Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is exactly what it sounds like- a set of practices and principles that aim to minimize the impacts of natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to typhoons. Â Friday, October 13 2017 is International DRR Day. Join us in learning more about what DRR is and how identities must be considered in its development and implementation.
According to UN Office on Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) disaster risk reduction is about choices. In so many words, DRR works to prepare communities for all aspects of disasters- before, during, and after by reducing hazard exposures, lessening people and property’s vulnerability to these hazards, improving preparedness and early warning systems, and wise land management. Risk reduction can take many different forms ranging from planned relocation (such as coastal areas in Alaska where communities are losing land to sea-level rise, melting ice, and eroding coastlines that necessitate relocating their home) to disaster response plans (such as evacuation plans for natural disasters); DRR works with the needs of individual community circumstances.
In the aftermath of storms in the Gulf Coast, Florida, across the Caribbean, and Puerto Rico, it is clear that relief efforts are best led by local entities. Disaster risk reduction aims to be an element streamlined within responses and rebuilding- asking how we decrease fatalities and protect communities in the face of storms that are increasing in both strength and frequency due to an ever-changing climate. Composing 70 percent of the world’s one billion poorest people, women are affected most directly and negatively by climate disruption.  We know that in 2014 natural disasters forced 19 million people from 100 countries to flee their homes, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center 2015 report. We also know that women and children are 14 times more likely to die during an extreme weather event. That’s why within the UN disaster risk reduction work, the suggestions put in place take into account identities, such as gender, age, and ability, in community efforts.
Understanding the unique vulnerabilities and also the proven leadership of women in disaster risk reduction, the Women and Gender Constituency at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction platform (UNISDR conference),, highlighted many of the key ways that gender and disaster risk reduction go hand in hand. This group of gender and human rights activists from civil society emphasized the way that identity informs how impacts are felt disproportionately, especially by women. They urged state and local governments to consider the following:
Protect, promote and fulfill women’s human rights - including rights to land and other assets, mobility, formal and informal education, and information, as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights. Women are often responsible for farming land and caretaking property, yet lack legal and financial rights to utilize these assets post-disaster.
Identify national platforms for ensuring coherence among Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda, and DRR policies, and ensure inclusive engagement of civil society, including women’s organizations, within these national platforms.
Focus on women’s participation, leadership and decision-making within local, regional and global platforms for DRR and beyond, by committing to addressing gender parity at all levels; by reducing and redistributing unpaid domestic and care work of women; and by establishing mechanisms to provide capacity building, financial support and public services that ensure women actively engage in DRR processes.
Ensure that DRR monitoring and evaluation strategies are gender responsive. Use sex, age and disability-disaggregated (SADD) data and gender analysis as fundamental planning tools to strengthen participation, leadership and advocacy of women-led and feminist organizations. Qualitative and quantitative data should be designed, collected, analyzed and shared meaningfully, including by women’s organizations at all levels.
Government policies must prioritise gender funding, gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming. Women’s organizations must have direct access to funding on DRR.
Want to get involved? Even in places where risk reduction efforts and plans are in place, there can still be inestimable impacts. In the first few months of the 2017 hurricane season, we’ve seen one of the costliest storm surges in Atlantic history. As you learn more about DRR, remember that after storms is always a period of necessary rebuilding and first response to impacted communities. Please consider giving to the Sierra Club’s fundraiser where 100% of the donations will be going directly to community organizations on the ground in the hardest-hit areas. We know that even after news coverage of these areas has stopped, there is still much support needed by people on the ground.