Gender Mainstreaming in Disaster Management Policy
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: January 16, 2012
WUNRN
09
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Key note address in Japan by Dr. Sepali Kottegoda Chair, Asia Pacific Women’s Watch I would like to As communities in Women’s special The need to According to relief A woman’s In the aftermath of a Women’s experience of It is estimated that In the course of The reconstruction of Women’s contribution At the same time, Experiences such as Post-disaster ‘Vulnerability’ as a In her pioneering The Gender and Disaster Management There are, broadly 1. Natural: e.g. floods, hurricanes, tsunamis 2. Environmental emergencies caused by 3. Complex emergencies: in the context of conflicts and wars 4. Pandemic emergencies: outbreaks of infectious disease Disaster Management (1) Mitigation This includes risk (2) Preparedness This would be a (3) Response Disaster response (4) Recovery Recovery from a Modern disaster better’. Relevance of Gender In each of these In 2005, in Kobe, (a) Governance: organizational, legal and policy (b) Risk identification: assessment, monitoring and early (c) Knowledge management and education (d) Reducing underlying risk factors (e) Preparedness for effective response and recovery. Pointing out that in In Section III of the A gender perspective However, the It is also The challenge before
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- Recognising the socio-cultural restrictions and
constraints women are faced with
- Identifying women who would be at high risk in a disaster
context, including economically destitute women, women belonging
to racial and ethnic minorities, women with chronic disabilities or
health problems;
- Engaging women as full and equal partners in
community-based disaster mitigation and planning, including as primary
distributors of emergency rations and medical supplies;Integrating women
at all levels of planning and decision-making in disaster management,
from the national to the local community levels.
There are many
examples of how disasters have enabled women to become active agents for
change, transforming not only their lives but also the lives of their
communities. The phenomenon of the female-headed household comes to the fore
in disaster and post-disaster environments. Women take on roles that had
previously been the domain of men, engaging with public officials and
becoming breadwinners for their families. Women have also been successful community
mobilisers, forming support and self help groups that negotiate on behalf of
communities for the most advantageous benefit packages, for example.
There is also the
emergence of significant numbers of widowers, as was found in tsunami
affected districts in Eastern
Sri Lanka. Socio-cultural norms often distance men from the role
of single parenting and, paves the way for male remarriage on the grounds a
family unit needs to be complete. These interactions and linkages are
informed by social expectations of masculinities among the communities
recovering from disasters.
In Sri
Lanka, the Coalition of Tsunami Affected
Women (CATAW) and the Women’s Coalition for Disaster Management (WCDM) played
critical roles in ensuring that women’s voices were heard and their concerns
addressed in post-tsunami reconstruction. In response their demands, the
Government’s Taskforce for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) participated at a
consultation with women from Tsunami affected districts in Sri
Lanka where women’s concerns and needs were
emphasised for inclusion in reconstruction efforts. In Nicaragua,
following Hurricane Mitch, women’s network Puntos de Encuentro (Meeting
Points) used the post-disaster process to launch a successful campaign
against violence against women, using the slogan ‘Violence against Women is one disaster
that Men can prevent’. After the 1985 earthquake in Mexico
City, women garment workers organized to lobby for the
recovery of their employment.
Given the currently
predominant social and institutional orientations, disasters give rise to
some dynamics and compulsions that could be critical factors that colour and
constrain the immediate as well as long term disaster responses. Among these
dynamics that emerge after a disaster occurs are:
- Overlooking of gender concerns: the ‘tyranny of the
urgent’ that propels rapid immediate responses at the cost of
consultation and participation of affected communities, including women,
and such urgency results in the overlooking of gender concerns in the
immediate stage of relief and emergency response, when focused attention
on women and gender concerns is crucial;
- Prioritising material assistance over psycho-social: a
prioritising of provision of material support over that of psychological
and social needs that may be as critical for the long term survival of
women and other marginalized groups;
- Dependence on existing, patriarchy-biased, structures:
dependence on existing structures of resource allocation and
distribution that often reflect the patriarchal norms of a society,
including the marginalization not only of women but of members of groups
and communities that are discriminated against because of their status
or identity, such as ethno-cultural minorities and those living with
HIV/AIDS;
- Dissonance between disaster policy and development
policy: a lack of harmony between disaster response measures and
mechanisms on the one hand and, on the other, plans for long-term and
sustainable development; in this context, long term programmes for
disaster mitigation and preparedness are often sacrificed for short-term
emergency relief measures;
- Weak institutional capacity: lack of institutional
capacity at the level of national mechanisms to undertake key disaster
related tasks, namely, to collect and analyze sex-disaggregated data,
investigate and identify high-risk communities and locations, and engage
in consultative and participatory processes for planning and
policy-making.
A focus on gender
mainstreaming in disaster management is therefore critical because otherwise,
women will continue to be disproportionately affected by disasters. All those
working in the area, whether in the field of study and analysis or in the
field of relief distribution and emergency response, should recognize the
specific needs and concerns of women in a disaster situation as well as the
specific contribution that women can make to sustainable recovery and
reconstruction. All disaster responses and interventions should be designed
based on such a gender-sensitive understanding. The inclusion of a gender
perspective in all norms and procedures established to mitigate and manage
disasters is by now an absolutely essential component of the work in this
area.
Existing knowledge
proves that women have been strong advocates for disaster preparedness
measures at the community level because they understand what disaster means
to the day-to-day realities of life. It is imperative that pilot projects
should explore gender sensitive disaster responses during every phase from
mitigation and preparedness to relief and recovery and to reconstruction.
These processes should take place within an environment of open dialogue with
at-risk communities and, also, encourage intra-community dialogue and
collaboration. In all such situations, special attention should be paid to
strengthen and support women’s leadership at the local and community level as
well as at the national level. For this to become a success, training and
capacity-building programmes for women before, during and after disasters is
a prerequisite.
In the end, for any
disaster management programme to succeed in both the short term and the long
term, it must be a part of an effective and sustainable development process
which considers the needs and the potential contributions of women as well as
men. As Enarson says, ‘…a community-based disaster preparedness and response
plan that takes women’s physical, psychological, social and economic
vulnerabilities into account will help to reduce women’s vulnerability to
disaster overall. A plan that goes even further to recognize women’s
abilities and include them in disaster relief efforts will help to change
gendered beliefs about women. A gender-based approach to the study and
analysis of natural disasters is essential in accomplishing this goal.
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