Updated 27 July 2011

(Please see below for related articles and resources)

Impact of earthquake on women, children and the elderly and actions taken

Quake’s aftermath weighs heavily on women http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/04/15/9299

From the GDN mailing list: http://groups.preventionweb.net/scripts/wa-PREVENTIONWEB.exe?A0=GDNET-L

Please see below notes, focal points and links to agencies and organisations involved in response and recovery provided by women from Japan. With thanks to Dr Jane Henrici, Study Director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research http://www.iwpr.org for compiling the list.

Tamiyo Kondo, Associate Professor at Kobe University Graduate School of Engineering and Department of Architecture, provided the following information:

-Some academics sent some recommendations to the national government, mainly about gender issues in disaster response and recovery phases.

-Volunteer coordinator centers are going to be set up soon. Those who would like to send supplies for women can coordinate with these centers.

-Japanese academics and planners are seeking out how to contribute to the national government’s efforts for better response and recovery.

The links below are provided by Keiko Ikeda, Shizuoka University and Yoko Saito, UNCRD Disaster Management Planning, Hyogo Office.

Announcement from the Government of Japan http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/topics/2011/earthquake2011tohoku.html

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan
http://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html

International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special2/20110311tohoku.htm

+++Reports of NGOs+++

AAR Japan
http://www.aarjapan.gr.jp/english/

ADRA Japan
http://www.adrajpn.org/

AMDA (Medical assistance)
http://www.amdainternational.com/english/index.php

The NGO Collaboration Center for HANSHIN QUAKE Rehabilitation
http://tohoku-pacific-eq.seesaa.net/ (Provides daily briefings on the aftermath of the earthquake and support extended to affected prefectures)

JOICEP (Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning)
http://www.joicfp.or.jp/eng/

IVY (International Volunteer Centre of Yamagata) This organization coordinates NGOs in the field. http://www.ivyivy.org/e/ (Yamagata is a prefecture bordering with worst hit Miyagi)

JANIC (Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation) apex body of Japanese NGOs
http://www.janic.org/en/ (Their English-language site does not have information on the disaster)

Peace Winds Japan
http://www.peace-winds.org/en/

SEEDS Asia
http://www.seedsasia.org/eng/index.html

Situation reports and appeal http://www.seedsasia.org/eng/projects-japan.html

World Vision Japan
http://www.worldvision.jp/english/index.html (Their English-language site does not have information on the disaster)

+++Information in multiple languages for affected foreigners+++

FM Waiwai
http://www.tcc117.org/fmyy/index.php

Tohoku area Pacific offshore earthquake multi-language support center http://eqinfojp.net/

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Looking back at the Great Hanshin Awaji earthquake

In 1995, a 6.8 moment magnitude earthquake struck the southern part of the Hyogo prefecture in Japan, killing more than 6,000 people. A women’s group called Women’s Net Kobe was at the front line to give support to abused women following the earthquake. Below are some resources produced by Women’s Net relating their experiences and observations after the earthquake.

Earthquakes and women http://www.ajwrc.org/english/sub/voice/15-2-2.pdf

Discussion among women six months after the earthquake: http://homepage2.nifty.com/bousai/pdf/Discussion_eplogue.pdf

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This day highlights the milestones women across the world have achieved in the midst of patriarchal capitalist societies, hostile regimes and disaster events. Dating back to the Bread and Roses rally in New York where women immigrants marched for better working conditions in the garment factories, March 8 a century later reflects the continuing struggles of marginalised women everywhere: women who are denied access to basic human rights, silenced by bullets and maimed by poverty. If we are to change this oppressive world order, the task ahead is enormous; we need to forge alliances and work together amidst our diversity. 

Do you have something to say? Email your 100 words for women at: gdn@gdnonline.org and become part of the global GDN Digital Quilt project.

Gender-based violence in the conflict zones of Africa has reached epidemic proportions yet remains a silent disaster in the continent, invisible in the media and beyond donors’ reach.

Gender based violence increases during and after disasters as already fragile structure of law and order breaks down. The Global Fund for Women reports that more than a million women were raped, mutilated and abused during and after the civil wars in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. Boys and girls are also affected. Boys served as cooks, porters and messengers while girls are forced into marriages and abducted as sex slaves.  Men, despite being often portrayed as perpetrators, are raped, killed and suffer from psychological trauma.

It is therefore important to understand that women, men, boys and girls experience disasters in different ways. In many reports after disasters, women are shown to be disproportionately affected because of their low social, economic and political status in society even before violent conflict and disaster strike. In their everyday lives, women and girls are often exposed to abuse when fetching water or gathering firewood. Women are restricted access to credit and are prohibited to inherit or own land. In disasters, women refugees are often forced to trade sex for survival, while relief policies favour refugee men.

However, despite the circumstances that women find themselves in, evidence from the ground has started to dismantle the ‘women as victims’ myth. Time and again, women continue to show their resilience in the face of disasters. They help build shelters and soup kitchens, organize self-help groups, and mobilize community to take action. Post-conflict, they play crucial roles in formal and informal peacekeeping initiatives. In 2003, Liberian women mobilized and demanded an “unconditional ceasefire, a negotiated settlement and an international community presence in Liberia.” In Ghana, during the peace negotiations in which women were markedly absent, “a group of women held a parallel meeting resulting in The Golden Tulip Declaration. They physically barricaded the stalled peace talks using their bodies as human shields and demanded that an agreement be reached.” Women in Monrovia formed the West Point Women’s Action Group to prevent rape and other violence.

Similar stories of women’s capacities and resilience abound and there is a need to systematically document these accounts in support of evidence-based research that could inform risk reduction policies and programmes and the development agenda.

There is also a need to build networks and coalitions to amplify the advocacy on gender justice and women’s rights in post-conflict and disaster situations. Writing on the status of women in Africa, Pumla Dineo Gqola, a feminist writer and academic, argues for a “coalition of women across the continent to further the cross-pollination of strategies, experience and research.” Gqola emphasised on taking advantage of the opportunities provided by ICTs.

One initiative of this nature is the Gender-based Violence Prevention Network. It was initiated by Raising Voices and UN Habitat’s Safer Cities Programme in response to the disconnect with other like-minded organizations and the need for space to share programs, approaches, strategies and ideas on GBV prevention. At the global level, the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) draws on the interconnectivity provided by the World Wide Web to generate, share and exchange knowledge on gender and disaster risk reduction (GDRR) by documenting, analysing and transmitting the experiences of women and men; girls and boys, before, during, and after disasters and highlighting their capacities as agents of change.

Preventing gender based violence, addressing a culture of impunity and upholding women’s rights in disasters are not easy tasks. Collective action coming from the ground with support from governments, international NGOs, donors and the media is imperative to achieve fundamental change in the way society treats and views women and other marginalised social groups.

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References:
Bennett, T.W. Using Children in Armed Conflict: A Legitimate African Tradition? Criminalising the Recruitment of Child Soldiers. ISS Monograph Series No. 32 December 1998. Institute of Security Studies South Africa. http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/monographs/no32/UsingChildren.html (accessed 15 November 2010)

Cape Town Principles on the Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces on Demobilization and Social reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa. Cape Town, South Africa, 27-30 April 1997.

Gcola, P.D. The Status of Women in Africa. In Gender Instruments in Africa Consolidating Gains in the Southern African Development Community,ed. Ruiters, M. Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa. 2008.

Global Fund for Women Annual Report 2009-2010. http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/what-we-do/publications/reports/latest-annual-report/1826 (accessed 10 November 2010)

Marsh, M. , Purdin, S. and Navani, S. ‘Addressing sexual violence in humanitarian emergencies’, Global Public Health, 1:2, 133 – 146. International Rescue Committee, New York. USA. 2006.

Neumayer, E. and Plumper, T. The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981-2002. Final Version. Social Science Research Network. January 2007. http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/SSRN_Neumayer_Plumper_GenderedNature_NaturalDisasters.pdf accessed 10 November 2010

Reproductive Health Matters. Conflict and and Crisis Settings: Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Ed. Petchesky, R.P. http://www.rhm-elsevier.com accessed 10 November 2010

Scanlon, H. and Muddell K. Gender and Transitional Justice in Africa: Progress and Prospects. In African Journal on Conflict Resolution. Vol. 9, No. 2. ACCORD 2009.

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Note: An excerpted and edited version of this article appeared in the Genderlink website.

Gender and women’s networks around the world appealed for a gender-sensitive approach to the Haitian earthquake. Below are some links to news, solidarity statements issued by women’s groups, and resources for humanitarian and emergency responders:

SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS

GDN reaching out — how can we help?

Deklarasyon AWID sou kriz imanitè ann Ayiti apre Tranblemandtè janvye 2010 lan
Statement on Haiti issued by The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

Rekòmandasyon sou politik Kowalisyon Entènasyonal Fanm Defansè Dwa Moun (Creole)
Policy recommendations from the International Coalition of Women’s Human Rights Defenders (English)

RESOURCES

Gender and Disaster Network

Gendering DRR — Resources for emergency responders and humanitarian workers
Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres con Enfoque de Género. Recursos Claves

NEWS

Tens of thousands of pregnant women at risk

After the quake, depend on women

Haiti earthquake situationer reports

Haiti’s children most vulnerable after massive quake - aid agencies

The recent disasters which struck neighbouring countries in Asia and the Pacific emphasised once again the need for gender sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy.

Here are several resources which provide some basic principles in gendering DRR:

1) GENDER EQUALITY IN DISASTERS: SIX PRINCIPLES FOR ENGENDERED RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION. http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/GDN_GENDER_EQUALITY_IN_DISASTERS.pdf

Equidad de Genero en los Desastres: Seis Principios para Transversalizar el Género en la Respuesta
y en la Reconstrucción. http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/GDN_sixprinciples_es.pdf

L’egalite des Genres dans la Prevention et la Gestion des Catastrophes: Les Six Principes pour une Résilience
et une Reconstruction Collective. http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/GDN_sixprinciples_fr.pdf

2) WORKING WITH WOMEN AT RISK: PRACTICAL GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING LOCAL DISASTER RISK. http://gdnonline.org/resources/WorkingwithWomenEnglish.pdf

CÓMO TRABAJAR CON MUJERES EN SITUACIONES DE RIESGO DIRECTRICES PRÁCTICAS PARA
EVALUAR LA VULNERABILIDAD A LOS DESASTRES NATURALES Y LA CAPACIDAD DE RESPUESTA A
NIVEL LOCAL. http://gdnonline.org/resources/WorkingWithWomenSpanish.pdf

3) WORKING WITH WOMEN IN EMERGENCY RELIEF AND REHABILITATION PROGRAMMES. http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/catalog/autogen/0097.asp

4) GENDER-AWARE DISASTER PRACTICE: A SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR DISASTER RESPONDING AGENCIES. http://gdnonline.org/resources/gender-sensitive-planning.doc

5) MAKING DISASTER RISK REDUCTION GENDER-SENSITIVE: POLICY AND PRACTICAL GUIDELINES. http://www.preventionweb.net/files/9922_MakingDisasterRiskReductionGenderSe.pdf

6) GUIDELINES FOR GENDER-SENSITIVE DISASTER MANAGEMENT. http://www.apwld.org/pdf/Gender_Sensitive.pdf

7) GENDER MATTERS: TALKING POINTS ON GENDER EQUALITY AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION. www.gdnonline.org/resources/gendermatters-talkingpoints-ee04.doc

8)  WOMEN, GIRLS, BOYS & MEN. DIFFERENT NEEDDS - EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES.  IASC GENDER HANDBOOK FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTION. http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/gender

9) THE SPHERE PROJECT: HUMANITARIAN CHARTER AND MINIMUM STANDARDS IN DISASTER RESPONSE. http://www.sphereproject.org/

10) GENDER EQUALITY AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE: A GUIDE TO THE ISSUES. http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/INET/IMAGES.NSF/vLUImages/Africa/$file/Guide-Gender.pdf

11) GENDER SENSITIVE DISASTER MANAGEMENT: A TOOLKIT FOR PRACTITIONERS. http://gdnonline.org/resources/Pincha_GenderSensitiveDisasterManagement_Toolkit.pdf

TRANSLATED IN:

TAMIL. http://gdnonline.org/resources/Pincha_Gender_Sensitive_DM_Toolkit_Tamil.pdf

BAHASA INDONESIA. http://gdnonline.org/resources/Pincha_GenderSensitiveDM_BahasaIndonesia.pdf

TURKISH. http://gdnonline.org/resources/PinchaKitap_Turkce_RENKLI.pdf

The list is not exhaustive, for more resources please visit the Gender and Disaster Sourcebook >> Policy and Planning Tools: http://www.gdnonline.org/sourcebook/chapt/ind.php?id=2

To add your publication to the G&D Sourcebook, email us at: gdn[at]gdnonline.org.