World leaders are meeting to discuss disaster risk efforts. Here’s why a rights-based approach is more urgent than ever.
By Ramona Miranda, Mwanahamisi Singano and Bertha Garcia
This week, as the economic elite gather in Davos at the World Economic Forum, a lesser-known global gathering is taking place on the other side of the world. In Bali, the UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) — the world’s foremost gathering on reducing disaster risk and building resilience— is meeting for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past 50 years, the world has witnessed a five-fold increase in the number of weather-related disasters. And considering that 98 percent of disaster displacement in 2020 alone was caused by weather-related events, we can anticipate that disasters will continue to be more frequent and intense.
As women from the Global South, we have seen firsthand how disasters can in a matter of seconds destroy lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, nature and culture. And as members of the Women’s Major Group — one of the official constituencies under UNDRR’s Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism — we also have solutions from across the globe toward strengthening our collective disaster response efforts.
The 7th Global Platform is one of the key moments for a mid-term review of the Sendai Framework, the international framework that outlines seven global targets for disaster risk reduction to be met by 2030. It’s the perfect time, in the wake of COVID19 pandemic and interconnected crises, to assess the global state of DRR. Doing so must include a more intentional evaluation of how integral a rights-based approach is to this agenda.
The notion that women and other marginalized communities are the most vulnerable to climate change and to the impacts of natural disasters has become well-known in global development circles. Less so is the acknowledgment that women have been leading disaster prevention and response efforts since time immemorial. In communities in Tanzania–for example–women know what to do in the rainy season to fortify the riverbanks, prevent flooding and protect their farms and houses. They have mastered techniques to prevent disaster and have been and continue to share that knowledge from one generation to the next.
Although women carry out disaster risk reduction efforts in their daily work and lives, that leadership is often stripped away when large disasters occur. And because the position of women and girls has often been framed as one of victimization, their role in policy processes and program designs has been minimized. One way to promote the kind of inclusive decision-making called for in the Sendai framework is to support women in reclaiming their space and power as leaders.
In the same way that we cannot build resilience without women, we cannot truly address disaster management without responses that involve everyone. The latest reports from the IPCC have shown a clear need for a comprehensive response to climate change and DRR. Yet global development issues are often discussed and addressed in separate fora — utilizing different monitoring mechanisms.
At the national level, too, there is a need for more coordinated responses that prioritize rights. For example, a recent review on how to implement the Sendai Framework in the Asia Pacific region flagged a lack of coordination between institutions responsible for disaster risk reduction and other national and provincial development institutions as a significant roadblock. A whole-of-government approach, by contrast, would help integrate the gender equality and social inclusion aspects of DRR into national development commitments — as well as help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
None of this work will be possible without adequate resources, both for the loss and damage caused by disasters as well as for prevention efforts. Evidence such as the recent UNDRR global assessment report shows that it is more likely that losses are going to continue to increase. At the same time, the world now knows more about the patterns and causes of disasters, as well as which communities will be impacted the most. We have examples from countries like Peru where investments are being made in building climate-resistant architecture, and from cities like Santa Cruz and Buenos Aires that have built robust alarm systems. We should be investing to scale up such preventative measures, while also earmarking specific funding for gender-transformative approaches to DRR — which too often fall off the agenda. More resources and capacity are required to prepare, evaluate risk, and ultimately to reduce the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.
This year’s Global Platform is taking place in a time of more disasters than ever before, compounded by myriad socio-economic vulnerabilities, against a backdrop of a global pandemic. Such unprecedented factors call for a change of course. By focusing on understanding how we reduce risks and vulnerabilities through a rights-based approach — with attention on the most vulnerable areas — we can save lives and protect the environment.
About the authors:
Ramona Miranda (Sri Lanka) serves on the Steering Committee of Duryog Nivaran, a South Asian network on DRR
Mwanahamisi Singano (Tanzania) is the Senior Global Policy Lead at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Bertha Garcia (Peru) is a Climate Change and DRR Researcher at the National University of Tumbes
