Oxfam: Lazy labelling threatens effective disaster risk reduction
On the International Day for Disaster Reduction, Ines Smyth argues that a gendered approach is the best way to ensure effective DRR. 13th October is the International Day for Disaster Reduction when citizens and governments are encouraged to take part in building more disaster-resilient communities and nations.
This is an opportunity to celebrate how people and communities are reducing their risk to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of DRR. We also want to share experience about what we all can do to reduce risk from floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, and other hazards.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a framework developed to prevent and limit disaster risks. A central notion of DRR is that of 'vulnerability', meaning that disasters do not affect people equally: some people, depending on the advantages and disadvantages associated with their sex, age, social status etc., are more exposed and sensitive to disasters. All of this is context specific.
However, a lazy tendency has developed and the sophisticated notion of 'vulnerability' often becomes a way of automatically labelling some social groups, and women in particular, as 'vulnerable'. One of the consequences is that DRR activities, as well as humanitarian responses, can ignore that women too have valuable skills and resources. In fact, working with both men and women in DRR makes the latter more effective and creates good opportunities for women to play crucial roles and realise their rights.
It is for this reason that Oxfam has developed Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction: a training pack. This training pack will help to develop practitioners’ skills and competencies in addressing gender issues throughout the project cycle.
The manual has been used to train trainers in Bangkok, in advance of the International DRR Day. The participants, from several Asian countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and from Haiti brought to the event a wealth of experience in the field of humanitarian response, DRR, and climate change adaptation, as well as their awareness of gender differences and women’s rights.
Oxfam runs a number of DRR programmes with a strong emphasis on women’s capacities. An example is the ‘Sustainable livelihoods and disaster risk reduction’ programme in areas of Pakistan prone to floods, drought, cyclones, and earthquakes. It aims to enable people to develop livelihoods that are sustainable and disaster-resilient, and to develop the capacity of communities to manage emergencies. Women are explicitly targeted in the programme.
Strategies to promote women’s empowerment include: separate community-based organizations for women and men; early-warning committees which include both women and men; gender-disaggregated disaster needs assessments; and meeting women-specific needs, such as emergency shelters for women and children only.
International Day for Disaster Reduction is another opportunity to remind all those active in this field that a 'gendered' approach (beyond the 'women as vulnerable group') to DRR is good DRR.