Legarda Co-chairs High Level Dialogue on Women’s Leadership in DRR at UN Conference in Sendai

MANILA-Senator Loren Legarda today said she will urge participants of the 3^rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) to place gender equality and women empowerment at the heart of the Post-2015 Framework for DRR as she co-chairs a high level forum on women’s leadership in DRR.

Legarda, UNISDR Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific, will co-chair the High Level Multi-stakeholder Partnership Dialogue on Mobilising Women’s Leadership in DRR with Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs Sanae Takaichi. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will deliver the keynote speech for the said forum.

  

“Through this forum, we want to be able to contribute to making the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction a document that would not only urge nations to mobilize women’s leadership in DRR, but also guide them on how this commitment could be effectively carried out,” Legarda said. As co-chair, Legarda will summarize the forum’s discussion points in a set of recommendations.

The Senator stressed that stereotypical gender roles have no place in the critical fight against disaster risk and climate change.

“It is time we take action by putting women at the forefront of disaster risk reduction efforts. Women are not victims. They constitute a formidable ‘first line of defense’ against disaster risks. We must acknowledge their capacity to get involved, decide, take action, and lead,” she said.

Legarda, a three-term Philippine senator who sponsored the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 and authored the Climate Change Act of 2009, as well as several laws on women empowerment, explained that by empowering and allowing women to become part of disaster risk reduction and management efforts, we address the risks they face.

She added that the Post-2015 framework to the Hyogo Framework for Action should be “a tool towards a dramatic shift in the degree and scope of women’s involvement in climate change and disaster risk reduction efforts—from the quiet but steady work they perform at their communities, women should move into the frontlines of delivering decisive action towards a sustainable and resilient planet.”

The High Level Multi-stakeholder Partnership Dialogue on Mobilising Women’s Leadership in DRR will be held on 14 March 2015. Panel members include Tarja Halonen, Former President of Finland; Emiko Okuyama, Mayor of Sendai; Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for Budget and Human 
Resources; Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP); Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and Adi Vasulevu Merewalasi of FemLINKPACIFIC, a Pacific Islands regional feminist media network based in Fiji.