The Age, Gender and Diversity Matrix Tool has been developed by Adjunct Associate Professor Eileen Pittaway, and Dr Linda Bartolomei, from the Forced Migration Research Network, UNSW Sydney.
The Matrix Tool is based on more than 30 years of working with refugee women and girls across the world, in refugee camps, in urban refugee sites and upon resettlement. They have used the tool in consultations with literally thousands of refugee women, men, girls and boys, and with a wide range of humanitarian actors. The findings have influenced refugee policy and practice at a national and international level. It is designed to acknowledge that refugees are not homogenous and that each age and diverse group within communities have different needs, with gender being a major cross-cutting issue. Based on the UNHCR Age, Gender and Diversity Framework and Policy, it examines a range of current key issues on the left axis, as they impact the diverse groups across the top axis.
The Matrix exercise helps to explore ways that different groups in the community are affected by issues. It is a method that facilitates an in-depth exploration of some of the problems identified in discussion on human rights or in stories and evidence shared by participants. It builds a more detailed picture of how different individuals and groups in the community experience human rights, and what the main issues of concern are to the community.
The matrix developed for this project looks at the barriers women and girls face in achieving the aims of UNHCR’s Age Gender and Diversity policy, including the UNHCR Updated Commitments to Refugee Women and Girls.
The data displayed on this website has been developed as an outcome of the Refugee Women and Girls Key to the Global Compact project which is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.