As my first visit to Manila, one of the south Asia’s largest mega cities, seeing the plenty of high rise buildings standing along side of manila bay simply triggers my though on how resilient the city is to grow as sustainable urbanized area through the lens of disaster and climate change risks. Being a country which is located along the the fire of Ring, Philippines is vulnerable to disasters of earthquakes and volcanoes. In addition to the geographical vulnerability of natural disasters, cities in the country have been suffering from the impacts of increased climate change too. According to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Metro Manila is now the “third most vulnerable to climate change” among Southeast Asia’s districts and provinces. As an important underlying risk of disasters, massive urban development in metro manila region imposes the high exposure of population and infrastructures to the natural disasters, generating new risks to turn natural hazards into disasters with increased exposure and vulnerability to disasters. Migration and Urbanisation Many of the people I met here in Manila including APLP alumni, who moved to the cities in Metro manila region for work mentioned many career opportunities are prevalent in Manila and moving to manila and working here is everyone’s desire. Economic zones in metro manila region attract the population from other provinces to move to the urban cities of metro Manila making cities more congested and populous in region. Due to insufficient housings in urbanized cities of metro manila, large population of slum dwellers are found living in informal settlements and slum communities located along rivers and creeks, in garbage dumps, along railroad tracks, under bridges, and beside factories and other industrial establishments. Floods
Asides from migration pattern which has been taking place over time, massive urbanization is also highly driven by many of the luxury and residential condominiums across the cities which are being under construction with the available business opportunities for expatriate community in metro manila. While Philippines struggles with typhoons and storms every year in monsoon season, the common consequences of urban development exacerbated the situation of urban flooding with over rainfall. All the land space of cities is fully occupied by Industrial/ business structures and public infrastructures like schools and malls in cities. Open space of land to absorb the rain water are not found, allowing to channel the rainwater into insufficient drainage system. The lack of upgraded capacity of existing drainage system with the growing population of cities fail to manage the water flow properly, leading to worsened flooding situation. Earthquakes A few days after my arrival in manila, 5.2 magnitude of Earthquake hits the southern Luzone island, consequently, Senator Loren Legarda’s renewed the call for heightened earthquake preparedness across the country. According to “the Earthquake Impact Reduction study in Metro Manila in 2004”, it’s expected to have 40% of damage to the buildings and infrastructures in metro manila region with the projection of 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Being the home to more than 11.8 million people and accounts for 37 per cent of the country’s GDP, there is no doubt to expect the widespread damage when large quake hits the region. Shift from awareness to actions Having experienced of devastating past disasters and being well informed for the projected strong earthquake risk in region, people in manila are highly aware of disaster risks. Moving from being aware of risks to taking actions, we need to put more effort on disaster preparedness measures by conducting more simulation exercise, earthquake drills and mitigation measures of mainstreaming DRR into development sector for mainly building infrastructures. The central government and local government units play an important role to take initiatives on DRR measures and engage both the public and private sectors in increasing resilience and undertaking preparedness activities. Despite the presence of laws and regulations on DRR and urban planning through decentralized governance system, collective effort among local governments and private sector needs to be strengthened to tackle the flooding risks and better prepare for earthquake risks. There is also a strong need to strengthen the law enforcement on land use plan, building codes and regulated development of new public infrastructures (especially high rise buildings) in metropolitan manila region. Areas where many structures were built before the building code was enacted, structures like old churches and high rise building will need to be evaluated to see if they can withstand earthquakes. Disaster preparedness requires leadership at all levels from communities to different government units. Here comes with the critical questions that need to be addressed in building the disaster resilient metro manila region. Is metro manila well prepared enough to be resilient to natural disaster risks with accelerated urbanisation? Are the political leaders effective in DRR to build resilience of their communities from devastating disasters? What are the limitations of community to participate in DRR activities due to low awareness on disaster risks or being occupied with other work?
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Are we hopeful for a better India where women and girls enjoy their freedom just like men and boys?4/25/2017 Women in today India earn every rights as a citizen; having a voice in political and business world in the country. Significant progress in legal aspect on gender equality has been made by the government and women empowerment movements within country. Despite the general impression on the position of women in today India, 2 weeks of my visit to India offered me a quick view on the status of gender equality captured along with the thought-provoking observations during travel from rural to urban communities of India. I completely understand that one cannot assume the role of women looking at one specific strata of society in a country where over 1.3 million population live within many layers of social strata and diverse backgrounds of religions, ethnics, cultures. However, when I collect my observations and personal thoughts through the lens of women and their rights, I found women safety and women rights as a biggest social issue in the society that needs to be taken as urgent matter by the collective effort within the society. Coming to rural state of India, seeing men everywhere on streets in grocery shops and everywhere drive me to thoughts of where are the women? Are they traditionally excluded from all of these activities? Through my interaction with women in underprivileged communities of rural India, it led me to a better understanding on the role of women and girls in rural society in which girls are usually kept at home for household tasks while boys and men are given priority for schools and other opportunities. From my conversation with the local women, I happened to know “the mentality of the rural people on having a girl child which is considered as bad luck for the family. Since girls are going to eventually get married and no contributions in return their family is expected, it is believed that there is no point of investment in young girls. There is still a conservative mindset of male children preference and strong social challenges suppressing the role of women in society, especially in rural India due to deeply rooted cultural and traditional beliefs in rural India.” As my first time to the capital city Delhi, taking metro train gave me food for thoughts on keeping separate compartment for women. I simply suppose that this harassment problem could not be solved by keeping women in a separate coach on train as It is not to say that women are safe only when they isolate themselves from men, instead it could lead the view of gender discrimination among women and man. However, having own experience of taking metro in rush hours made me realize the hardship of women trying to have a tiny little space in huge crowd of men. That experience left me with questions of “Is it even a right solution for protecting women from harassment on train?” How could one say women are not harassed when they get out of their comfort zone of women compartments on trains, what about on streets? One of my local Indian friends shared her experience of taking local train while traveling to other states at the very crowded time, she got a sexual harassment by a guy, then she suddenly felt powerless, and were just crying over one hour. When women are harassed in that way, it is always a moment that they feel emotional and vulnerable, not being able to response in any ways no matter how they are independent and powerful at other times. Having realized all these challenges of women with short term solutions of government to ensure women safety during public transportation, what would be the long term solution to ensure that women are treated with respect and they have the freedom and rights to live their daily lives without worrying about any form of harassment? How could we teach the men to respect women better? We need the foundation of society with a functioning law and efficient system to create an environment with dignity and safety for the women in India. While women have to be empowered, men also have to be educated to support them to get empowered. The best place to start is from our individual actions taken in the context of community and social groups that would enable to drive the change from millions of people. Our children, new generations can bring the change to the the whole our community to improve the gender equality gap. Being born as a girl or boy should not mean they have more privilege than the other and it should not be criteria to allow access to the education and other opportunities in their lives. Women should not be in fear for all the physical, social, mental harassment at all the time on their ways from home to schools, and workplace. As a greater impact, it should not be the barrier to country’s growth and development which is being contributed by the large population of women in India.
Can Waste Management be an Integral Part of Disaster Risk Management Efforts in Indonesia?3/14/2017 Rapid urbanization, unplanned development, lack of proper waste disposal measures, damaged ecosystems and thus leading to the environmental degradation and the consequent impact of these interrelated process exacerbates the existing risks and developed the new risks of disasters. According to the data from Ministry of Environment and Forest, Republic of Indonesia in 2015, an average person produces 0.7 kilogram of waste per day; and 175,000 tons of waste are being generated by 250 million of population producing across the country on a daily basic, amounting to 64 million tons of waste annually. Indonesia is also the second largest plastic polluter in the world according to the report of Science article 2015. In the capital city of Jakarta with the high density of population around 10 million, provisions of basic services facilities and garbage cans are mostly found in tourist / business district and are inadequate in other parts of the city where majority of people live, making Jakarta one of the most polluted capitals in the world. Due to still lack of waste disposal options in country, citizens still heavily rely on landfills for the generated waste. The 2005 waste avalanche at Leuwigajah dumpsite was also one of the serious disasters in Indonesia destroying households and killing over 100 people in flattened villages. The open dumping sites with the pile of rubbish will still have the risk of garbage avalanches unless they are not the sanitary landfill systems with the stable structured foundation. On the other hand, despite the effort of Ministry of Public Work on regularly cleaning up the rivers from the pile of trash, the effort became futile when there is lack of public awareness on their role and responsibility how to manage the garbage properly. Complications of garbage is one of the reasons for flooding problems in the cities of Indonesia, clogging the flood canals and flood reservoirs. All these daily garbage issues come together to create very intense flooding. (Eg. 2007 Jakarta flooding in Indonesia). It is important to encourage the effective and efficient solid waste management system through promoting public awareness on the uncontrolled garbage problems, as part of the integrated solution to the floods. The women at household level plays an important role in proper domestic waste management through the 3Rs method (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) at the household level. Since 2005, there have been initiatives for independent waste management in central Jakarta where the housewives started managing the wastes by sorting out organic and inorganic waste at the household level. Citizens in that area started adopting that habit of proper waste management in order to reduce the impacts of floods, particularly in the rainy season. These good initiatives for waste management need to be encouraged and carried forward to improve recycling rate in Indonesia. Although the large amount of waste is not completely resolvable with 3Rs method, proper management starting at the household level can decrease the amount of solid waste at the source. With the full participation of waste generators, Indonesia should be active in taking approach of 3R and it needs to foster the the implementation of government programs on providing waste banks across the country through promoting the concept of 3Rs methods. Moreover, government needs to develop more innovative solutions with the alternative waste processing technologies (eg, Large scale incinerators) for effective and efficient of waste management to clean up the Indonesia’s worsening environmental record at global stage. Without improvements in general waste management, increased waste generation could generate the new disaster risks and lead to the greater obstacles in response and recovery stages at the times of disaster. Asides from the provision of better waste management facilities and services, therefore, communities should be prepared to reduce the impacts of disasters through behavior change by education and public awareness campaigns on proper waste management (solid waste management, drainage improvement). Programs such as Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) which are being widely implemented in Indonesia to build community resilience can be an effective mechanism as well as complementary program where waste management can be integrated as community members are at the forefront of managing disaster risk. The waste management problems to reduce the risks of particularly flood and landfills disasters problem could only be solved if the government and the community together make significant efforts. Reference
The year 2017 has kicked off a new era for women with the international movements of the Women’s marches taking place across the world from the United States, to Indonesia with men, and women sending messages that women’s rights are human rights. The world is celebrating the 2017 International Women’s Day with the theme of Be Bold for Change and it feels more inspiring than ever to see the struggles for women's rights and the political, social, economic and cultural achievements of women throughout history. In Indonesia, both national and local regulations provide sufficient legal tools to enable women’s participation in politics and decision-making. National regulations include the CEDAW Convention, laws on human rights, the Law on the Governing of Aceh with its gender-specific articles, and the Presidential Instruction on Gender Mainstreaming in National Development. In addition to all this, Banda Aceh [as a special province of Indonesia] has local regulations that include Qanun no. 5 in 2007 on the Establishment of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Body, Qanun no. 6 in 2009 on Women’s Empowerment and Protection and, as well as the 2008 women’s committees of the revival of Aceh (KPAB) which help to build the confidence of Acehnese women and strengthen the women’s role in the society through the Charter on Women’s Rights in Aceh province which was adopted in November 2008. However it has been tough for women to obtain leadership roles in politics and public services in Aceh; the local community has been shaped by the combination of culturally conservative views on gender, social norms, and religious ideologies and perceptions. Among the wide range of views on women’s leadership in Aceh urban and rural areas, women’s leadership and participation as decision makers is agreed upon to a limited and contradictory extent. Coexisting simultaneously with a general appreciation for gender equality and equal opportunity, there is still a strong preference for male leadership. Based upon interviews I have completed in Banda Aceh, several women mentioned that women can actively participate in the public sphere but they should not be in leading positions as decision-makers, or at least they are less favorable for these positions. Generally, the women in urban area has a relatively high confidence of leadership, while the majority of women in the sub-district areas remain less confident about holding a leadership position. It is all the more important to address the lack of women in political positions and to hear the women’s voices in order to ensure that their rights are respected in Aceh, which has formally implemented Shari’a Islamic law since 2001 after receiving special authorization from Indonesia’s central government. According to the activist Ms. Suraiya Kamaruzzaman, founder of Aceh’s first women’s organization (Flower’s Ache), there have been strong histories of women leaders in Aceh, particularly as peacekeepers. Women have been part of the Acehnese movement fighting for peace, equality and justice since the time of conflict time of Free Aceh Movement from the 1990s – 2004. The women living in Aceh today should be supported by the community in following the bravery and spirit of women in the past. Socio-cultural factors are the strongest influence over women in Aceh in determining their position in society. Women have been primary targets for inspections carried out by the shari’a police. and It appears that the shari’a police forces play a role in the continued suppression of women in Aceh. As a consequence of shari’a law , women are discouraged from pursuing political activities, resulting in very few women elected to parliament. According to the particular incident of Nurdin Abdul Rahman head of Bireuen district, who was highly opposed for appointing women as a sub district head, the misguided senior officials use their political power and religion interpretation to discourage the women leadership in political sphere. Since it is uncommon to see women leaders in high political positions making progress to improve livelihoods and infrastructure in Aceh, senior male officials usually refuse to accept women leaders by claiming that it is against Islam for women to hold a leadership post. It has not been easy to convince men or other women that women should be in leadership roles. Despite these gender inequalities and power imbalances, a high level of education is permitted in Aceh. Young Acehnese women can easily access higher education, and many of them have the opportunity to become doctors, pharmacists, and architects - professions that were traditionally the domain of men. Most of the women and young Acehnese girls I interviewed in Banda Ache consider education to be the best solution to their economic problems and for improving their social status in the community. Some have also benefitted from receiving gender-related trainings provided by international aid organizations, further enforcing the belief that education is the only answer for the future of Aceh. Indeed, there is no lack of potential women leaders in Aceh and there is no significant resistance of women to get involved in leading positions if they are proven to have required capacities. Generally, the possibility of women to be involved in decision making and leading roles for the better development of Aceh is highly shaped by the cultural system and social norms which are hard to break once firmly rooted in the heart of society. Efforts to make progress in women’s participation and leadership should not be seen as criticism or offense against the religion. The role of influential actors or institutions like religious leaders and schools is important to bring up and address issues in social, political and economic aspects. ( Eg. Religious preaching and Traditional Islamic schools “dayah” ) . Looking at the present and past histories of champions in Aceh, there is no doubt that women can make a valuable contribution to Aceh’s future. Women in the past have played positive roles as advocates and architects of peace in Aceh. At present, there are many women champions such as Ms Suraiya Kamaruzzaman (women right activist), newly elected female parliamentarian Ms Darwati Gani who demonstrate leadership that unite and inspire others with their hard work on ensuring Acehnese women’s rights and safety. Furthermore, it is significant to see the emergence of many young girls who have tremendous potential of exhibiting visionary thinking and great enthusiasm to create the better community driving the positive transformation by extensive engagement in the leading positions of political and social spheres within Acehnese society. Now it is the critical time for the regional government and religious figures in Aceh to listen to the voice of Aceh’s women and to allow them to be part of discussion in formulating policies and practices that would serve women’s needs equally to those of men. It could be the only way for Aceh to move forward as the tolerant and inclusive Islamic community, with equal dignity and respect for both men and women. Reference
Myanmar is considered as one of the most disaster prone countries in the region as well as globally. Cyclone Nargis in 2008 killed around 140,000 people in the Ayeyarwaddy delta and the floods of 2015 had a wide spread impacts across 12 out of 14 States and Region. Further recent studies rank Myanmar as one of the global hotspots for climate change associated risks. Myanmar is slow transitioning to integrate with the global economic community after four decades of isolation. Country is faced with multitude of challenges, not just limited to financial resources. Disasters, along with climate change, negatively impact local and national development. Private sector engagement in broader socio-economic development has been limited as the country followed a socialist economy for over 4 decades. Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar’s largest business federation “the Union of Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industries (UMFCCI)” played an important role in rehabilitation and reconstruction in the Ayeyearwaddy Delta and similarly in 2015 floods, UMFCCI played a role in supporting the Government and also working with humanitarian agencies.
Post-2015, Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (DRR) signaled a clear message that gender equality considerations required a stronger implementation focus and called for high engagement and promotion of women’s leadership in DRR. Evidence coming from around the globe confirms the importance of women leadership in DRR activities since women play a significant role throughout the disaster management cycle, despite having specific challenges of cultural and gender norms. However, participation of women as change agents and leaders in their societies are not adequately recognize to include in decision making process and still often overlooked in disaster risk reduction, where women are often categorize as a vulnerable group and there are very limited opportunities for women’s leadership at all levels in the region.
Although there have been global commitments to integrate gender perceptive in DRR from global and regional legal frameworks on disaster management, the challenge now is to identify very practical ways and means to incorporate the knowledge and capacity of women in decision-making fully. Progress in mainstreaming gender into DRR is slow and gender considerations still remain largely marginalized from the DRR process. This is particularly true at the national level where program implementation is carried out because only a small group of professionals working in disaster management areas possess the two major concepts of gender and DRR knowledge/capacity which are linked to each other. A large majority of professionals and decision makers in the development and disaster fields lack sufficient awareness of gender issues. Likewise, Gender focal points have insufficient technical expertise in DRR field to promote gender equality by addressing the concerns of both men and women, the relations between them and the root causes of imbalances. Strengthening women’s leadership in building disaster resilience requires addressing the issue of resources, technical and financial including gender budgeting in disaster risk reduction, the issue of representation at all levels. Among the several aspects of enabling environment (planning, budgeting, and policy frameworks) and enabling local context (capacity building, reducing social vulnerabilities) which help the inclusive disaster management and resilience building, awareness raising and capacity development on DRR for the women themselves and community around them is fundamental to help increase their ability to respond to changing issues with innovative solutions. Since women’s active engagement in community in disaster preparedness, risk reduction and mitigation programs can be shaped or restricted by local contexts, attitudinal and cultural constraints need to be tackled through proper education and awareness. As my professional experience in promoting women’s participation and leadership in DRR in Myanmar to ensure that the voices of women and children are better reflected in disaster preparedness, there were success stories that the trainings helped the women to practice public speaking and built their confidence because they had to discuss their opinions and thoughts during the training. Women are generally used to stay in the house and do not have the confidence to speak out about their opinions and raise their concerns about disasters. Through capacity development trainings, women who thought that village development and disaster preparedness activities were not their concern, became proactive initiators in activities of mainstreaming risk reduction into village development activities after the training. Another point is that women are more likely to rely on each other and mobilize collective social capital through networking to resolve many of the issues they face including issues related to DRR. Therefore, women professional networks/ affinity networks are created as platforms for better access to information and they should be empowered through proper capacity building process on resilience issues so that networks become vibrant and active in delivering actions. Making society aware of women’s active contribution and in instances leadership to development and DRM could help women become more active agents of positive change. Training professionals and media personnel to support change of attitude is vital to create the environment for women to become a force of resilience building. All the actions at all levels need to recognize the productive and constructive role women play in disaster risk reduction, response and recovery; as well as recognize and address the specific vulnerabilities of women and girls in disasters. Institutional capacity building of officials in government, local government and civil Society Organizations to include women as a specific stakeholder group could be supportive as sustainable partnerships to enhance the women leadership in resilience building. Coordination among national and local governments’ institutions together with women’s Ministries is critical to provide guidance for practice of inclusive planning and reporting systems at local levels. Men and women working together can produce better results. Similarly, gender Focal Points needs to encourage significant engagement with the wide range of stakeholders from both development and humanitarian communities. The collaborated effort among DRR stakeholders through Ministry of education, plays a key role in providing support to women in capacity building for resilience building, aiming at increasing number of women in designing policies and strategies in mainstreaming of education for DRR into educational curricula and public awareness programs, and advocacy for disaster preparedness and prevention. It is necessary to ensure more gender-balanced representation within international and regional networks of experts on earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides as well as hydro-hazards. Investment in women’s institutions, and work with them to build strengths and capacities might be beneficial because they gain knowledge and skills that need to be recognized to enable them to participate fully in resilience building. Effective capacity building process that build women’s leadership and contribution to DRR, is required for the women to make vital contributions to prospective risk management and resilience building. Strengthening existing local knowledge and capacities of women in emergency management DRR and resilience building is crucial to bring about the change in local risk management and resilience building in their capacities. Discover the invisible power of women in resilience building through the experience of womenWhy do I focus on this topic ? Regionally, Asia Pacific region accounts for more than 50% of the global disaster, and this region is also the most vulnerable towards climate change, which is now challenging to all the inhabitants of this region as one of the non-traditional security concerns. Women are often disproportionately affected by disasters, due to gender inequality and discrimination, including lack of equal access to adequate information, economic opportunities, and participation. Frequently, they suffer a double trauma – both through the hazard event itself and then, due to increased vulnerability due to exploitation, the violence of various kinds, loss of family members, livelihoods and greater economic insecurity. While progress has been made in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) for Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR), it is widely recognized that serious gaps and challenges remain in delivering on the international community’s commitments to gender equality and women’s rights and governments’ engagement with relevant stakeholders, including women in disaster risk reduction efforts. Participation of women as change agents and leaders in their societies are still often overlooked in disaster risk reduction and to deal with longer term climate change, where women are often categorized as a vulnerable group and there are very limited opportunities for women’s leadership at all levels in the region. Women need to have great strengths and develop capacity and they should be seen as leaders in helping their families and communities prepare for, and respond to disasters. . The project will explore, identity, examine and analyze how the women become the change agents as leaders in building resilience in ASEAN countries in general, in the Philippines and Indonesia, in particular, as these countries are considered as highly disaster prone areas in the region and the world. Moreover, the countries have transitioned from an authoritarian Government in the 90’s to a full-fledged democracy (Philippines) and democracy still in transition (Indonesia). These findings will help other ASEAN countries, particularly for Myanmar, as it is highly vulnerable to disasters as Myanmar ranks second as per the Global Climate Risk Index. In Myanmar, there has been some effort by government and international organisation to advocate for women’s leadership in DRR to ensure the commitments to women’s leadership in DRR from the global frameworks. However, the gap between ambition and reality in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment remains at large in resilience building. From my interaction with women in community, I learned that Myanmar women have a strong determination to overcome difficulties, hardship to build a better life for themselves and their families, demonstrating the high level of resilience and commitment to bring about the change for their community. However, my professional experiences at both formal and informal institutions clarify that they are underrepresented in leadership positions at all levels. I have also come to see that it often has an impact on prioritizing concerns, access to information and allocation of resources, and that would enable them to manage disaster risks. I believe that if the strong enabling environment is in place to support women to become a leader, it would definitely shape them growing as a women leader tackling complex societal and cultural issues. Thus, I want to seek the better understanding on the level of an enabling environment supporting women to assume leading role, whether it is only confined to society in Myanmar or the same in other ASEAN countries of Indonesia, Philippines. Given the context of Indonesia for women in leadership position as sensitive issue in Muslim society, I intend to explore the conservative and liberal perceptive on women as leaders in Indonesia. Likewise, in Philippines, I believe that I will be able to explore and learn the country’s initiatives to promote women’s leadership and representation in decision making bodies in resilience building. Throughout the my GIST, I will be exploring leadership role of women in promoting resilience building to disasters and climate change at national and local level in the Asia and the Pacific region. Beyond boarders and boundaries of countries, I will try to observe and learn the strategies of women across the region how to put themselves into a leading role for their own lives and communities around them. The policy brief for policymakers and stakeholders will be generated to consider and promote the women leadership in the capacity building, disaster management, and climate change area. I love listening to people and I’m excited to hear the voice of women sharing their stories and experiences, which will be documented as collected case studies. It will be passed to the wider public and hope they will inspire women in Myanmar and the region to become leaders as change agents in their communities. Lastly, I hope to be part of effort to bring about the prosperous future for women as the greatest impact of my GIST journey. |
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