INTRODUCTION
Gender equality matters for both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). All citizens have a right to participate in the public life of their society, but different groups of citizens face different barriers to doing so. Women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors historically faced systematic exclusion from public decision-making processes and continue to be widely under-represented across the world. Further, women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors often have different needs and experiences of government and public services, and therefore may prioritize different things from their governments and service providers. Intersectionalities across gender, sexual identity, age, race, ethnicity, ability, location, and access can further discrimination and limit voice and access to vital services.
However, the important priorities and needs of these communities are often poorly understood and under-supported. Diverse, substantive participation in governance processes like OGP and its action plan co-creation processes strengthens both the legitimacy and effectiveness of these mechanisms, truly broadening the base of participation.
Civil society organizations (CSOs) that work across gender equality and equity issues are an important democratic mechanism for aggregating, representing, and applying pressure to secure the interests of women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors. OGP coordination bodies need to actively facilitate a range of these CSOs and social movement actors to participate in the co-creation of OGP action plans, if it is to harness the ideas and expertise of diverse citizens, and be relevant to their needs and priorities.
The Feminist Open Government (FOGO) Initiative was created to generate research, data, and practical tools to support OGP members in better using OGP as a mechanism to advance gender equality. This Gender Toolkit was produced based on several pieces of research that started under the FOGO Initiative and has continued within OGP’s broader gender and inclusion efforts.
The use of the tools can be facilitated by an OGP government or civil society stakeholder, a third-party facilitator, or a resource person with gender expertise. A third-party facilitator may be best able to explain concepts to participants, ask probing questions to prompt deeper thinking, moderate the discussion to surface different points of view, and facilitate consensus around actions to be taken after the tools are used.
Note that this toolkit will reference women, girls, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors as specific stakeholders to engage and consult throughout co-creation and implementation. This will also appear as “gender equality actors” for shorthand. These categories are not comprehensive, and there are overlapping identities and intersectionalities within and across these groups that greatly impact voice, agency, and access. None of these groups are a monolith, and diverse consultation is needed across identities and experience to better ensure open government approaches serve a diversity of citizens.
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START Network aims to transform humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding, early action, and localisation, and plans to build a risk financing system in the Philippines. The network believes that the humanitarian sector faces the biggest systemic problems–problems including slow and reactive funding, centralized decision-making, and an aversion to change–means that people affected by crises worldwide do not receive the best help fast enough and needless suffering results. In a short survey conducted with the members of Start Network in the Philippines, the shared experience of the network identifies severe winds and flooding caused by tropical cyclones as having the most impactful hazards that hit the country. Given the likelihood and severity of these hazards, the present study identified the following, first, the geographic and socio-economic extent of impacts of severe winds and flooding due to tropical cyclones in the Philippines; second, the vulnerability factors and cross-sectoral issues related to tropical cyclones, and third, the existing community-based coping mechanisms that the humanitarian sector can leverage on.
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Given its geographical location, the Philippines is one of the countries in Asia that is most prone to disasters. In fact, the Philippines placed 5th as the most vulnerable country on disaster risk implications for development capacity on the 2015 Global Assessment Report of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction while consistently ranking in the top 4 among the countries in the world hit by the highest number of disasters for over 20 years. Recognizing the adverse impacts of disasters in the economy and human capital, the Philippine government has predicted a yearly PhP 177 billion losses due to disasters.
START Network defined disaster risk financing as an integration of the elements of science-based risk modeling, contingency planning, and pre-agreed financing to prompt humanitarian funding in situations that meet the threshold. Disaster risk financing also entails access to reliable funds whenever a crisis hits which can result in an improved timing, coverage, and design of humanitarian action, and at the same time, support improved emergency preparedness measures.
In terms of gender equality, the Philippines, as compared with other countries in the world, ranks medium to high based on Gender and Development Index, and Gender Gap Index. Despite these achievements, during the onslaught of both climate and disaster risks, women, men, and other gender identities still tend to remain vulnerable. Thus, in disaster risk financing, it is essential to consider gendered needs and the contexts of populations that benefit from it. START Network recognizes the importance of experiences as a learning mechanism to devise ways to help in improving disaster preparedness, access to information, and early action given the gendered needs of people.
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Start Network started piloting disaster risk financing (DRF) approaches to move from reacting to crises, to proactively managing risks, so that we can ensure faster, more efficient, and more effective locally-led humanitarian action. Disaster risk financing as defined by START Network (2021) integrates the elements of science-based risk modeling, contingency planning, and pre-agreed financing to prompt humanitarian funding in situations that meet the threshold. This session was conducted with the aim of achieving the following objectives:
Background of the Sessions during the Webinar
Start Network supports inclusive locally-led structures to own, develop and implement financing strategies and systems in their contexts. In the Philippines, Start Network conducted studies to collect baseline information needed to establish a DRF system that is appropriate for the Philippine context. In this meeting, the outputs of three research studies on disaster risk management (DRM) financial flows, impact, vulnerability analysis, and gender mainstreaming will be shared to Start Network Members and local CSO partners in the Philippines.
Start Network is made up of more than 50 aid agencies across five continents, ranging from large international organizations to national NGOs. Together, our aim is to transform humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding, early action, and localization. Through the START Network, members and partners can quickly access funding for projects to save lives before a disaster strikes.
The need for disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures rises with more frequent and stronger disasters. Thus, disaster risk financing (DRF) systems should be prompt, adequate, and responsive to cater to the needs of the vulnerable sector, especially in the Philippines, being the ninth most vulnerable country in the world (Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft, 2020). However, disaster risk management (DRM) funding in the country is insufficient and unpredictable (Villacin, 2017), indicating deficiencies in the national DRF architecture. The development of a robust risk financing mechanism has been hampered by a lack of information on the nature, volume, and flows of funds from various sources.
This document showcases a three-year snapshot of Disaster Risk Financing in the Philippines.
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Disasters are on the rise. In the past two decades, more than 200 million people have been affected, on average, every year by disasters. Storms, floods, and earthquakes are the top three disaster events worldwide that have claimed a considerable amount of lives and properties.
This book aims to educate children about disasters, particularly storms, floods, and earthquakes, and what they can do about them. This is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 10. This book features different activities to make learning a lot more fun for them. The Citizens ‘Disaster Response Center (CDRC) advises parents, guardians, and teachers to assist the children using this activity book.
This book is produced by the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center for the MICRODIS Project under the Sixth Framework Program of the European Commission.
To access a soft copy of this resource, please click here.
An Excerpt from the Document:
INTRODUCTION
CORAL reefs are among the most biodiverse ecosystems globally, and they support the provision of goods and services for approximately 500 million people in coastal communities (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2019). Yet, climate change threatens the sustainability of coral reefs. Increased ocean temperatures mean coral bleaching and mortality events are becoming more widespread (Wilkinson 2000; Speers et al. 2016). These changes are modifying food systems and decreasing fisheries productivity (Rogers et al. 2018), increasing the vulnerability of millions of people dependent on reefs for their livelihoods (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2019).
Within coral reef systems, the effects of social and ecological change are inequitably distributed (de la Torre-Castro et al. 2017; Lau et al. 2021a). Gender, the social meaning and expectations regarding what it is to be a woman or man, shapes how individuals experience opportunities and outcomes within social-ecological systems (Resurrección & Elmhirst 2008; Nightingale 2016). Women tend to face greater constraints than men in their capacities to respond to social-ecological change; men tend to have greater access to and control over assets (i.e., natural resources, income or technology) meaning they are generally better positioned to cope and recover from such change (Cohen et al. 2016; Locke et al. 2017). Moreover, in cases where social-ecological change has created food or economic insecurity, men are more likely to migrate to urban areas to find work, leaving women to bear the brunt of food provisioning, reproductive labour and experience the impacts of poverty more intensely (Rao et al. 2021).
Gender also shapes how people experience and engage with programmes and policies seeking to assist communities overcome social-ecological disturbance. In many cases, men are more able than women to access information and support, have greater flexibility to participate in alternative or adapted livelihoods, and greater autonomy in making strategic life decisions (Locke et al. 2014; Cohen et al. 2016; Lawless et al. 2019). To ensure both effective and equitable outcomes, it is critical that environmental development interventions consider, and work to address these inequities. Yet, analysis of gender approaches used by interventions within coastal social-ecological systems suggest that current efforts are falling short of catalyzing needed progress toward gender equality (Stacey et al. 2019; Lawless et al. 2021; Mangubhai & Lawless 2021).
How environmental interventions interact with gender can be situated along a spectrum from those that seek to ‘reach’, ‘benefit’ or ‘empower’ women and men (Johnson et al. 2018), to those that actively seek to ‘transform’ gender inequalities (Kleiber et al. 2019) (Figure 1)1. Research has shown that the majority of environmental interventions seek to ‘reach’ or ‘benefit’ participants (Danielsen et al. 2018; Mangubhai & Lawless 2021). ‘Reach’ approaches tend to focus on ensuring women are included in interventions, for example, equal numbers of women and men participating in activities or projects. ‘Benefit’ approaches focus on advancing individual access to resources, for example, as a means to increase productivity or income generation (Johnson et al. 2018; Kleiber et al. 2019). While these are important steps, these actions alone are unlikely to generate the profound gender and social change needed to drive equitable outcomes. Further along this spectrum, yet far less evident in environmental and conservation practice, are approaches that seek to ‘empower’ individuals. Essentially, these approaches focus on strengthening agency through expanding strategic freedoms or life choices, ultimately enhancing individual ability to make and act on decisions. Given women tend to have relatively less agency than men (Kabeer 1999; Muñoz Boudet et al. 2013), there is a tendency for ‘empower’ approaches to primarily focus on women.
Gender transformative approaches (GTAs) are considered the frontier of gender best practice. GTAs seek to surface and rebalance unequal norms, power relations and structures toward those that are considered gender equal (expanded in Section 2) (Wong et al. 2019; McDougall et al. 2020). They are distinct from approaches that only seek to address the symptoms of gender inequality (i.e., ‘reach’, ‘benefit’ or ‘empower’ approaches). GTAs are more ambitious and are designed to tackle the root causes of inequality (McDougall et al. 2020) and thus realize more transformative and longlasting progress towards gender equality across a range of scales. While the use of GTAs is emerging in environmental sectors, and specifically in food systems discourse, to date, there has been little guidance for their application in coral reef social-ecological systems.
A recent literature review (Lau & Ruano-Chamorro 2021) found that although attention to gender and fisheries, and marine environments is increasing (Harper et al. 2013, 2020; Gopal et al. 2014; Kleiber 2014; Frangoudes & Gerrard 2018; Frangoudes et al. 2019), studies of gender are more nascent in tropical seascapes (de la Torre-Castro et al. 2017; de la Torre-Castro 2019), and gender transformative approaches are rarely applied. There is thus considerable scope to enhance gender equality outcomes by elucidating what applying a GTA entails in this context.
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Vulnerable groups – particularly women – suffer most from natural and man-made hazards. Now more than ever, there is a need to account for their needs and interests in public decision-making spaces to ensure that community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) mechanisms and governance structures are effective, inclusive, and are sustainably adopted. Providing women with the opportunity and ability to actively participate in DRR planning and solutions not only amplifies their voice in decisions that affect their lives but also harnesses their potential in leading community DRR work.
Aimed at increasing the resilience of small-scale farmers, fisherfolk – with focus given to female headed-households and women collectives in its partner communities, Project INCREASE sought to augment its women engagement activities and advocacy work through (1) piloting the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) action research model in its activities, and (2) drawing insights from the Rapid Gender Analysis on Power (RGA-POW) conducted in nine crisis-affected barangays in Mapanas, and Palapag, Northern Samar, Philippines that are covered by the project.
This RGA-POW provides information about the different needs, capacities, and aspirations of women – with a focus on the structural and relational barriers to, and opportunities for women’s leadership and public participation during and after emergencies, as well as relevant information on the local context from previous studies (e.g. post-distribution monitoring reports, rapid gender analyses, etc.).
Apart from demonstrating that women do have power and exercise this with other women, the report also outlines underlying reasons for limited public voice and decision-making for different groups of women and identifies potential resistors and risks, as well as presents opportunities and actions that can address observed barriers. Thus, providing promising directions for WLiE in INCREASE.
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This session of the Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) aims to disseminate the results of the post-project sustainability (PPS) evaluation of the Women Enterprise Fund initiative (WEF-PPS). The study findings, learning, and recommendations seek to enhance the gender responsiveness and sustainability of livelihood recovery in humanitarian-development nexus programming.
The WEF initiative was one of CARE’s largest women-targeted disaster response and recovery projects. A total of 929 women entrepreneurs from six provinces were assisted in the project to restore their household livelihoods devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. WEF’s supported the women’s microenterprises towards the development of more sustainable livelihoods that could rehabilitate or diversify household income sources to secure their access to basic needs. CARE, together with local partners, implemented three key interventions: the infusion of financial capital, capacity-strengthening activities, and linkage to relevant supply chain actors and service providers.
The WEF-PPS study assessed the women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and resilience outcomes that were sustained among WEF-supported women entrepreneurs four years since the completion of the WEF initiative. It not only explored the unintended and emerging impacts of the WEF project but also identified contributing factors to sustainable outcomes. The study also looked into the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on women’s livelihoods to determine their resilience.
In this study, sustainability is defined as the achieved state and benefits of women’s economic empowerment and resilience are maintained, and WEF beneficiaries continue adapting their situation to evolving conditions while achieving economic well-being. The CARE gender equality (GE), WEE and resilience frameworks guided the design of the evaluation. The harvested WEE and resilience outcomes were classified, analyzed and interpreted based on five WEE and resilience domains of change: economic advancement, access to skills development and job opportunities, access to assets, services and other support to advance economically, decision-making in different spheres, and reducing drivers of risks.
This WEF-PPS session of the RILHUB Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series is aimed at reaching the objectives below:
1. Share the findings of the study – what outcomes and benefits were sustained or have emerged four years after the WEF project closed.
2. Share evidence on WEE and resilience outcomes to support advocacy initiatives.
3. Inform future programming strategy and call for actions based on learning and recommendations
4. Acknowledge the successes of WEF entrepreneurs and the contributions of partners
This presentation on the WEF-PPS outcomes was created and presented by the research team composed of Ms. Maria Teresa Bayombong, Ms. Caitlin Shannon, Ms. Maria Adelma Montejo, and Ms. Tzuhsuan Peng.
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The Moving Urban Poor Communities in Mindanao towards Resilience Project (MOVE UP-Mindanao) is an urban resilience project aimed at contributing to the resilience building of urban poor populations to withstand and manage the impact of disasters. It seeks to strengthen the urban disaster preparedness, response, and management capacity of the national, sub-national, and local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders through the adaption and replication of tested urban resilience strategies.
In partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Local Government Academy (DILG-LGA), the project intends to share its lessons learned, good practices, and innovations gathered and tested from its experience working with urban poor communities, municipalities, and provinces to contribute to the large-scale resilience-building effort.
MOVE UP Mindanao is implemented by a consortium of international non-government organizations which includes Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, and CARE Philippines with its local partner ACCORD Inc. Funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the project is currently being implemented in nine (9) local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao.
The Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) Session covering this topic was held on May 27, 2021 which aimed to :
Invited offices from the Malabon LGU (City Planning and Development Department, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and City Environmental and Natural Resources Office) presented their institutional mandates and their engagement with CARE’s and ACCORD’s projects in the past. They also described their practice in mainstreaming DRR and CCA in their local plans before working with CARE and ACCORD. Furthermore, these offices shared Integrated Risk Management (IRM) value in their local plans and planning processes.
These presentations on Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management in the Local Government Units’ Planning System in the context of Malabon City were created and presented by Ms. Ma. Lina Punzalan, Mr. Roderick Tongol, Ms. Elizabeth Gutierrez, and Ms. Mariedel Barbin, respectively.
To access a soft copy of the CPDO presentation, please click here.
To access a soft copy of the DRRMO presentation, please click here.
To access a soft copy of the CENRO presentation, please click here.
To access a soft copy of the presentation from Brgy. Potrero, please click here.