Rapid Gender Analysis: where are women and girls in the Venezuela earthquake?

DOI: 10.59350/sgxr0-a4472

·

The Geneva Learning Foundation Avatar
By

The Geneva Learning Foundation

Abstract artwork of a cracked white surface revealing vibrant concentric rings of blue, red, orange and yellow — representing the seismic rupture of the Venezuela earthquake

English | Español

This Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) was developed by The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Insights Unit on 1 July 2026. It is based on secondary data review of primary sources published 24 June to 1 July 2026.

A. Executive summary

The most important finding: women and girls were already responding before any official rescue team arrived, and they are the most reliable providers of sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services in the country. They also have almost no money and no seat at the coordination table.

Sex-disaggregated data on the dead, injured, and displaced does not exist as of 1 July 2026. Every recommendation about women and girls therefore rests on structural reasoning and early field reports rather than a confirmed count.

What is confirmed (as of 30 June 2026):

No official sex-disaggregated breakdown of any of these figures has been published.

What the field reports already show:

Recommendations based on these findings:

  1. Allocate unrestricted emergency cash to women-led organizations, without requiring a competitive proposal process.
  2. Add sex and age disaggregation to all mortality, injury, and displacement reporting, retrospectively where possible, as a standard going forward.
  3. Give named Venezuelan women-led organisations a formal seat at every cluster coordination meeting.
  4. Open screened safe spaces for women and girls in every displacement site, staffed by trained GBV responders, within 48 hours.
  5. Maintain and map all remaining sexual and reproductive health and obstetric care facilities, and report their status daily to the health cluster.

Limits of this analysis: No primary data collection was conducted. The analysis was produced on 1 July 2026, seven days after the earthquakes. It must be updated as soon as field-level data is available from Venezuelan women-led organisations.

EQUITY-002 Gender in emergencies: a rapid introduction — course cover

Gender in emergencies: learn, take action, and get certified

Share your experience and learn from colleagues about gender in emergencies. Learn more and enrol in this certification from The Geneva Learning Foundation: EQUITY-002 Gender in emergencies: a rapid introduction

B. Situation and gendered impact

The earthquakes struck a country whose humanitarian system had already collapsed

The earthquake added a shock to a chronic emergency rather than a crisis to a stable baseline. The earthquake did not create a gender emergency. It deepened one that had been building for a decade.

The death toll is confirmed at more than 1,900, but no one knows how many of the dead are women, men, girls, or boys

Housing that was already dangerous explains why so many buildings collapsed, and the poorest people lived in the most precarious housing

Maternal health was in crisis before the earthquake, and the loss of midwifery staff now leaves pregnant women in La Guaira without reliable obstetric care

The exposure pathway here is structural: a decade of underfunding, a political crisis that drove doctors to emigrate, a state that ceased to maintain the health system, and earthquake damage that closed the remaining facilities.

Sexual and reproductive health services were already near collapse, and Fòs Feminista’s partners are now the primary provider without emergency funding

Gender-based violence is already occurring in displacement sites, and only one organisation has published data

Tinta Violeta, a Venezuelan women-led organisation operating in La Guaira and Caracas, identified 22 cases of sexual violence in displacement shelters within the first 72 hours.

  • This figure covers one organisation working in a limited number of sites. It is a floor, not a total. No other GBV service provider has published incidence data for this event.
  • The structural conditions that increase GBV risk are all confirmed: crowded mixed-sex displacement sites without screened sleeping areas, breakdown of community protection networks, loss of income producing acute economic pressure on households, and an absence of formal law enforcement that communities trust.

Before the earthquake, UNFPA documented rising GBV rates including sexual slavery of indigenous and displaced women and girls in border and rural areas by criminal groups. The earthquake has displaced tens of thousands of women into sites where protection is minimal.

EQUITY-EN-004 Mitigating gender-based violence (GBV) in practice: a primer for health and humanitarian responders — course cover

Gender-based violence in health settings: learn, take action, and get certified

Share your experience and learn from colleagues about gender-based violence in health settings. Learn more and enrol in this certification from The Geneva Learning Foundation: EQUITY-EN-004 Mitigating gender-based violence (GBV) in practice: a primer for health and humanitarian responders

Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse by responders is a live risk, with 27 countries sending rescue teams and no oversight mechanisms yet in place

  • 27 countries and more than 2,200 rescue workers entered Venezuela within days of the earthquakes.
  • There is no public record of a PSEA (prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse) briefing for incoming international responders as of 1 July 2026.
  • Displacement sites are crowded, poorly lit, and lack accountability structures. Women and girls who depend on aid for food and shelter face heightened risk of transactional relationships with those distributing resources.
  • This is a statement that the structural conditions for exploitation are present and that the absence of documented PSEA measures is a gap, not a claim that abuse is occurring.
  • The health cluster and the Protection Cluster should confirm whether PSEA briefings have been delivered to all incoming teams before this paragraph needs revising.

Children face elevated risk of separation, trafficking, and missing-person status, and the response has no systematic family tracing mechanism yet

Venezuelans organised the rescue before any government team arrived, and women were among the first and most active responders

These organisations are not beneficiaries of the international response. They are the response. The question for international actors is not whether to build response capacity among Venezuelan women-led groups, but how quickly to fund and support what already exists.

The government is both a necessary partner and an obstacle, and access decisions have already blocked aid once

Women-led organisations navigating access restrictions face particular risk. Security forces are less likely to recognise them as legitimate actors and more likely to stop them at checkpoints.

This reflects a state that has spent years restricting civil society and is now operating under a contested post-Maduro leadership structure with limited institutional coherence.

The analysis was built from public documents and secondary data, not with Venezuelan women, which limits its validity

This RGA drew on flash updates from UNFPA, UNICEF, OCHA, and IOM, situation reports from CARE, Fòs Feminista, World Vision, and RET International, reporting from The New Humanitarian, Reuters, AP, and Al Jazeera, USGS seismic data, and pre-crisis baseline data from the Healthy Newborn Network and the World Bank. The findings from Tinta Violeta (22 GBV cases in 72 hours), Fòs Feminista (SRH access), and CESAP (community kitchens) are the closest thing to locally generated primary knowledge in this document. No structured consultation with affected women was conducted.

This matters because the international framework being used, including IASC clusters, UNFPA level activations, and CARE RGA tools, organises the response around categories that may or may not reflect how Venezuelan women and girls understand their own situation, their own priorities, and their own knowledge about what works.

This document extracted publicly available information. It did not shift resources, decision authority, or credit to Venezuelan women-led organisations in the process of producing it. That must happen in the funding decisions that follow.

C. Recommendations

Eight recommendations follow, ordered by urgency rather than by sector. Each names an actor, states a concrete action, links it to a specific finding, and names a budget line or decision-making seat.

Recommendation 1. Allocate unrestricted emergency cash to Tinta Violeta, Fòs Feminista’s Venezuelan partner organisations, and CESAP within 72 hours

Recommendation 2. Open screened safe spaces for women and girls in every displacement site within 48 hours

Recommendation 3. Give Tinta Violeta, Fòs Feminista partner representatives, and at least one representative of the volunteer brigade networks a formal seat at every cluster coordination meeting

Recommendation 4. Require sex and age disaggregation in all mortality, injury, displacement, and assistance data from this point forward, and request retrospective disaggregation from the Venezuelan government

  • Actor: OCHA, all cluster leads, the Venezuelan government’s National Emergency Management Office.
  • Action: Refuse to publish aggregate figures without a sex-disaggregated breakdown in all situation reports dated after 1 July 2026. Make a formal public request to the Venezuelan government for retrospective disaggregation of casualty records.
  • Link to finding: No sex or age breakdown exists for any of the core figures, whether dead, injured, displaced, or missing, as of 1 July 2026. Without this data, it is impossible to direct targeted resources, verify whether women and girls are accessing services proportionally, or hold the response accountable.
  • Budget line: Information management budget within OCHA. There is zero marginal cost if data collection is redesigned from the start.

Recommendation 5. Map and maintain all remaining sexual and reproductive health and obstetric care facilities in La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua, and Falcón, and report their status daily to the health cluster

Recommendation 6. Issue a PSEA briefing to all incoming international rescue and aid teams before they enter displacement sites, and post a community reporting mechanism in every site

  • Actor: Response leadership (Humanitarian Coordinator’s office) and all team leaders of incoming international missions.
  • Action: Deliver a mandatory, one-hour PSEA briefing to every incoming international team before they begin work. Post a visible, multilingual community complaints and feedback mechanism in every displacement site within 48 hours.
  • Link to finding: 27 countries sent rescue teams within days of the earthquakes. No public record of a PSEA briefing exists as of 1 July 2026. The structural conditions for exploitation, including crowded sites, dependency on aid, and loss of community networks, are all confirmed present.
  • Budget line: Humanitarian Coordinator’s coordination budget. There is no additional cost if done as a standard onboarding requirement.

Recommendation 7. Establish a rapid family tracing mechanism for children, prioritising girls aged 10 to 18, in coordination with IRC and Venezuelan community networks within 48 hours

  • Actor: Child Protection Sub-Cluster, IRC, and Venezuelan community volunteer networks.
  • Action: Deploy family tracing teams to all displacement sites and set up a publicly advertised family reunification hotline in Spanish. Prioritise cases involving unaccompanied girls aged 10 to 18. Share the database with Tinta Violeta, which already operates a protection hotline.
  • Link to finding: IRC flagged elevated child protection risks from the first days and is prioritising family tracing. More than 43,000 people are missing. Girls separated from families face heightened risk of trafficking, child marriage, and exploitation given the pre-existing presence of criminal networks in the affected states.
  • Budget line: Child Protection Sub-Cluster, IRC operational budget. There is no additional cost if Tinta Violeta’s hotline is extended with a cash grant (see Recommendation 1).

Recommendation 8. Commission an update to this RGA within ten days, built with Venezuelan women-led organisations as co-authors, not as interview subjects

  • Actor: Humanitarian Coordinator’s office, in partnership with CARE, UNFPA, and any donor willing to fund it.
  • Action: Provide Tinta Violeta, Fòs Feminista partner organisations, and CESAP with a small grant and administrative support to produce a ten-day update to this document. The international coordinator’s role is to handle translation, formatting, and dissemination, not to write the analysis. Credit the Venezuelan organisations as authors on the cover.
  • Link to finding: This document was produced entirely from secondary sources with no participation from affected Venezuelan women. It describes what organisations said about women and girls, not what women and girls said about themselves. The knowledge gap is a structural problem that requires a structural fix, not more international analysis.
  • Budget line: Rapid gender analysis budget, CARE Local Humanitarian Leadership fund, any bilateral donor emergency envelope.

Limitations of this Rapid Gender Analysis

Learn more: Reimagining Rapid Gender Analysis as decolonial practice

This RGA was built entirely from secondary sources, including flash updates and situation reports from UN agencies and international NGOs, media reporting, USGS seismic data, and pre-crisis baselines from the Healthy Newborn Network and the World Bank. No one on the drafting team spoke with affected women, girls, men, or boys, or with Venezuelan women-led organisations. It therefore describes what organisations said about women and girls, not what women and girls said about themselves. The public reports of Tinta Violeta, Fòs Feminista, and CESAP are the closest thing here to locally generated knowledge, and credit for that knowledge belongs to them, so any recommendation touching Venezuelan women’s needs should be read as drawn from their statements rather than from this analysis alone. These groups appear because they are visible in public reporting, not because they are the only ones doing this work, and a wider, less visible network of community-based groups almost certainly exists. The international categories used here, such as IASC clusters and UNFPA activations, may not match how Venezuelan women and girls understand their own priorities, and producing this document shifted no resources, decision authority, or credit to them, which is why Recommendation 8 proposes that the next version be co-authored with them.

References

  1. ABC News (2026). Venezuela earthquakes live updates. ABC News, 30 June 2026. https://abcnews.com/International/live-updates/venezuela-earthquakes-updates/?id=134196335
  2. Al Jazeera (2026). Venezuela quakes death toll rises to 1,719, thousands still missing. Al Jazeera, 29 June 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/29/aftershock-hits-caracas-during-critical-hours-for-venezuela-rescue-efforts
  3. Boston Globe (2026). Aid groups warn Venezuela’s healthcare system is near its limit after earthquakes. The Boston Globe, 30 June 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/30/world/aid-groups-warn-venezuelas-healthcare-system-is-near-its-limit-after-earthquakes/
  4. Brussels Signal (2026). Twin earthquakes kill dozens in Venezuela. Brussels Signal, 25 June 2026. https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/06/twin-earthquakes-kill-dozens-in-northern-venezuela/
  5. CARE International (2026). Venezuela earthquakes: Women-led organizations, in partnership with CARE, deliver lifesaving assistance. CARE, 1 July 2026. https://www.care.org/media-and-press/venezuela-earthquakes-women-led-organizations-in-partnership-with-care-deliver-lifesaving-a/
  6. CNN (2026). June 29, 2026 — Venezuela earthquake death toll passes 1,700. CNN, 29 June 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/29/world/live-news/venezuela-earthquake-hnk
  7. Democrata (2026). Earthquakes hit a Venezuela already overwhelmed by almost 8 million people in need of assistance. Democrata, 24 June 2026. https://www.democrata.es/en/international/earthquakes-hit-a-venezuela-already-overwhelmed-by-almost-8-million-people-in-need-of-/
  8. Euronews (2026). Venezuela twin quakes have already left over 1,700 dead. Euronews, 29–30 June 2026. https://www.euronews.com/2026/06/30/venezuela-twin-earthquakes-death-toll-rises-above-1700
  9. Fòs Feminista (2026). Fòs Feminista responds to devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. Fòs Feminista, 24–25 June 2026. https://fosfeminista.org/news-and-stories/fos-feminista-responds-to-devastating-earthquakes-in-venezuela/
  10. Healthy Newborn Network (2025). Venezuela — Country Profile. Healthy Newborn Network, updated February 2025. https://healthynewbornnetwork.org/country/venezuela/
  11. iMMAP (2026). Venezuela Earthquake Impact Map, 24th June 2026. iMMAP, 24 June 2026. https://immap.org/publications-and-resources/venezuela-earthquake-impact-map-24th-june-2026
  12. International Rescue Committee (2026). Earthquake leaves Venezuela in ruins as approximately 50,000 remain missing. IRC / ReliefWeb, 30 June 2026. https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/earthquake-leaves-venezuela-ruins-approximately-50000-remain-missing-
  13. People magazine (2026). Pregnant woman gives birth under rubble after deadly earthquakes hit Venezuela. People, 28 June 2026. https://people.com/pregnant-woman-gives-birth-under-rubble-deadly-earthquakes-hit-venezuela-12008123
  14. RET International (2026). RET International responds to devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. RET International, 25 June 2026. https://theret.org/2026/06/ven/ret-international-responds-to-devastating-earthquakes-in-venezuela/
  15. ReliefWeb — UNFPA (2026). UNFPA Flash Update: Earthquakes in Venezuela (24–26 June 2026). UNFPA / ReliefWeb, 25–26 June 2026. https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/unfpa-flash-update-earthquakes-venezuela-24-26-june-2026
  16. Sky News (2026). Venezuela earthquakes latest: UN to provide 10,000 body bags. Sky News, 25–26 June 2026. https://news.sky.com/story/venezuela-earthquake-live-high-casualties-feared-after-back-to-back-tremors-hit-south-american-countr
  17. The New Humanitarian (2026). Venezuelans help each other as government condemned for slow quake response. The New Humanitarian, 30 June 2026. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2026/06/30/venezuela-help-each-other-government-slow-quake-response
  18. UNICEF / UN News (2026). Venezuela earthquakes leave 680,000 children in need of assistance. UN News, 27 June 2026. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167826
  19. UN News — OCHA (2026). Venezuela earthquake death toll passes 1,700 as search and rescue continues. UN News, 28 June 2026. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167837
  20. UN News — IOM (2026). Venezuela quake: Search goes on for survivors amid impossible odds. UN News, 28 June 2026. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167829
  21. UNFPA (2021). As crisis facing women in Venezuela deepens, UNFPA appeals for urgent funding. UNFPA, 30 March 2021. https://www.unfpa.org/press/crisis-facing-women-venezuela-deepens-unfpa-appeals-urgent-funding-save-lives-and-protect
  22. UNFPA (2026). Flash Update on the Earthquakes in Venezuela (24–26 June 2026). UNFPA, 26 June 2026. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/flash-update-earthquakes-venezuela-24-26-june-2026
  23. USGS (2026). M 7.5 — 23 km SE of Yumare, Venezuela. United States Geological Survey, 24 June 2026. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000t7zp/executive
  24. Wikipedia (2026). 2026 Venezuela earthquakes. Wikimedia Foundation, continuously updated to 30 June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Venezuela_earthquakes
  25. World Vision (2026). Venezuela Earthquake Overview, June 26, 2026. World Vision, 26 June 2026. https://www.wvi.org/publications/venezuela-crisis/venezuela-earthquake-overview-june-26-2026

Additional background consulted but not hyperlinked inline:

  1. Miyamoto International (2026). Venezuela’s strongest earthquake in 125 years: What happened on June 24, 2026. Miyamoto International, 24 June 2026. https://miyamotointernational.com/venezuelas-strongest-earthquake-in-125-years-what-happened-on-june-24-2026/
  2. Reuters (2026). Venezuela races to rescue hundreds trapped in rubble after major twin earthquakes. Reuters, 25 June 2026. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/thousands-feared-dead-after-two-major-earthquakes-strike-venezuela-2026-06-25/
  3. AP / New Indian Express (2026). Thousands missing, 235 declared dead as Venezuela begins massive earthquake recovery effort. Associated Press, 26 June 2026. https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2026/Jun/26/thousands-missing-235-declared-dead-as-venezuela-begins-massive-earthquake-recovery-effort

How to cite this article

As the primary source for this original work, this article is permanently archived with a DOI to meet rigorous standards of verification in the scholarly record. Please cite this stable reference to ensure ethical attribution of the theoretical concepts to their origin. Learn more

The Geneva Learning Foundation (2026). Rapid Gender Analysis: where are women and girls in the Venezuela earthquake?. Reda Sadki: Learning to make a difference. https://doi.org/10.59350/sgxr0-a4472

Fediverse reactions

Discover more from Reda Sadki

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading