This report from the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), in partnership with Fight for Humanity and Nonviolent Peaceforce, investigates protection risks and gender norms across four case studies: South Sudan, Iraq, Myanmar, and Ukraine. It does so at a moment of global crisis, notably characterised by a deprioritization of gender sensitive analyses as part of an anti-gender backlash.

The report seeks to demonstrate how simplistic understandings of the gendered nature of risk to people's safety lead to protection gaps in addressing risks and needs.

Across the different conflicts and contexts explored, the report finds that although people experience gendered risks, they can also mobilise their gendered roles to exercise influence over conflict actors. Another key point made by the authors is the importance of recognizing the gendered vulnerabilities faced by boys, men, and gender-diverse people, which are invisibilized by the increased reframing of protection action on "women and girls".