Women's Edge Coalition
NOTES FROM THE EDGE - January 2005

Women's Safety and Well-Being At Risk During Natural Disasters, Briefing Paper Reveals

New evidence compiled by the Women's Edge Coalition revealed that threats to women's physical safety significantly increases in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, such as the late-Dec. Indian Ocean tsunami, and the reconstruction process.

A briefing paper, released on January 26, provided statistical research, recommendations and anecdotal evidence on the impact of natural disasters on women and girls.

The paper urged the international relief community to take steps to incorporate a gender approach into humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts to minimize danger to women's safety and well-being.

In the emergency relief phase, the briefing paper found that women are often subjected to violence and sexual assault.

In Nicaragua, for example, 27 percent of female survivors and 21 percent of male survivors of Hurricane Mitch reported increased violence within the family.

Natural disasters frequently force women deeper into poverty as they become the primary caretaker in charge of both household duties and supporting their families and extended family members.

Disasters intensify women's poverty and increase their workload making it harder for them to access the types of resources and training they need to transition into sustainable livelihoods, it stated.

Additionally, the paper indicated that natural disasters destabilize family and societal structures at times pushing impoverished families to
sell their girl children into trafficking for basic survival.

In an effort to continue the dialogue on humanitarian relief and reconstruction after the tsunmani, the Women's Edge Coalition will co-sponsor a new series of videoconferences enabling citizens in the U.S. and tsunami-affected regions to speak out about the rebuilding effort. The new initiative, Partners for Progress, is led by the non-partisan Americans for Informed Democracy.

The new series seeks to raise the visibility of voices from the tsunami-affected regions to press the international community to support long-term relief, reconstruction, and development.

The first videoconference took place on January 26, the one-month anniversary of the tsunami. The videoconference will link together citizens in Sri Lanka, Chicago, Dallas, New Haven, Philadelphia, Bloomington, Washington, D.C., London, and Oxford in the United Kingdom.

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