Speech of Regional Director at the Regional Commemoration of 2012 International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) and ASEAN Day for Disaster Management (ADDM) themed, “Women and Girls – (In) Visible the Force of Resilience” on 12 October 2012

I wish to thank the organisers for inviting UN Women’s participation on this programme on today with the Theme “Women and Girls: the Invisible Force of Resilience”.

Last night, I mentioned to a colleague that I was going to attend this forum to speak on women’s resilience. She looked at me and with some skepticism, even cynicism, challenged me to define resilience.

It is something that I too have been struggling with over these years. We often use the word to describe our awe and humility in the face of people continuing their lives in the face of unimaginable tragedy that disasters can bring. We marvel at the human spirit to persevere, to overcome, to reconstruct. And we are deeply moved by the humanity that emerges when in the face of scarcity and limits, communities bind together, sharing resources of food, shelter and labour. And we are comforted by the ability to love, to find some joy even in the darkest of times.

When we say resilience, we use it as a code word for all those psychological traits and perspectives that help individuals and communities to cope and move forward.

We know resilience to be connected, to be determined by community solidarity and by attitudinal fortitude.

This conference, this theme today though asks us not to romanticize resilience but to respond to the factors that contribute to vulnerability so that we can build resilience. The Greek translation of the Latin word for vulnerability, I am told means “having a pre-existing injury or weakness”. It is that pre-existing weakness or wound that provides the disabling environment when a disaster strikes.

And now we know a lot about what those pre-existing fault lines are for people in general, but in particular for women. We know that disasters have the worst effects in situations of poverty where housing is poor, where infrastructure of roads, sanitation, water, transportation are inadequate., where there geographic isolation limits access to health and social services; where communities are not involved in disaster planning and management.

And we also understand better that women are differentially affected by disasters because of the intersections of inequalities, experiencing poverty as well as gender discrimination manifested through the absence of voice, power and influence over family, community and state decisions about the allocation of resources.

The World Bank in its work in this region argues for example, that women often experience higher rates of mortality, morbidity and post-disaster diminishment in their livelihoods. Several underlying factors exacerbate women’s vulnerability to the impacts of disasters, such as lack of means to recoup lost assets, limited livelihood options, restricted access to education and basic services, and in many cases, also socio-cultural norm

This exclusion-based vulnerability has negative multiplier effects as in all countries, whether families are single headed, nuclear or extended, women bear the responsibility for social reproduction, for ensuring that the children, the sick and the elderly are cared for. They have to find the water, the food, the time for care and the time and resources for economic activity.

And so in this context, when we speak about women as  force for resilience we wish to affirm their capacities for care taking of others but we also wish to be working out how we can address structural weaknesses that ensure resilience, that reduce  vulnerability.

We need to know what are the economic, social and cultural factors that perpetuate inequalities and exclusion in our societies for all people. And we need to ensure through gender and equity analysis that we understand how women and men, boys and girls are differently located in their access to resources, their opportunities to participate in community and state decision making about the allocation of resources and services. We need to ensure that women have agency and autonomy in the determination of their family arrangements, are protected from violence and have access to decent work and social protection.

Because it is eliminating gender inequality at the material and ideological/cultural levels, that we have the best chance of strengthening resilience that allows women and their families and communities to rebound from disaster.

And so with this understanding, the demand from women is for an engagement both pre and post disaster that is gender sensitive, that addresses their differential needs and harnesses their capacities.

The SG’s statement gives concrete examples of such engagement makes a huge difference. He refers to Viet Nam, where villagers have been introduced to disaster reduction issues through customized radio soap operas that incorporate real-life examples and stories from local women.  

In the Bolivian Altiplano, indigenous women have consolidated traditional agricultural and climatic knowledge, which resulted in significant reduction of crop losses from hail, frost and flooding.

Here in Thailand, the Chumchon Thai Foundation and the Friends of Women Foundation have been strengthening and formalizing the work of women’s networks to, for example, educate at-risk villagers on urgent renovations and government loans. They have also worked with local authorities to ensure that boats will be available to transport pregnant women and the disabled to safety first.

These are practical applications of gender-sensitive community-based disaster management. They illustrate how women’ capacities for leadership and management make a difference in disaster risk management (DRM) efforts through participation and empowerment in the planning, decision-making and implementation processes.

There are many actions that can be taken to incorporate gender issues into disaster risk management. These include:

• Ensuring both men and women are involved in DRM planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes.
• Improving information, awareness and participation in project planning, implementation and monitoring initiatives.
• Ensuring sex-disaggregated data are collected both in the pre- and post-disaster situation.
•  Including women’s groups and women in communities in data collection and data analysis.
• Identify gender specific recovery needs, especially with respect to housing, land / property rights; and physical / mental health, and engage women in all recovery activities.

And so, in celebrating the spirit of resilience, we have the equal obligation to strengthen the environment within which women and men have equal access to resources and services, where harmful and restrictive gender roles and unequal power relations are eliminated so that we all have an expectation and entitlement to be full equal participants in the governance of our communities and societies.