Protecting At-Risk Groups in Disaster Response: Strategies for Inclusivity

1. Day 1 Session 4.1: Protection of At-Risk Groups Protection during Response (Place) – (Date)

2. Women and girls • Children • Older people • Persons with disabilities • Persons living with HIV/AIDS or TB • Minorities • Indigenous peoples, religious and ethnic minorities • “Invisible vulnerable” (e.g. draft-age males, adolescents and youth) Groups that may be at-risk

3. Disasters = natural hazard + human vulnerability • Affected communities differ in their: • Resistance  • Resilience  • Self-reliance •  The position of groups within society vis-a-vis: • Power dynamics and leverage • Marginalization vs integration • Needs and  priorities Introduction: Disasters and vulnerableGroups

4. Gender affects: • Needs • Opportunities to develop skills/capacities • Level of risk • Gender is a cross-cutting issue with implications for all sectors (watsan, health, education, shelter) • Upholding gender equity in all phases of disaster response requires special attention Gender and Vulnerability

5. Gender Roles – Example Maldives Tsunami-affected family, Maldives Picture: ADB, at: http://www.adb.org/media/Articles/2005/6901_Maldives_tsunami/

6. Health care (pregnancy, menstruation)  • Increased threat of sexual violence/abuse  • Fewer opportunities for accessing public authorities • Economic vulnerability - loss of home-based livelihoods • Voice/leadership in reconstruction efforts Gender in the relief phase

7. Women may experience: • Increased workload • Loss of basic facilities and household goods -> loss of income • Change in family and gender roles • Men: • May migrate to find work • Reconstruction can provide income opportunities Gender in the recovery phase

8. Gender blindness  • Women forgotten in immediate impact assessment • Response workers claim: • Not responsible • Not enough time • Not the right time • Not enough money • Disaster workers not trained and uncomfortable with realities of gender inequalities • Lack of capacity of local organizations Barriers to using a gender lens

9. Gender training for disaster workers • Documentation of gender abuse in disaster settings • Collect gender-disaggregated data • Equal participation and representation in decision making and planning • Inclusion and practical utilization of women’s organizations, organizing abilities • Important to work with men to prevent neglect, marginalization and abuse of women Gender: what is to be done

10. Work through existing women’s organizations and community groups • Recruit local women and men for assessment teams; equal men and women on teams • Put codes of conduct in place • Heightened not reduced discussion on GBV • Seek out information from women and men • Develop gender accountability measures Gender: what is to be done

11. Family separation • Difficulty in finding food, clothes, other basic needs and care • Lack of emergency education • Physical injury and mental trauma • Children may be forced to live on the street if families not provided with adequate support • Vulnerable to child labour, trafficking, exploitation (especially separated and unaccompanied children) following disaster Children and Disasters: Vulnerabilities

12. Poor people often live in high-risk areas • Have less resources and no access/money for insurance therefore: • disasters can accentuate and deepen poverty and lead to reductions in food consumption, health expenditures, and school enrollment • Forced migration • Unwilling/unable to engage in risky but higher return activities Poverty and disasters: Vulnerabilities

13. Sequence of Socio-economic Vulnerability

14. Before the disaster: • Measures to avoid the risk from occurring (risk prevention), or, if this is not possible, to reduce its impact (Investment in Mitigation; Insurance) • After the disaster: • Coping strategies are designed to relieve the impact of the risk once it has occurred (individual savings or borrowing; relief assistance; recovery and reconstruction programs)  Poverty: What is to be done

15. Microfinance  • Food Transfer • Service Fee / Tax Waivers • Cash transfers programs • Public works programs • Social funds    Mechanisms and instruments for social protection

16. Turkey Emergency Earthquake Recovery Loan (EERL): • Cash transfers to earthquake victims who suffered property damage; • Cash transfers to survivors and newly disabled  persons who were not covered by social  security;  and • Cash transfers to survivors and disabled persons covered by social security.  Assisting people with disabilities: Example of Turkey

17. Strengthen assets and livelihoods • Be flexible according to needs • Be implemented transparently • Be supported by communications and outreach strategy • Include mechanisms of redress   Social protection policies and programs should:

18. Questions?   Thank You!