RESILIENCE THROUGH EMPOWERMENT Suranjana Gupta Huairou Commission Consultative Meeting: Global Network of NGOs on Disaster Risk Reduction ISDR Geneva, Switzerland October 2006

Huairou Commission Created in Beijing 1995 Experimental partnership entity of grassroots womens organizations, NGOs, Donors, Local Authorities Focus: Grassroots women and settlements 5 Global Campaigns: Governance, Secure Tenure, HIVAIDS, Peace and Resilience Building Groots International taken the lead in this thematic campaign

Key Elements of Our Approach 1. Casting women in the role of partners 2. Mobilizing community based organizations 3. Putting information in the hands of women. 4. Creating safe spaces for women and children 5. Making institutions responsive and accountable to communities. 6. Restoring, diversifying and upgrading livelihoods to collective enterprise 7. Transferring innovations through peer exchange

How do we build resilient communities? Social networks, community based organizations are strengthened Improved access to basic services eg. ASHAA Sustained participation in development: continuous and refining of skills and knowledge enabling them to mobilize these in a crisis. Institutional accountability to communities

Challenges in risk reduction programs Community resilience building is seen as emergency response; one-time training Women are bypassed because social barriers prevent them from public spaces and planning. Community involvement ends when projects end Capacities left behind in communities are usually confined to hardware Difficult to get communities interested in disaster, particularly where disasters are infrequent.

Groots-AJWS Global Initiative to Strengthen Community Trainers 1. Global network of women trainers in Asia and Latin America and Caribbean with expertise in : Organizing and training disaster response teams Building federations of livelihoods groups to access credit and markets Disaster safe construction teams Improving institutional accountability and access to basic services Teaching other communities 2. Refining community tools and methodologies for transferring innovation

Why is this initiative exciting? Recognition to grassroots women leaders as experts. Opportunities for communities to reflect on and articulate practices and develop methodologies to transfer these. Located on the disaster-development intersection, thus relevant to communities even when disaster is not an immediate concern The potential to rapidly scale up community innovations in recovery and resilience

Using grassroots expertise to support womens participation in Sri Lanka 2007 Partnering with International Center for Sustainable Cities with funding from CIDA to mobilize women to plan and manage 3 women and childrens centers Partnering with UN Habitat to enhance womens participation in 5 cities

How can policy makers support community-driven, women centered resilience? Set standards and operational guidelines for womens participation in DRR. Provide resources to integrate DRR with ongoing development processes and priorities of grassroots women. Create a demand for community trainers pre and post disaster. Convene forums which provide opportunities for communities to convey lessons learned to policy makers.