Mainstreaming Gender into Caribbean DRM Policy and Planning

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Mainstreaming Gender into Caribbean DRM Policy
and Planning

• Dr. Marlene Attzs
• Department of Economics
• UWI, St. Augustine

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Content of Presentation

• Economic impact of disasters
• Gender and Gender mainstreaming
• Stages of Comprehensive DRM
• The poor suffer the most vulnerable communities
  and disasters
• Case of Grenada pre post Hurricane Ivan
• Recommendations for mainstreaming Gender into
  Caribbean DRM

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Impacts of Disasters

• Approximately 2.3million CARICOM citizens
  affected by natural disasters during 1990 to
  2006.
• 42 of those impacted were affected by floods,
• windstorms affected 31 of the affected
• drought severely impacted another 27.
• Populations of Guyana and Jamaica were most
  affected (42 each) by natural disasters during
  the period under consideration.

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Persons Affected by type of disaster 1990 2006
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What is Gender and Gender Mainstreaming

• Gender the social roles and relations between
  men and women, determined, inter alia, by the
  responsibilities assumed by both sexes given
  their culture and socialization
• Gender mainstreaming 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 (UN
  ECOSOC)

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Climate change projections

• The main predicted impacts from Climate Change to
  SIDS are
• Increases in flooding in some countries from
  heavier rainfall and sea level rise
• Susceptibility to droughts given changes in water
  tables
• Likelihood of more intense and frequent tropical
  cyclones

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Women and Disasters

• women and children are at greater risk to
  natural disasters than men, especially in
  developing countries.
• women and children comprise a larger portion of
  the poor in developing countries, even in many
  developed countries. As a consequence of this,
  women and children have less capacity to take
  effective preventive actions and to recover from
  disasters once they occur

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Case Study of Grenada 1999 study

• 32.1 of all individuals in Grenada were poor -
  their monthly expenditure was less than the cost
  of meeting their minimal food and other basic
  requirements of an estimated (EC3,262).
• The poorest individuals comprised almost 29 of
  the total number of households in the country.
• At the same time, 13 of all individuals in the
  country were found to be extremely poor or
  indigent.

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Case Study of Grenada 1999 study

• 52 of poor households were female headed and 48
  percent were male headed.
• In terms of migration, 48 are male and 38
  female. Only in 14 of cases do both spouses
  migrate together.

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Case Study of Grenada 1999 study

• Female-headed households have an average size of
  4.5 persons.
• More than half of female heads of household
  (58.35) have never married.
• Female headed households in Grenada have little
  education. Approximately 75 of female household
  heads had only primary education or less
  (compared with 70 of male household heads).
• A high proportion of female-headed households are
  reportedly functionally illiterate

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Two vulnerable groups in Grenada

• Young female household heads with several young
  children (there are an average of four births per
  woman), who may have intermittent partners and
  support and
• Older female heads of households with grown
  children, who will be less likely to have male
  help, but may receive remittances if older
  children have migrated.

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Results of Gender AnalysisPost- Ivan

• Poor female heads of households heavy reliance on
  State for support (health, sanitation etc) felt
  the impact of this inadequacy more than others
• Women employed in agriculture and tourism
  disadvantaged as a result of Hurricane Ivan.
• nutmeg industry severely impacted
• low economic mobility caused by their lack of
  skills and level of education

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Results of Gender AnalysisPost- Ivan

• Role of women as glue than bonds society
  reinforced
• men abandoned homes to re-build
• women took care of children (theirs and their
  neighbours), assumed roles of psychologists,
  nurses etc

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How, Why when to mainstream

• Mainstreaming gender into DRM related to the MDGs
• Regional initiatives at mainstreaming
• CDERA (2005) CIDA/CDERA commitment when CDERA
  assumed responsibility for Caribbean Hazard
  Mitigation Capacity Building Programme (CHAMP)

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How, Why when to mainstream

• Mainstream Gender at all stages of DRM
• Risk identification should be such that gender
  differences and disparities can be diagnosed in a
  timely, proactive manner.  
• Risk Mitigation Public Education and awareness
  programmes should be structured to cater to the
  literacy levels and socio-economic circumstances
  of both men and women.
• Disaster Preparedness Women are most effective at
  mobilizing the community to respond to disasters.
  

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How, Why when to mainstream

• Mainstream Gender at all stages of DRM
• Disaster Recover Efforts need to be gender
  sensitive. Emergency relief workers firemen,
  police, army, care givers need to be gender
  sensitized in terms of how they treat with
  disaster survivors.
• Rehabilitation and Reconstruction post hurricane
  Mitch - women were seen building houses, digging
  wells and ditches, hauling water and building
  shelters because these were their priorities and
  they were being overlooked in the relief efforts.
  

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How, Why when to mainstream

• Mainstream Gender at all stages of DRM
• DRM and adaptation to climate change are
  flipsides of the same coin. Policies intended to
  address comprehensive DRM c(sh)ould also address
  Adaptation to CC thus yielding multiple
  dividends.

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Final Reflections the hallmark of truly
sustainable development

• Katrina a highly gendered social event.
• Katrina did not disrupt a social order in which
  women and men were equally vulnerable any more
  than it hit suburbanites with cars and the
  central city poor the same.
• Advocating for gender equality in reconstruction
  is not to press a political agenda or deny our
  common humanity in crisis but to serve both the
  women and the men... This is what the future
  must look like or all the talk about building
  back better to increase resilience to future
  disasters is just talk and the next hurricane
  will find the poor poorer and women less able
  than today to anticipate, prepare for, survive,
  cope with and recover from the next storm.
• It is the hallmark of truly sustainable
  development!