As the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), together with partners and allies, prepares to host the first Global Feminist Conference: Reimagining Resilience: Collective Futures for Disaster Risk Reduction, from 5–7 November in Istanbul, Türkiye, the world is confronting an exceptionally strong El Niño.

According to the World Meteorological Organization's latest climate update, published on 8 October 2026, El Niño is expected to continue intensifying toward a peak in December, bringing above-average temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns that increase the risk of drought and flooding in different regions. Many will have seen the term "super El Niño" appearing in media coverage. While not a formal scientific classification, it reflects growing concern about the potential intensity of this event and its impacts on communities around the world.

We know these impacts will not be experienced equally. As the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has consistently highlighted, disaster risk is shaped by existing inequalities, including gender, poverty, disability, discrimination and unequal access to resources and decision-making. Who has access to early warnings, secure housing, land, mobility, financial resources and social protection can determine who is able to prepare, who can evacuate and who bears the greatest consequences when disasters strike.

This moment calls for more than concern. Preparedness is feminist work, and our movements have a responsibility and an opportunity to act.

We do not have to wait for disaster to act

Governments, UN agencies and disaster management authorities are already mobilizing. In Tanzania, for example, the government rescheduled several national examinations in anticipation of heavy El Niño-related rainfall, seeking to minimize disruption and protect students and educators from potential flooding and transportation challenges.

This is the kind of anticipatory action that can make a difference. The United Nations has emphasized that just 24 hours' warning before a hazardous event can reduce resulting damage by up to 30%. The 2025 Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems report also found that disaster-related mortality is nearly six times lower in countries with more comprehensive early warning systems than in countries with limited capabilities. These findings reinforce a simple principle: acting before disasters strike saves lives, protects livelihoods and reduces harm.

But preparedness cannot rest with governments and formal disaster response institutions alone. Feminist organizations and movements have knowledge, networks, relationships and organizing power that are essential to reaching people before a crisis occurs.

We do not need disaster risk reduction or disaster response explicitly included in our strategies, theories of change or results frameworks to recognize that preparedness is part of our collective responsibility. We can start by reviewing our own programmes, convenings and planned activities, adjusting where necessary and ensuring that our teams, partners and communities have the information and support they need.

We can also put our existing networks to work. Feminist organizations can share early warnings, translate and contextualize preparedness information, identify emerging risks and reach communities that are often excluded from formal communication channels. We can engage with governments and national disaster coordination mechanisms, offer our expertise and advocate for preparedness plans that recognize the different realities of women and marginalized communities.

Feminist leadership is essential to effective preparedness

The importance of feminist leadership in disaster risk reduction is already recognized within international policy commitments. The Sendai Framework Gender Action Plan, launched in March 2024 following consultations involving 65 countries and more than 500 non-governmental stakeholders, provides a framework for strengthening gender-responsive disaster risk reduction, including women's participation and leadership in preparedness, early warning systems and anticipatory action.

Yet there remains a significant gap between these commitments and their implementation. UNDRR's 2023 assessment of gender equality in disaster risk reduction found that good practices developed by local organizations, women's organizations and civil society remain largely unrecognized, despite their contributions to reducing disaster risk.

This is not only a question of inclusion. It is a question of whose knowledge is valued, whose leadership is recognized and who has the power and resources to act. Women's organizations often understand the specific risks facing their communities, including barriers to accessing information, unsafe evacuation routes, unpaid care responsibilities, threats of gender-based violence and disruptions to essential services. Their participation must be meaningful, resourced and reflected in decisions, not limited to consultation after plans have already been developed.

A 2025 UN Women brief on gender-responsive disaster risk reduction, drawing on experience in the Pacific, demonstrates the importance of connecting locally led action with national policy, regional solidarity and global influence. It offers practical lessons for governments, donors and women's organizations seeking to strengthen resilience by investing in women's leadership at every level.

Fund flexibility is part of preparedness

Funders also have a critical role to play, and this is a moment for solidarity that goes beyond rhetoric.

At a minimum, funders should offer flexibility around programme implementation, activities, reporting timelines and other requirements for organizations operating in areas facing heightened risks. Feminist organizations should not be forced to choose between meeting grant deliverables and responding responsibly to changing conditions in their communities.

More importantly, resources must be made available now so that feminist organizations can actively contribute to preparedness, anticipatory action and response. Too often, significant funding becomes available only after a disaster strikes, even when local organizations have spent weeks or months warning of risks, sharing information, adapting activities and supporting communities with little or no additional resources.

The evidence for doing things differently is clear. Research on gender-inclusive disaster risk financing, highlighted by UN Women, emphasizes the importance of locally led anticipatory action and engaging organizations that understand the needs and capacities of affected communities. It also calls for adequate resources to ensure meaningful participation, inclusive contingency planning and the ability to act before crises escalate.

If funders are serious about locally led, gender-responsive approaches, those commitments must be reflected in where resources go, how quickly they can be accessed and how much flexibility organizations have to respond to emerging risks.

Preparedness is about power

We cannot afford to wait until disasters strike, count the lives lost and then disaggregate those numbers by gender. By that point, too many opportunities to prevent harm will have already been missed.

Feminist approaches to disaster risk reduction require us to look further upstream. They challenge the inequalities that make some communities disproportionately vulnerable in the first place and ask who has access to information, infrastructure, mobility, financial security and decision-making power. They also recognize that resilience cannot simply mean asking communities to continually withstand crises while the structures that create and deepen their vulnerability remain unchanged.

This is part of what we will explore together in Istanbul in November. Reimagining resilience means thinking not only about how we respond to disasters, but about the relationships, resources, systems and collective power we build before they happen.

Disaster risk reduction demands a whole-of-society approach. We are part of that society. Our movements, our knowledge, our networks, our resources and our collective power must be part of preparedness and response.

The strengthening El Niño is a reminder that we have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to act now. Let us move beyond solidarity in principle and turn our feminist commitments into concrete action before the next crisis unfolds.