UNIFEM Responds to the Tsunami Tragedy

Using Local Structures, Local Knowledge,
Local Agency

For years at the forefront of survival strategies and networks that sustained their families and communities during conflict, women assumed critical roles in the tsunami emergency response effort, taking in relatives and children orphaned by the tsunami, offering care and support within camps and shelters for grieving survivors, and participating in the distribution of emergency aid and health care services and evacuation of the dead.

Drawing on these networks and strategies, UNIFEM and its local partners quickly compiled a databank of local organizations, identifying their key skills, assets and resource needs, in order to mobilize local knowledge, systems and solutions as the most effective response to the disaster. Rapid assessments were also conducted to develop a clearer picture of the specific effects of the tsunami on women in the hardest hit areas of Indonesia, Somalia and Sri Lanka, and to ascertain women's most pressing needs and concerns. The information gathered was provided to UNDP, OCHA and other international organizations so they could connect with local groups already working in the affected areas, and integrate women's concerns from the beginning into their operations. Information was also provided to village heads and religious leaders, so that gender concerns would be factored not only into international solutions but local ones as well.

To further mobilize and capitalize on local knowledge, the majority of staff in UNIFEM's programme offices in the affected countries were recruited nationally — this has helped significantly in terms of establishing institutional memory and tapping valuable networks to accelerate service delivery.

“When recovery and reconstruction programmes respond to the realities and needs of women and support their leadership and organizing, many local and effective solutions can be scaled up and women’s voices and networks empowered to build the policies and institutions necessary for a more just and sustainable future.”
—Noeleen Heyzer, UNIFEM executive director

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