WUNRN
WOMEN & INNOVATIVE,
DYNAMIC PRACTICES FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and
Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters (PPRD South) press release by
Alessandro Candeloro
“Women are grounded in local socioeconomic and risk realities, they are able to
mobilize their community to develop Disaster Risk Reduction solutions that are
innovative and dynamic, and could better ensure that local authorities and
civil society actors become partners in sustainable development” highlights the
study “The Role of Women as a Factor of Social and Behavioral Change”
commissioned by UNISDR for the Mid-Term Review of the Hyogo Framework for
Action to be officially launched on 9 March 2011 in Rome. The UNISDR study
addresses HFA's second strategic goal - the development and strengthening of
institutions, mechanisms and capacities at all levels, particular the community
level that can systemically contribute to building resilience to hazards. This
goal requires a central role for women in prevention, preparedness and response
to disaster, which, the study says, unfortunately is often overlooked.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) research, women and children are
particularly affected by disasters, accounting for more than seventy five
percent of displaced persons. In addition to the general effects of natural
disaster and lack of health care, women are vulnerable to reproductive and
sexual health problems, and increased rates of sexual and domestic violence.
Women’s vulnerability can be further increased by the loss of men and/or
livelihoods, especially when a male head of household has died and the women
must provide for their families. Moreover, gender roles dictate that women
become the primary caretakers for those affected by disasters – including
children, the injured and sick, and the elderly – substantially increasing
their emotional and material work load. A woman’s pre-disaster familial
responsibilities are magnified and expanded by the onset of a disaster or
emergency, with significantly less support and resources.
Alg_cp_wIn addition, gender inequality in social, economic and political
spheres often results in vast differences between men and women in many areas
of disaster relief: emergency communication; household decisions about use of
relief assets; voluntary relief and recovery work; access to evacuation shelter
and relief goods.
WHO and UNISDR researches encourage policymakers, planners and practitioners to
better incorporate gender issues into disaster management and particularly in
disaster mitigation and response. This would require, among others, engaging
women as full and equal partners in community-based disaster mitigation and
planning, carrying out sex disaggregated vulnerability and capacity assessments
to identify those women who are particularly at-risk, training women and
setting up gender balanced emergency response teams, women-led peer exchanges
to transfer and scale up risk reduction practices, integrating women at the
highest levels of planning and decision making in camp environments and
employing women as primary distributors of emergency rations and medical
supplies.