Women's empowerment in disaster reconstruction : critical perspectives on policies and frameworks

Thurairajah, N; Amaratunga, RDG; Haigh, RP

Abstract

There has been an increase in the occurrence of natural disasters and their impact has aroused the
interest of many stakeholders to incorporate different strategies on disaster management. Although,
disaster ceased many opportunities and lives, the lives of survivors do not cease in the disaster
affected areas. This bespeaks the need to develop communities to cope up with challenges during post
disaster situations and to improve their disaster resilience. Within the post disaster stage, the impact
of natural disasters and the consequent partial reconstruction efforts have presented many challenges
to women. Hence, there is a need to enhance women’s position within post disaster context. Further,
many studies have acknowledged that although women are disproportionately affected by these
disasters, their role in preventing and mitigating the effects of natural disasters is not well explored.
Within this context, the main research investigates into empowerment of women during post disaster
reconstruction in Sri Lanka. There are many factors which influence women’s empowerment such as
their contribution to household, access to resources, participation in household decision making,
perception on gender awareness, etc. Among factors that influence women’s empowerment, existing
policies and frameworks is one of the important factors that can play a major role within post disaster
reconstruction. Further, although there are legislations and policies to provide assistance to women,
the lack of implementation of these remains a problem. Hence, in order to gain an understanding on
the existing framework on women’s empowerment, this study firstly examines the way the concept of
empowerment has been viewed within development studies and later analyses the national and
international policies and frameworks that exist within post disaster context in Sri Lanka. This study
has been based on a theoretical as well as practical ideas obtained through a comprehensive literature
review and interviews carried out among experts within the practice in Sri Lanka

Citation

Thurairajah, N., Amaratunga, R., & Haigh, R. Women's empowerment in disaster reconstruction : critical perspectives on policies and frameworks. Presented at CIB 2010, University of Salford

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: CIB 2010
• Conference Location: University of Salford
• End Date: May 13, 2010
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Sep 15, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Keywords: Disaster, empowerment, frameworks, Sri Lanka, women
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference