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Strengthening the Role of Women in Disaster Management [Serbia]

Phenomena, a Serbian civil society organisation, initiated disaster risk reduction (DRR) training courses for women in three Serbian cities which are particularly susceptible to natural disasters: Kraljevo, Požega and Užice. This was the first civil protection training at the local level in Serbia that mainstreamed a gender perspective and recognised it as an integral element of building disaster-resilient communities. Aneta Dukić, project coordinator at Phenomena in Kraljevo, explains that:

the research we conducted after the flooding in 2014 showed that women felt frightened, physically

unprepared and poorly informed.

The activities carried out in the training courses were in line with the new Serbian Law on DRR and Emergency Management, and in accordance with the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030, adopted by the UN member states in 2015. This global agreement to reduce and prevent disaster risks particularly recognizes the importance of the gender dimension and calls for the inclusion of all of society, including vulnerable groups, in DRR. The workshops were an ideal opportunity for women to acquire the skills needed for efficient response to emergencies, which have been shown to be lacking: how to perform first aid, how to react promptly in emergency situations such as fires, earthquakes or floods. The success of the workshops is twofold, not only are women from western Serbia now better prepared for emergency situations and included in local civil protection units as leaders, but they are also trained in accordance with the gender mainstreaming approach , emphasises Aneta Dukić.

[ CALL TO ACTION ] Do you want to learn more about how and why to integrate gender into Emergency and Disaster Response Programmes? Check out the Socio- Economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) guidelines for emergency situations consisting of twelve modules with information, tools and charts.

Case Study