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| Monday, 26 April 2004 |
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Book Review: Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management by Elaine Enarson - Independent Scholar Evergreen, Colorado, USA In an increasingly risky era, a user-friendly handbook leading to more equitable and effective strategies for reducing risk is urgently needed. Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management: A Guide for South Asia comes at just the right moment and warrants close reading and wide adaptation in South Asia and beyond. Authors Madhavi Ariyabandu and Maithree Wickramasinghe are natural collaborators who effectively integrate their theoretical and practice-based knowledge of gender, development and disaster. Writing in a clear and accessible style, they build on accounts from the field to demonstrate the potential of gender-sensitive and holistic approaches to reducing risk and responding to disasters. The authors begin by establishing a strong theoretical framework that puts gender analysis at the center of both development planning and disaster risk reduction. A number of theoretical models are offered to readers new to the field, with emphasis on a sustainable livelihoods framework. The following sections map in vivid detail the complex ways that gender relations structure the human impacts of disasters large and small. The richness of detail, based on ITDG-supported South Asian field studies, supports the analytic framework and gives readers a feel for the new writing on gender and disaster. Importantly, the authors follow up with an extended discussion of community-based and women-driven initiatives to mitigate natural hazards and reconstruct in ways that promote a safer and more just future. The last section of the book develops a sound critique of gender-blind thinking about disasters coupled with sound alternative approaches to reducing risk. Here the authors suggest specific goals and strategies for engendering development practice and disaster management in order to build sustainable and resilient communities. The guidelines are more detailed than most and offered in an easy-to-follow format for the differing concerns of practitioners and policy makers. This commitment to changing practice makes Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management a book not just for reading but for using. The South Asian case studies provide an invaluable context for an integrated approach to gender equality, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction. It is sincerely to be hoped that the approach will be broadly tested in the field and emulated in other regions. This new publication represents the spirit and accomplishments of Duryog Nivaran and their many partners. It is an outstanding contribution to the emerging gender and disaster literature, a new tool for practitioners, and an important new teaching resource. There is plenty here for the general reader as well, including an annotated bibliography and glossary and a very useful guide to relevant on-line resources. Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management: A Guide for South Asia is a much-needed guide for us all. It is available in paperback (176 pages) through ITDG South Asia. |
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