UNIFEM Responds to the Tsunami Tragedy
Strategic Interventions
UNIFEM chose to focus its efforts in Sri Lanka, Somalia, and in the province of Aceh in Indonesia, because of its local networks, and because the devastation caused by the tsunami seriously intensified existing hardships in these areas arising from stark poverty and years of civil conflict.
Through numerous consultations with women survivors, NGOs, and local leaders, and through quantitative studies to measure the tsunami's psychological, physical and socio-economic impact on women, it was discovered that as the affected communities moved from the immediate emergency phase to the longer-term reconstruction period, women's participation was noticeably lacking in the planning and implementation of recovery and rebuilding processes. Sex-disaggregated data was extremely limited, so that gender concerns were either being buried or left out in the recovery efforts of international agencies and government task forces.
Drawing from more than a decade of experience working in conflict-affected communities globally, UNIFEM identified three priority areas for its efforts in the tsunami-affected areas:
- Leadership: Supporting local women's leadership and the mobilization of women's networks to give them a voice in relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts; and providing financial assistance to women's organizations to respond to women's needs quickly.
- Livelihoods: Helping revive women's destroyed livelihoods, including restoring their productive assets, processes and supply chains, strengthening market links, and helping them to access reconstruction assistance.
- Protection: Working with other UN, government and civil society partners to assist women's groups in advocating for greater protection for women and girls from human rights violations in the relief, recovery and reconstruction period and beyond.
UNIFEM joined the United Nations Flash Appeal, requesting approximately US$3.5 million for its programme — contributions of about US$2.7 million have been received to date. As the recovery needs of survivors are considerably greater than can be addressed through this programme alone, most of the activities being implemented are intended as models for up-scaling, or as links into larger-scale interventions to be conducted together with other international and national partners.