HFA2 - Women Making a Difference
Description
A number of countries involve women and men actively in disaster risk management and planning and have integrated gender dimensions into risk reduction and response plans. Grassroot women’s organizations, the Red Cross, Red Crescent, Oxfam and a number of NGOs mobilize both men and women in self-identifying and undertaking risk reducing action. Gender and diversity checklists exist for disaster risk reduction. Early warning often rallies a robust partnership of men and women using their distinct indigenous and modern knowledge to save lives and property. There is abundant testimony that the solutions and energy of men and women are required to prevent, mitigate and recover from disaster. UNISDR has a network of champions and strong women leaders in political positions driving disaster resilience – including Mayors and Parliamentarians and the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) for disaster risk reduction.
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) progress reports show the two gender equality indicators are lowest performing; 62 out of 70 countries reported in 2009-2011 that they do not collect gender disaggregated vulnerability and capacity information. The contributions of women and girls, visible especially at community level, remain largely isolated from government, private sector and multi-stakeholder decision-making in disaster risk reduction.
As noted in the HFA Mid-Term Review background study (done by the Huairou Commission), grassroots women’s organizations are almost always excluded and disconnected from national disaster risk reduction and recovery programmes despite successful track records of reducing everyday risks for their families and acting as innovative agents of community resilience. Women’s organizations represent untapped potential for implementation of the HFA in terms of ideas and experience.
The application of the label “vulnerable” to women effectively excludes them from many decision-making processes. Is it therefore necessary to create incentives to promote programs and organizations that increase the leadership roles of women?
What impedes gender concerns to be explicitly built into local and national action plans and policies? How can women’s contributions and leadership in disaster risk reduction be harnessed more systematically? And, are approaches different for women in national and local public office, in the private sector and at grassroot level?
Session objectives:
To explore why gender considerations seems lacking in the disaster risk reduction context of governments and private sector: What synergies are missing and why ?
To provide examples of strategies that have worked to increase women’s participation in decision making positions and how a gender perspective can change the approach to disaster risk reduction (and resilience: food security, safety, preparedness, environmental protection).
To identify strategies to ensure that women, and gender considerations, are at the centre of disaster risk reduction decision-making in HFA 2.
Discussion Agenda and Structure:
1. Motivational video; introduction and welcoming remarks by Moderator (5 min)
2. Three keynote presentations – three perspectives (30 min):
- Local leadership: Is the participation and leadership of women in disaster risk reduction invisible- or insignificant? How does a women Mayor in Mauretania apply disaster resilience to improve the city and the participation of all stakeholders. What is the “gender approach”?
- Grassroot perspectives: Women led community resilience initiatives expanding their drought resilient crops to new communities - Grassroots Women Lead Food Security Households in the Face of Rising Food Prices and Changing Climate in Kenya. How do women organize and influence change from the bottom-up?
- Government perspectives: Examples/analysis of the added value of gender-inclusive DRR, and the difficulties to implement this. What are the institutional challenges of advancing gender equality?
3. Comments from a panel (a Parliamentarian; a private sector representative; regional inter-governmental perspective) (20 min):
Based on the presentations, comment on:
- How can women leaders change disaster risk reduction, climate change action and environmental management? What are the challenges and consequences ?
- How can a gender perspective make disaster risk reduction for resilience more effective (food security, safety, preparedness, environmental protection) and can this be measured
- Strategies to mainstream women’s involvement in HFA 2: what are the bottlenecks and options.
4. Open floor questions and discussion with panelists (30 min)
5. Wrap up and conclusions by the moderator (5min)
Relevance of the Initiative:
Women and gender identified in previous Global Platforms, Regional Platforms and keys community practitioners of disaster risk reduction
Subject's link to post-2015:
Women and gender will be a key component of HFA2.
Other Information:
-Yogyakarta Declaration, Annex statement on Gender and Women post-HFA (2012)
-Gender-and-Disaster-Network: Engendering HFA
-TURNING GOOD PRACTICE INTO INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS: Investing in grassroots women's leadership to scale up local implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. An in-depth study for the HFA Mid-Term Review, Huairou Commission-GROOTS
https://www.unisdr.org/files/18197_201guptaandleung.theroleofwomenasaf.pdf
- Making Disaster Risk reduction Gender Sensitive. Policy and Practical Guidelines, UNISDR-UNDP-UICN https://www.preventionweb.net/files/9922_MakingDisasterRiskReductionGenderSe.pdf
News items will be regularly published on the Global Platform homepage at:
https://www.preventionweb.net/globalplatform/2013/
Expected Outcomes
Better understanding of the role that women and girls do and can play in disaster risk reduction decision making at local, national and global levels, and why their engagement lead to improved resilience and sustainable development.
Identification of main strategies and indicators to better stimulate, measure and track the engagement of women and girls in DRR decision making for HFA-2
Presentations
- La femme force tranquille (51.51 kB)
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GRASSROOTS WOMEN BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES IN THE WESTERN REGION OF KENYA (1.16 MB)
Speaker: VIOLET SHIVUTSE GRASSROOTS WOMAN LEADER FROM SHIBUYE COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS- KENYA
