October 13 marks the International Day for Disaster Reduction (DRR). Designated by the United Nations General Assembly, the objective is to “promote a global culture of disaster risk reduction. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, “it is an opportunity to acknowledge the progress being made toward reducing disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan in March 2015.”
This year’s DRR Day puts a focus on “good disaster risk governance” in line with Target E of the Sendai Framework: “Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020” which lays the foundation for the implementation of the Sendai Framework and is closely linked with Priority for Action 2: “Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk.”
“When it comes to building climate resilience for me as a rural women leader...we need more training before the disaster come,” said Timaima Ralolokula, President of the Veilomani Women’s Club.
Ralolokula shared this during an interview for femLINK’s Women Human Security First (WHSF) series.
She said rural communities need to experience disaster drills as a way to prepare themselves during actual disasters.
“We have to be prepared at all times. We need to know where our evacuation centre is, whether it’s [disability] friendly or not; whether it can cater for the number of people in our community and I think these are some of the things that [come to mind] [when we talk about] building climate resilience.”
Vani Tuvuki, President of the Koronubu Women’s Fellowship in Ba, said that in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji, women in the Ba network were also carrying out awareness for Women’s Weather Watch (WWW) in order to better prepare for Tropical Cyclone (TC) Harold.
“We were always going out to do awareness on the weather because we had the SMS messages from our femLINK convenors saying there is a low pressure system and then we were also informing our communities on the weather situation because of TC Harold,” she said.
“As women frontliners, we are always on the [lookout] for whatever is going to happen.”
Through the WWW campaign, femLINK continues to highlight the leadership by women at community level and the need to apply gender equality commitments and women’s human rights standards.
Women’s Weather Watch reports and campaigns have resulted in greater visibility of the specific needs of diverse women during disasters within the national media as well as national government strategies.
What began as a simple SMS update for a core group of rural women leaders across Fiji, today Women’s Weather Watch is an inter-operable information- communications platform that not only provides a network of rural women leaders with weather updates and preparedness information, and a platform to document their lived realities through disasters and climate change.
The women are not just receiving information but are also are uplifted as the first responders – from preparedness to response and recovery.
Women’s Weather Watch connects women from across Fiji to the Fiji Met Office and the National Disaster Management Office informing decision makers and stakeholders of how women’s rights must be applied throughout all stages of disaster.
Women’s Weather Watch’s key communication message has continued to campaign for women’s participation in disaster preparedness and response strategies - to bring experiences from their disaster-affected communities to develop and communicate recommendations to inform decision-making processes.