NTS Bulletin March 2018

Abstract

There are biological, social and economic conditions and processes that make women more vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, droughts and tropical storms. All of which affect the Southeast Asian region frequently and intensively. From having limited options to begin with to prolonged suffering post-disaster, women in disaster -prone areas in the region are impacted significantly longer and hence have longer physical, psychological and emotional recovery times. There is much research and knowledge-pooling between international aid organisations, governments, research institutes and local non-governmental organisations when it comes to outlining best practices, training and capacity building and carrying out joint exercises in natural disaster relief and recovery and rebuilding. But what has not happened is the move from mere transition – from post-disaster to ‘peace time’ – to transformation in the way assessments, operations and policies are realigned, informed by different gendered experiences. So, to put it bluntly, natural disasters become a wasted opportunity for change. If we persist in going back to how things were, we have lost the opportunity to change what does not work. Unfortunately, much of reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, vis-à-vis women, involve returning to how things were done before. Women are included but procedurally sidelined. And this despite the fact that women tend to be overrepresented in fatalities and among displaced groups.