritise need (as well as rights) have often overlooked the pre-emergency and post-emergency needs of sexual and gender minorities. Work is also needed by faith based organisations that draw align with rights or strengths based development model, but that also draw upon other wells for their guiding principles.

Edge Effect owes its existence to a sentence in the 2015 edition of the Disaster Risk Reduction Good Practice Review, that states: “Disaster managers do not, at present, consider the needs and capacities of LGBT people in their disaster planning, or identify them as a specific audience for preparedness advice”. We read this and thought, that’s not good enough. And it’s not only DRR: all development and humanitarian programs should address the rights, needs and strengths of sexual and gender minorities, and few do.

We must take leadership from local communities and organisations, the people most impacted by current invisibility of sexual and gender minorities within humanitarian and development programming, and the people with most to gain or lose from engagement with humanitarian and development organisations. Edge Effect acknowledges the limitations and critiques of the international development and humanitarian sectors, and it’s past and present neo-colonial and neo-liberal undercurrents. While understanding that we work within this system, we seek to challenge oppression. We work toward a world in which sexual and gender minorities are not merely included, but also help transform thinking on what people and society can be.