Edge Effect

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).

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.

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.