CSW68: Pacific Perspectives on the Gender Action Plan to Support Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030

Integrating Inclusive Peacebuilding Approaches into Disaster Management

Although the Sendai Framework was established in 2015, it was the discussions of the 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women that spearheaded the development of a Gender Action Plan (GAP) to Support Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-20301. The GAP - which is to be launched on 18 March 2024 - aims to promote meaningful participation, empowerment and leadership of women, women’s organizations and other gender equality and inclusion stakeholders, by strengthening their technical capacities to engage in disaster risk governance institutions and processes at all levels.

Having advocated for the development of the GAP, women from the Pacific worked to support the Midterm Review of the Implementation of the Sendai Framework 2015-2030 in order to further ensure that the experiences of local communities are duly considered by Member States through ‘the use of traditional, Indigenous and local knowledge and practices to complement scientific knowledge in disaster risk assessment, policies, programmes and communication’ (A/77/70, para. 20(e)). In line with the work of the Pacific Women Mediators Network, the approaches to disaster risk reduction, as well as any efforts to address intersecting crises, led by local women peacebuilders have the potential to generate more impactful outcomes at the community level.

Women from the Pacific have been responding to the challenges for gender integration in disaster management for decades, including through the Shifting the Power Coalition's innovative POWER Systems Platform - which is a women-led end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system. As signatories to the WPS-Humanitarian Action Compact, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict and Shifting the Power Coalition are contributing to increased coordination between governmental and other entities working on gender equality, disaster risk reduction, climate change, human rights, and peace and security by bringing expertise that links peacebuilding, development and the DRR in the creation and  implementation of regional policies, including the Blue Pacific Strategy 2050 and the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP). Learning from such initiatives presents an opportunity to think about how the GAP can build on systems that exist at the regional, national and local levels and support the implementation of the commitments under the Sendai Framework in an impactful manner at the local level.

Discussion:

Organised by the Pacific Women Mediators Network (PWMN) and the Shifting the Power Coalition in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Australia to the UN, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and UNWomen/Women's Resilience to Disasters Programme, this informal discussion aims to assess the opportunities it creates for a more gender-sensitive disaster risk governance and strengthening resilience and share the perspectives of women peacebuilders in the Pacific on the ways to ensure adequate and equitable implementation of the GAP. With this, the discussion seeks to contribute to the next steps in the development of the GAP and its implementation strategy.

The discussion will address the following questions:

- What are the key opportunities presented by the GAP to strengthen the implementation of the Sendai Framework?

- How can the GAP be implemented? What are the opportunities for partnership between governments and local women peacebuilders?

- What are the areas in the GAP that require further improvement? What processes need to be in place to ensure that the GAP adequately supports the needs of women in communities?