THE GENDER AND DISASTER NETWORK: where should it be in 2020 – everywhere or nowhere? DEALING WITH DISASTERS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2010: Linking Disasters and Development: the next 10 years

This presentation  What is/wh o are GDN?  What do we do?  What do we want to do next?  What does/ what should the future hold?

Gender & Disaster Network  Who Are We?  GDN – established 1997  An online community of researchers and practitioners working towards/ advocating for gendered disaster risk reduction (GDRR)  An international network working with women and men, girls and boys, regardless of class or caste, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability  A repository of freely available materials

Gender & Disaster Network  Why gender?  Gender gap in ‘first world’ disasters – lagging behind development  Few people recognized difference in disasters then – during the IDNDR period  Women invisible  Slow recognition but as vulnerable, passive victims

Gender & Disaster Network  Our Message  Women are not passive victims in disaster events but active agents of change A woman taking the lead in emergency response (Red Cross Bangladesh)

Gender & Disaster Network  Our Message  Engage with men as agents of change, rather than barriers to change Male gender activists in the conflict-prone Mt. Elgon district, Kenya (M. Gunatilleke)

Gender & Disaster Network  Latest GDN Statistics  1,122 members from 84 countries  324,581 unique visits so far this year

UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery Some of our supporters

Gender & Disaster Network  What Do We Do?  We focus on all forms of disasters: ‘natural,’ biological, technological and social disasters, also including the risks presented by climate change  We seek to embed gender and development within disaster work and to embed gendered disaster risk reduction into development work

Gender & Disaster Network  What Do We Do? Knowledge generation e.g. Gender Note series, G&D Sourcebook

Gender & Disaster Network  What Do We Do? Information sharing e.g. GDN mailing list Re: Assessing Haitian women's situation Greetings. It is important that as you state, the recovery initiative is informed by Haitians and those with deep knowledge of Haiti. Haiti has long been a laboratory of failed development and social engineering experiments that have benefitted outsiders more than Haitians. To post a message to this group, please write to:

Gender & Disaster Network  What Do We Do? Information sharing  e.g. GDN blog

Gender & Disaster Network  What Do We Do? Networking & collaboration e.g. with women’s groups working on climate change or poverty reduction; with UNDP to design G&D training materials

Gender & Disaster Network  What do we want to do next? (  Set up Regional Hubs in all the world regions  (to include all levels from the grassroots to the global and everything in between) The US Gender And Disaster Resilience Alliance GDN Canada GDN Pacific- Oceania Coming soon – GDN Africa Coming soon – GDN Europe

Gender & Disaster Network  What does/ what should the future hold?  How will GDN know it has been successful?  When there are GDNs in all parts of the world?  Or when there are no GDNs because they are no longer needed?  On current evidence, that is not likely in the next 10 years!  So what would be a measure of success in gendered disaster risk reduction (GDRR)?

Gender & Disaster Network  Join us!  Contact us!  GDN: connecting people globally for gendered disaster risk reduction (GDRR) Images are from: website of Country Fire Authority, Victoria, Australia; Maureen Fordham; and Manik Gunatilleke