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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