Gender And Disaster Risk Reduction Ifrc Caribbean

LEISA PERCH, TEAM LEADER – RURAL AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTIPC-IG

JULY 11T H , 2011

Gender and Disaster Risk ReductionAn Overview

Outline of Presentation

Gender and DevelopmentGender and Disaster Risk Reduction:

Case Study – Grenada Case Study – St. Lucia Case Study - St. Kitts and Nevis

Gender Mainstreaming in DRRGender Analysis for Improved Development

ResultsGender and Climate Change

Terminology

Gender and Development: understanding how socially and culturally defined roles prescribe opportunities and capabilities for women and men and impacts on their capacity for education, employment, for accessing services

Gender Mainstreaming: In July 1997, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defined the concept of gender mainstreaming as follows: "Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality."

Gender Analysis: examines the differences in women's and men's lives, including those which lead to social and economic inequity for women, and applies this understanding to policy development and service delivery is concerned with the underlying causes of these inequities aims to achieve positive change for women (GRDC)

“GENDER EQUALITY IS AN ISSUE OF DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTIVENESS, NOT

JUST A MATTER OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS OR KINDNESS TO WOMEN”

(WB, 2002 :1) .

Gender and Development

Gender and Development

Everybody has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-

being of his/herself and of his/her family, including food, clothing, housing and

medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the

event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other

lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his/her control.

(United Nations, Declaration of Human Rights Article 25 (1))

Addressing Gender is SMART development

Leaving 50% of the population out of development weakens the sustainability of growth and development

Targeting women can be strategic and be a multiplier for development: “impact on household investment in nutrition, health, and education of children than extra income going to fathers” (World Bank 1995:28).

When women are empowered, growth and the rate of growth improves (Klasen, 2006)

Increased output of goods and services, increased leisure, increased conservation of the environment, increased capacities to enjoy good health, to exercise skills, and to

participate in decision making (Barriteau, 2005)

Taken from the Report of Third Working Group on Primary Education and General Equality of the Millennium Project, 2005

Gender dimensions of development

According to the best available data approximately 30% of those who live on less than a dollar each day are men.

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours yet receive only 10% of the world’s income.

Men own 99% of the world’s property. Women members of parliament globally average only 17% of all seats. 92% of all of the world’s cabinet ministers are men. Seventy-five percent of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are

women. Worldwide women received 78% of the wages received by men for the

same work, although in some regions, they have a better educational background. In some parts of the world, the wage gap between women and men is close to 40%.

Of the 550 million low-paid workers in the world, 40% are men. In a sample of 141 countries over the period 1981–2002, it was found

that natural disasters (and their subsequent impact) on average kill more women than men or kill women at an earlier age than men.

Sources: Social Watch, 2007 and 2008; Oxfam, 2007; Neumayer and Plümper, 2007; and ILO, 2008.

Gender – More than about women

“Development cannot be achieved if half of the world’s population is left out” – Helen Clark Beyond sex and biology Social and cultural constructs Definitions of masculine and feminine and how these define

power and access Includes focus on women’s empowerment (based on clear

data on women’s disadvantage) Engagement with men and male leaders on solutions Understanding and working to adjust notions of masculinity

which encourage violence and unequal advantage

Gender and Disaster Risk

A conceptual framework for vulnerability

Susceptibility or incapacity to withstand, adopt or adapt

Resilience or capacity to withstand, adopt or adapt

Vulnerability

Natural Event (could pose a risk or threat)

Source: Asha Kambon, 2005

What do We know about Gender and Development in the Caribbean

Different impacts for men and women in development – different issues and implications (Trotz, 2003)

Increased feminization of poverty – increasing no. of poor female headed households

Increasing feminization of HIV-AIDS in the region (see HIV-AIDS presentation)

Higher attrition amongst males in secondary schoolChallenges for women go beyond them –by implication

impacts on children and their development and role in society

Socialization, gender roles and culture have impacts on many things we do and why and how we do them

Educational attainment not translating in livelihood, employment and income – twice as many women unemployed than men (STL, 2004)

Framework for the social dimension of vulnerability to a natural disaster

Exposure to natural disaster

Nation

(Individual,

Household or

Community)

Social Susceptibility Social Resilience

Measure of social vulnerability

Source: Asha Kabon, 2005

Exposure to natural disaster

Nation

(Individual,

Household or

Community)

Social Susceptibility Social Resilience

Measure of social vulnerability

Case Study – Post-Ivan Grenada

Main impacts – housing, agriculture and tourismAgriculture: women were mainly processers in nutmeg

industry; owned little of the industry. Were immediately unemployed – non-mobile skills. Households: Fifty-one (51%) of Grenada’s households are headed by women with significant dependents. How to repair houses?

Women make up the majority of the workforce in the tourism sector and a significantly large percent of agriculture workers. Only 30% of Grenada’s hotels are likely to be operational by the end of 2005.

Reported sex for food transactions and coercion (UNECLAC/UNIFEM/UNDP, 2005)

Construction – huge source of investment BUT……………..

Gender and Land Tenure in Grenada

Gender differentiation in land ownership (2005 CWIQ, survey)

Poverty indicators: Post-Ivan

Lessons on Gender and Environment from Disasters (Kambon, 2005)

Issues Female Male

Pre DisasterDiffering Vulnerabilities - biological - social - cultural - attitudinal (risk perception)

Reproductive health needsRestricted skill baseExclusion from home constructionLow level of risk tolerance

No special restrictionsMobile skillsExclusion from child care responsibilitiesHigh level of risk tolerance

EmergencyDiffering coping mechanisms

Suffer higher incidence of depression (crying and suicide ideation);Organizing community sing-a-longs and story telling;

Alcoholism, gambling and dysfunctional behaviour;Rescuing villagers and clearing roads;

Transition (rehabilitation and Recovery)

Weak access to wage earning possibilities;Women prepared one-pot meals for the community;Devoted more time to community and reproductive work.

Easier access to wages/income;Men engaged in ‘marooning” teams for house rebuilding;Spend more time in productive work; abandonment of families and responsibilities.

ReconstructionDiffering priorities Differing access to resources;Differing access to power in the public sphere

Priorities for shelter, economic activity, food security, and health care;Women slower to return to Labour Market; Reconstruction programmes that embark on development without the inclusion of gender analysis tools;Women’s lack of involvement in governance mechanisms.

Priorities for, agriculture, Infrastructural development and economic activity;Men easy access to the Labour Market; Reconstruction programmes in construction and agricultural development that favour male participation;Gender neutral governance mechanisms that don’t recognize changing gender roles and relationships, and favour male participation.

Case Study – St. Kitts and Nevis (GEC)

HDI Rank: 62; GDP per capita over 14K; Debt to GDP – 187%. GDP declined by -8% in GEC; 2005 the sugar industry was closed

affected 15% of labour force The lack of insurance, particularly health insurance, potentially

exposes the poor and vulnerable in St. Kitts and Nevis: it is estimated that about 70 per cent of the population had no access to health insurance (Felicien, 2009a).

the labour force participation rate for women was 71.6 per cent, compared to 87.2 per cent for men (St. Kitts and Nevis CPA, 2008); women’s unemployment exceeds that of men mostly in the higher quintiles (quintiles 3–5) and not in the poorest. Conversely, unemployment seemed to affect young men particularly (St Kitts and Nevis CPA, 2008: 27).

Nevis – The Four Seasons closed for one year - 30 per cent drop in income for the Nevis government and 10% of labour force unemployed.

(Source: Perch and Roy, 2010)

Kambon, 2005

Sectoral distribution of the Impact of natural Disasters on four selected Caribbean SIDS

(Sept 2004)

Country

Impact on Productive

Sectors in US$M

Impact on Infrastructure

in US$M

Impact onsocial

sectors in US$M

Impact of social sector

as % of total

socio-economic

impact

Total Socio-economic

impactUS$M

Impact of Disaster as

% of GDP

Cayman Islands 1117.7 488.4 1810.3 0.53 3416.4 138.0

Grenada 539.2 262.4 1588 0.66 2389.6 212.0

Jamaica 215.7 112.7 220.7 0.40 549.1 8.0

Haiti 83.3 33.9 125.8 0.52 243.0 4.5

Why Gender Analysis is Important

Gender analysis - the process by which we reveal the social, psychological, ideological and material inequalities and power differentials existing between women and men that areoutcomes of the social relations of gender at the individual and institutional levels within a society.

(Eudine Barriteau, 2005)

Understanding Gender in Reality

“a basic underlying assumption embedded in the target statement, which is also highlighted in many of the outcome documents of the international conferences held in the 1990s, is that education can be used as the vehicle for women’s economic and political empowerment”, and challenges this assumption by quoting Barbara Bailey’s assertion (2003) that …education has not proven to be the vehicle for Caribbean

women’s economic, political or personal empowerment. In spite of their overall higher levels of participation and performance at the secondary and tertiary levels of Caribbean education systems, the majority of the women in the region continue to be positioned in the lowest sectors of the capital market, earn lower wages than men, suffer higher rates of unemployment, experience greater levels of poverty, are under-represented in decision-making positions at the meso and macro levels of social and political institutions and lack real personal autonomy. (p.136)[i]

[i] Bailey, B. 2003. The Search for Gender Equity and Empowerment of Caribbean

Women: The Role of Education. In: Tang-Nain, G. & Bailey, B. (eds.) Gender Equality in the Caribbean: Reality or Illusion. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers.

Gender and Environment/Disaster Management (1)

Where does Gender Apply? Use of resources – main user and for what? Who collects the resource? Who will be most affected by change in

behaviour? Do they influence others? Is there a difference in perception of the value of

the resource At the “issue”, the “policy level”,

“implementation”? Helps to identify other sources of vulnerability:

disability, age, HIV status, dependency and other health factors

Gender and Environment/DRR

Disaster Management? Where could gender apply? Issues in vulnerability – what are they? Who should be evacuated and when? Shelter Management – any issues? Response – who are those in need? Who were most

affected? Management – who could be the drivers of change? Social Risk Analysis: What happens when you don’t take

gender relations and gender into consideration – anything, nothing, something big, nothing major or something significant?

Case Study – Saint Lucia (2005)

38% of household-heads unemployed; incidence of unemployment is greater amongst female- rather than male-headed households (50% in the former versus 25%+ in the latter)

86% of male-headed households reporting the man as the principal income earner versus 68% of women heads in female-head households. 15% of children in women-headed households are the principal contributors to income versus less than 3% in male-headed households.

24.5% of women report household duties as the reason for being ‘economically inactive’, compared to less than 2% of men. This figure rises to almost 60% when considering women in the 30-49 age cohort.

(Jackson, 2005 for UNDP Barbados and the OECS)

Benefits – Engendered UNTFHS project

UNIFEM/UN Women and National Organization of Women on board from the initiation

Gender mainstreamed from the outsetA specific component on mainstreaming with specific

funds allocatedAll implementing partners trained on gender to improve

targeting and reporting in projectSpecific gender indicators identified in project documentImproved gender analysis on DRR and Agriculture

components where they were weakestGender reflected in additional protocols for DRR in

HIV/AIDS and PWDs

Example from UNTFHS project

Objective 5: Gender considerations mainstreamed in disaster risk reduction and livelihoods approaches, and ate responses to ending gender-based violence (GBV) strengthened. (Increased access for women to microfinance by 15% and increased services for Gender-based violence by end of 2007)5.0. Mainstream gender in disaster management, livelihoods security and counselling services:5.1. Improved understanding of gender analysis and the instruments for factoring gender issues into disaster management.5.2. Microfinance institutions better equipped to respond to women’s needs to enhance their livelihood.5.3 Enhanced capacity and understanding of police and justice administration personnel to respond to GBV

Gender MainstreamingGM - 1 Mainstreaming gender in disaster preparedness – to ensure consideration is given to the

differences in women’s and men’s vulnerabilities to disasters and their access to resources and information

GM – 2 Increasing women’s access to micro-financing – to facilitate the development of women-owned micro enterprises

GM - 3 Strengthening state response – to reduce the spread of gender-based violence

Tools

Gender Analysis – UNIFEM, WEDO, UNFPAGender Scorecards – (identifying impacts of

projects/interventions before-hand): UNDP and the OECD

Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (ex-ante or ex-post of policy)

Engendered EIAs (SEA – few good examples exist)

Post-Disaster Socio-economic Impact (UNECLAC, OECS)

Post Disaster Needs Assessment (UNDP)

– AN ADDED DIMENSION TO DRR EFFORTS AND BUILDING/SUSTAINING SOCIAL

RESILIENCE

Climate Change

Social Vulnerability: the additionality of climate change

Health Access to water (by 2020, between 75 and 250 million of people

are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change – IPCC FAR, 2007)

Increased incidence of vector-borne diseases; malaria could emerge in places it has never been

Income generation Floods or droughts are both bad for small farmers and their investments Access to food and nutritious food ((By 2020, in some countries, yields

from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%, IPCC FAR/Heinrich Boll Foundation SAR)

Disasters Death Destruction of property and livelihoods Resettlement

Poverty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1HWoL5Xwdk&feature=related

Implications for Response

Responding to humanitarian crisesAdaptation – building resilience in

communities and identifying options for sectors such as agriculture, water, sanitation

Mitigation: reducing GHGs from unplanned, crisis and emergency driven responses particularly by the poor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnlpv_G8f94

Gender in Climate Change

There are important gender perspectives in all aspects of climate change: 60 % of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people

are women who are dependent on their natural environment to earn a living and feed their families.

Gender inequalities in access to resources, including credit, extension services, information and technology, must be taken into account in developing mitigation activities.

Adaptation efforts should systematically and effectively address gender-specific impacts of climate change in the areas of energy, water, food security, agriculture and fisheries, biodiversity and ecosystem services, health, industry, human settlements, disaster management, and conflict and security.

Referenced from the Report of the Secretary-General on overview of UN activities in relation to climate change A/62/644.

IMPROVING GENDER OUTCOMES

Improving Development Effectiveness

Building Social Resilience

Improves analysis of the social and other impacts of climate change

Improved understanding of impacts of repeated events on systems and social resilience (moving past event-related analysis)

Can allow tracking of how long recovery takes and understanding resilience and fragility

Expands our understanding of the behaviour change needed to expand renewable energy, reduce dependency on fossil fuels

Will improve adaptation and mitigation – success depends on each of us individually

Can help make strategic decisions for the investment of scarce resources

Likely to improve human impact of climate change policy Likely to result in greater ownership by entire society of policy

reform including hard choices Can reduce/eliminate ‘ additional harm’ of supposed gender-

neutral policy

The need to mainstream and not just add…..

mainstream gender perspectives into national policies, action plans and other measures on sustainable development and climate change, carrying out systematic gender analysis, collecting and utilizing sex-disaggregated data, establishing gender-sensitive indicators and benchmarks, developing practical tools to support increased attention

to gender perspectives, More research on the social dimensions not only of

climate change but about climate change responses i.e. human behaviour and social change, and

Consultation with and participation of women in climate change initiatives and ensuring a role for women’s groups and networks. Involving the Gender Bureaux and Ministry of Social Development. [Policy Reform]

Examples of DRR and CC Links in Policy

Constitutional Reform in Bangladesh (http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-laying-constitutional-groundwork-to-seek-climate-damages/ )

Government of Maldives – Strategic National Adaptation Plan which links Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (SNAP) -www.drrprojects.net/.../drrpp_file.file.bff298f63b65aa07.4d616c64

Government of Tonga: In 2010, Tonga’s Cabinet endorsed a Joint National Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (JNAP)

Examples of CC and Gender

Bangladesh, Sao Tome e Principe and Solomon Islands

Bangladesh prioritizes women and the poor in its NAPA (Government of Bangladesh, 2005), and was nominated for “Gender Champion of the Week” at the Copenhagen 2009 climate talks for its strong interventions on gender and providing significant support for women to participate in the climate talks (Somera, 2009).

São Tomé e Príncipe’s NAPA offers another example of how it is possible to combine several benefits in one project: constructing two systems of water supply in rural zones combines adaptation to climate change, helps the rural poor, and decreases the burden that women face in water collection (Government of São Tomé e Príncipe, 2007).

Multiplier effect of Crises and Multiple Crises

Fuel crisis-Food Crisis – Global Economic crisis

Haiti: earthquake (201o) – 200,000+ dead; millions homeless and infrastructure devastated; cholera (early 2011): 5300 dead and thousands hospitalized; tropical storm (June 2011): 20+ dead and thousands affected by landslides

Antigua and Barbuda (Jose and Lenny in 1999) and Jamaica (Wilma, Emily and Dennis in 2005; Ivan and Charley in 2004 and Isidor and Lili in 2002 and Charley and Haiti 2008)

Further Reading

Eldis website and BRIDGE (http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/go/home&id=58722&type=Document&langid=1)

http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/En/JUD-31194519-KBD

UNDP CRI Reports on Gender and DRR and Gender and CC - http://www.undp.org.cu/crmi/en/doclist.asp

Women’s Leadership in DRR (Oxfam): http://www.undp.org.cu/crmi/docs/oxfam-womenleaderdrr-td-2011-en.pdf

http://devnet.anu.edu.au/GenderPacific/pdfs/23_gen_mainstream_hunt.pdf

www.undp.org/gender www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper75.pdf

Thank You!

For further information,

Pls contact:Leisa [email protected]