“I ask you all to take action in your particular capacities to make disaster risk reduction gender sensitive, and ensure that women become active participants in disaster risk reduction rather than being stereotyped as passive victims. The acceleration of community resilience and livelihood protection: mature methodologies and extensive civil society capacities are available, but these need more systematic support and stronger government-civil society partnerships.”
-Mr. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Chair of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

The opening statement of John Holmes at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva (June 16- 19) speaks to the centrality of women’s community based organizations as leaders and innovators of resilience strategies and practices.  Echoing these remarks, the 13 person, 10 country delegations of GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission, supported by UNDP Gender Team pressed a pro poor grassroots women’s agenda to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) by ensuring that local communities...

Read more here...