Launch of Women’s Leadership in Disaster Risk Reduction (Examples from the Arab States)

7 March 2022 - The UNDRR Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) launched the Women’s Leadership in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) publication in commemoration of Women’s International Day.

The virtual seminar was attended by more than 65 experts and participants from the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Group, Governments of Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, State of Palestine, Somalia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen who have contributed to valuable country case studies.

The Women’s Leadership in Disaster Risk Reduction publication is a collective cooperation of UN agencies, including UN-Habitat, UNFPA, WFP, UN Women, FAO, IOM, and regional organizations like Arab Water Council, and civil society from Oxfam.

Ms. Mami Mizutori the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, and head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction highlighted in her Keynote address that advancing gender equality in the context of disaster risk management is one of the greatest global challenges and will continue to have severe, and lasting impacts on our environment, economic and social development.

“Women bring unique experiences and skills to disaster risk reduction and management, although these skills are often not acknowledged or tapped into sufficiently”. Mr. Sujit Mohanty Chief of UNDRR (ROAS) added: “We defiantly need to adequate capacity-building measures to empower women for preparedness and build their capacities to create alternative sources of livelihood post-disaster”.

Ms. Branwen Martha Millar, UNDRR Gender Advisor presented the UNDRR’s global work on gender-responsive disaster risk reduction, and reflections on women leadership in disaster risk reduction were presented by Dr. Jean D’Cunha, the Senior Global Advisor on International Migration for the UNWOMEN Regional Office for the Arab States and Ms. Amel Azab the SDG Climate facility Project Coordinator of Arab Water Council.

Several country case studies on women's leadership in DRR on a national level were presented by the governments of Iraq, Palestine, and Somalia.  

The launch event also shed light on the cash assistance for preventing and responding to Gender-Based violence among refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, the women leadership for sustainable development in the Gaza strip, gender equality, and women’s empowerment through post-harvest losses in Sudan, and strengthening the role of women in peacebuilding through community-level natural resources management in Yemen.

The Sendai Framework outlines commitments on gender equality, citing the participation of women as critical to effectively managing risk as well as to designing, resourcing, and implementing gender-responsive disaster risk reduction policies, plans, and programs.