Engendering Community-based Disaster Risk Management

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles and relationships between women and men. These are learned, change over time, and vary within and between countries and cultures according to social, religious, historical and economic factors. Gender contrasts with sex, which describes a set of biological differences between women and men.

With the shifts in approaches in disaster management from scientific to social, relief to risk reduction and top-down to bottom-up, gender in an emerging area of study. Introducing a gender conscious approach to community-based disaster risk management requires us to go beyond just being aware of gender issues. It means that we take actions that will challenge and transform existing unequal gender relations. It not only demands the fulfillment of the practical needs of women in disaster situations but asserts the role of women as disaster managers at family, community and organizational level. This gendered approach will not only lead to more equitable communities but also better disaster risk management. Gender conscious approach to disaster response can be adopted at all three phases i.e. before, during and after disasters at community level.

There are several gender frameworks that can be used while developing a CBDRM project, such as:
Harvard Analytical Framework or the Gender Roles or Gender Analysis Framework; looks at gender from a work or role angle.
Moser Framework looks at the practical and strategic gender needs
Triple Role Framework is similar to the Gender Roles Framework except that it looks at women’s roles in terms of economy and production, reproduction and family care and community management work.

Gender Assessment for Program/Project Planning

A gender assessment for program planning examines the proposal to determine the extent by which the program provides women and men equal opportunities to participate and benefit from the program. The proposal may be analyzed mainly on three points:

Does it give women opportunity to participate in the program/project?
Will women equally benefit from the program/project?
What are the likely effects of the program/project on women and men?

For any project to be gender-responsive, it needs to address the gender questions in all stages of the project cycle. As project managers we can influence the process of gender sensitizing being closely involved in the community. We can ensure active involvement and engagement of women and women groups from the very start of the project, utilize women’s resources, increase their access to employment, technology, financial resources and time, develop context specific guidelines for disaster response for key groups of women, promote regional and international collaboration on disaster reduction and gender equality.

This excerpt is taken mainly from, “CBDRM Field Practitioner’s Handbook” and “Tool Kit for Gender Responsive Mekong River Basin Development.”

Disaster ABC's

Empowerment - A process in which individuals learn by their own actions to become fully engaged in shaping their development potential. The process is necessarily self-led, but benefits from facilitation by supporting actors.

El Niño - El Niño is a term originally used to describe the appearance of warm (surface) water from time to time in the eastern equatorial Pacific region along the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. It was once suggested that minor El Niño events occurred about every two to three years and major ones about every eight to 11 years. Today, scientists note that El Niño has a return period of four to five years. When an El Niño event occurs, it often lasts from 12 to 18 months.

La Niña - La Niña refers to the apprearance of colder-than-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the central or eastern equatorial Pacific region (the opposite to conditions during El Niño). Many scientists do not like the use of the term and prefer to call it a cold event.
(http://www.esig.ucar.edu/elnino/glossary.html )

Disaster Trivia: El Niño induced Drought in Vietnam (1997-98)

El Niño is one of many problems Vietnam is subjected to. The droughts caused by the 1997-98 El Niño event had a major impact on the social and economic well-being of Vietnam. The droughts not only affected the crops and crop yield but it also increased the salt water intrusion in the Mekong Delta. Forest fire and the consequent haze was another serious result of El Niño, which not only affected Vietnam but the entire region. Water levels at the reservoirs of Hoa Binh, Tri An, and Thac Ba hydro-electricity plants reached an alarming low level, causing reduced power production. Water supply in Hanoi, which is stressed even in normal times, became a more serious. Shortage of water had its impact even on the health apart from affecting forestry and industrial farming. Dengue fever spread, starting in the south in 1997. In 1998, the disease came up to the coastal zone of Central Vietnam and the North. The estimated economic loss due to the drought was VND 5,000 billion (Vietnamese Dong). http://www.esig.ucar.edu/un/vietnam.html.

Daily Exercise Suggestions

For all those who have little opportunity to exercise your muscles and find yourself, spending more time in front of the computer all day, here are some tips to keep the stress from your work.

For every one hour of work, take a five minute break and stretch, walk, or meditate. With just a few minutes of relaxation, or doing something other than work, you'll increase your physical activity as well as productivity and feel better through out the day.

Every month, we will feature one of our community members in this column. This will give us a chance to get to know and learn from each other’s experiences. Would you like to be next month’s featured personality? Email us so we can send you our questions.

Our Featured Personality

Mr. Phetsavang Sounnalath, Director of National Disaster Management Office, NDMO- Lao PDR
Mr Phetsavang Sounnalath is presently the Director of National Disaster Management Office, NDMO, Lao PDR. NDMO is the secretariat of the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC), which has the mandate of disaster management in the country.

1. How did you get involved in Disaster Management?
In 1997, I was appointed Project Director for the UNDP funded project titled “Capacity Building for Lao Government Officials on Disaster Management”. This work introduced me to the field of disaster management. Prior to that, I worked as the Deputy-Director General of Social Welfare Department of Ministry of Lao PDR and Social Welfare, Lao PDR.

2. What do you enjoy most in DM Work?
I enjoy most of the challenging nature of disaster management work. I learn something new every time, especially when working and networking with other countries. This I find very fulfilling and satisfying.

3. What in your view are the key issues that need to be addressed in DM on a priority basis what changes would you like seen in the coming years in this region?
The key issues to be addressed in DM on a priority basis I believe are:

Enhancing capacity of communities in dealing with disasters, by enriching their traditional coping mechanism with new knowledge, innovative methods, and lesson that are suited to local conditions and needs.

Political will and support from policy-makers and leaders of countries not only in policy making but also in committing funds towards disaster management. In the coming years, I would like to see, more cooperated and integrated efforts and success in mainstreaming disaster management into development plans in Southeast Asia.

Gender Equality & Disaster Risk Reduction: An Action Workshop For Social Change, August 10-12, 2004, Honolulu, Hawai'i, The East-West Center, Imin International Conference Center

Mainstreaming gender equality is urgently needed but implementation of even the most basic change strategies in education, policy and practice are lacking in most parts of the world, especially with respect to mitigation and the reduction of social vulnerability. In response, this workshop offers practical tools for engendering global responses to hazard, risk and disaster. One goal of this workshop is to build actual strategies and develop practical tools relating to recommendations from previous work on gender equality and disaster risk reduction. Considerable resources and activities related to this topic have been developed through the Gender Disaster Network and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women.
For more information: http://www.ssri.hawaii.edu/research/GDWwebsite/index.html

The Media and Climate: Building Partnerships Workshop, 3-4 June 2004, Bangkok, Thailand

Organized by ADPC, this workshop aims to strengthen and sustain partnerships between media and climate communities in Southeast Asia for the accurate and effective communication of the nature and implications of climate variability and change. Target participants are journalists from the print and broadcast media and representatives of national meteorological and climatological services from 10 Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries.
For more information, please contact Ms. Lolita Bildan lolita@adpc.net

Public Health and Emergency Management Courses
The Public Health in Emergencies (PHCE) team of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) partners with various health organizations to organize the following health-related disaster management courses:


The Fourth Inter-regional Training Course on Public Health and Emergency Management in Asia and the Pacific (PHEMAP-4), 19 April-30 2004, Bangkok, Thailand
This course is designed to help strengthen the national capacity in public health and emergency management by focusing on policy development issues relevant to the Asia and the Pacific regions. Coverage of the course modules include, among others, context of emergencies, risk and damage assessment and analysis, and public health in emergencies.

Disasters and Develoment (with a focus on health) Training Program, 31 May-11 June, 2004, Bangkok, Thailand
In collaboration with the Southeast Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this course is intended to enhance the participants' capacity to design and implement disaster reduction programs, with special emphasis on the health sector. The curriculum covers a broad range of subjects, including sustainable development, information management, complex disasters, mobilization of resources and others, yet with special emphasis on the health sector.
For more information on the above courses, please contact Janette Ugsang, PHCE Course Manager at janette@adpc.net

ADPC Regional Courses for 2004

Community Based Disaster Risk Management 12 (CBDRM-12), July 5-16, Manila, the Philippines
This course will provide opportunities for learners to acquire tools and obtain knowledge on "how to " design and implement programs for reducing vulnerability and hazards and building community capacity so as to promote a culture of safety. It tackles the issues of disaster risk management from a developmental perspective.

Flood Disaster Risk Management Course 6 (FDRM-6), September 6-17, Bangkok, Thailand
This course is an integrated approach to development of flood risk reduction strategies and land use planning (with environmental considerations). This multi-disciplinary treatment of the flood problem and of the requirements of flood risk management is expected to enable a holistic view of the situation and the needed preparedness measures. Cases of responses at the national and local levels are presented to give the mitigation measures concrete applications. The Course concludes with determination of measures desirable and applicable at the national level..

Disaster Management Course 31 (DMC-31), November 6-26, Bangkok, Thailand
This course is a flagship course of ADPC and is designed for those who have agency, community, national or international disaster management responsibilities and is intended to enable professionals working in disaster management, development and donor agencies to effectively integrate disaster management into their development programs and policies. This will help facilitate within a development framework, valuable contributions in the important areas of:

sustainable economic growth
poverty reduction
environmental conservation
overall risk reduction
For more information on the above courses, please contact Zorobabel Zuniga, ADPC Regional Course Manager at zbabel@adpc.net