Gertrude Kenyangi is executive director of Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment in Uganda. With more than 20 years experience in forestry and biodiversity, she serves in several global policy spaces — including the Women and Gender Constituency of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Women and Gender Stakeholder Group of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Q: How has disaster affected you and/or your community, and how have you been involved in disaster preparation?
A: My community and I have experienced 100% crop failure due to drought. It brought on hunger and poor nutrition, resulting in diseases such as rickets in children. In addition, due to the prolonged drought, there was no water in the sources we traditionally use, such as rivers, streams, ponds and shallow lakes.
My organization, Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), raised awareness about the disaster by gathering and documenting evidence; packaging messages to disseminate through social media and radio broadcasts; and giving testimonies in national and global policy spaces.
Q: Why is it important to involve women and girls in disaster risk reduction?
A: Evidence shows that women and girls are more frequently at the scene of disasters than men and boys. This is attributed to the patriarchal nature of our society in Sub-Saharan Africa, which confines women and girls to work in private at our homes, while the men go out to seek paid employment. As such, when women’s capacity is built to respond to a disaster, it will be put to use practically. The women involved in the crop failure disaster cited above saved their families from starvation by gathering fruits, mushrooms, and tubers from the government-protected forest. They in turn offered their service to create a wireline to stop the forest from being burnt during the drought.
The outcome of this work is that these forest-dependent women have now entered into a collaborative forest management agreement with the National Forest Authority (NFA) and they are earning an income. This has improved their household access to goods and services, and enabled them to invest in Disaster Risk Reduction facilities such as baked-brick houses. This has had spin-off benefits for women, such as improved bargaining in the household, increased agency and mutual respect, and reduced gender-based / domestic violence.
Our organization supported these efforts by developing a gender mainstreaming manual to help different levels of government (policy-making and implementation) to institutionalise gender considerations in their decision-making. We also helped strengthen the capacity of women to absorb shocks and adapt to disasters by creating a Savings and Credit Facility and providing training in business management. With this support, some of the participating women have been able to construct modern food storage barns and water harvesting facilities using their profits.
Sabnur Sultana Lima is Chief Executive Director of Ganochetona Bangladesh.
Q: How has disaster affected you and/or your community, and how have you been involved in disaster preparation?
A: I live in the Shyamnagar Upazila of Satkhira District, highly disaster-prone foothills on the southwest coast of Bangladesh. The area is most vulnerable to global warming. Due to the coastal nature of the area, constant storms, floods, river erosion and extreme salinity are daily companions of the people of this area.
Sometimes 10/20 villages are submerged in river breaks. Strong saline water from the river enters the locality, destroying drinking water ponds and crop fields and causing a severe shortage of fresh for cooking and livestock consumption. Immediately, the sewage system completely collapsed.
When super cyclones hit our area, the poorest people became homeless. There is also a shortage of food for adolescents and children. Women and children from poor families fall into the temptation of trafficking with the lure of providing expensive relief goods. All in all, the area has turned into a very bad state.
Q: Why is it important to involve women and girls in disaster risk reduction?
A: Girls and women are often the last to leave home when disaster strikes. Because the family’s elderly father-in-law, mother-in-law, father, mother, small children, livestock and necessary resources are lost or they are late to go out. During major cyclones, it is common to see heartbreaking deaths of women in the family. Men take refuge in cyclone shelters to save themselves – but in order to save other members of the family, the cattle, the small children – in the end women have to die.
My organization, Barokupot Ganochetona Foundation, provides round-the-clock information and services to pregnant mothers, the disabled and the elderly. We prepare lists of pregnant mothers, disabled and elderly families in pre-disaster times, and when natural disasters hit we use our workforce to pre-emptively reach the cyclone center for pregnant women, children, the elderly and the disabled. We are also constantly monitoring the issue of trafficking in girls and young women. In particular, this is how we deliver them to Cyclone Centers during disasters and help them safely reach their homes from their shelters post-disasters.
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Mónica Cuba is responsible for gender and knowledge management in Practical Action’s Bolivia Office.
Q: How has disaster affected you and/or your community, and how have you been involved in disaster preparation?
A: Historically, risk management has promoted greater involvement of men than women; the trend, still ongoing, seems to be that while hazards are increasing due to the climate crisis, women are still distanced from formal organizations preparing for adverse events.
Now, women in indigenous communities in the east Amazon in Bolivia, which experiences a considerable amount of flooding, are participating more in risk management. When disasters hit, it results in the need for more time for reconstruction; increased possibilities of physical and sexual violence; and increased poverty gaps. As women support, manage and are part of disaster risk reduction and community resilience, they are able to recognize their vulnerabilities and capacities.
Q: Why is it important to involve women and girls in disaster risk reduction?
A: While we recognize the role of women in risk management and in building the resilience of their communities, we know that this role is still subject to structural inequalities that place greater pressure on their productive and reproductive – care – roles, and on their role as providers of the household (in cases where their partner has migrated).
As women increasingly bring their contributions, we are promoting spaces for their participation with schedules that accommodate the needs of women and communities (evenings, weekends) and providing care spaces for children accompanying mothers or grandmothers. We recognize women’s efforts in these spaces, whether by adding an extra activity to their day or by relegating care or production activities as an investment for them, their families and their communities.
The contents of the workshops and the practices are oriented to respond to the needs of men and women linked to their experiences of flooding. The community solutions consider the participation of men and women to promote equity in participation and leadership within the communities; but also proposes parity within the organic structure of the communities with the nomination of a male-female binomial responsible for risk management in each community.
Women’s Environment
& Development Organization
