The best practices from Malawi on feminist collectivism and leadership in ensuring efficiency in Disaster Reduction
Climate disasters are increasing in frequency, and becoming more and more concerning. Not only do they raise concerns about the future of our planet, but they also present intersecting challenges to vulnerable populations that already face many intertwined issues.
Diverse women and girls, especially in the global South, pay for the effects of climate change because of capitalistic and patriarchal systems that contribute to them. However, while being most affected, they are also sidelined from decision making for disaster risk mitigation strategies.
Last week the world marked International disaster reduction day under the theme “Fighting inequality for a resilient future”. If that aim is to be achieved, it is crucial to not only identify and elevate best practices in disaster risk management demonstrated in the past, but especially if we are to fight inequality and ensure our efforts reach everyone, it is also necessary to take into account the role of, and impact on women and girls from the global south.
Although they tend to be invisible, there are actually great examples already of women taking the lead in disaster management. For example, the role women played in the catastrophic events of Cyclone Freddy which occurred in early 2023 in southern Malawi.
Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit the southern region of Malawi with torrential rain. This caused flashfloods and landslides, claimed the lives of 679 people, displaced over 2 million people. 1,156,819 of them were women and girls of reproductive age, and about 90,399 were expectant women (according to the department of Disaster Management Affairs of the Malawi government). The secondary impacts of the disaster are still evident to date as some of the road networks and the economic activities which were disrupted haven’t been fixed.
There are many unsung sheroes who took a great role in the prevention and response to these events.
Starting from the early warning announcements, women and girls utilized their networks to further broadcast early warnings and evacuation information within their communities. In Malawi, the collectiveness of women and girls in community spaces are a lifeline to many, and these remain the best mediums of information sharing and emotional support. The essence of collectivism over individualism is a true definition of sister's keeper. This also extends to the care giving roles that women and girls share in looking out for one another. Promoting the spirit of collectiveness should be heightened in disaster risk reduction as a key information sharing platform, as well as for data collection for impact assessment, and a platform for provision of emotional support which is critically needed in times of crisis.
On the second day of the disaster, Malawian women mobilized and distributed relief items with speed and execution to support displaced populations with food, clothing and other supplies. Women who held leadership positions in social, political, and religious and professional groups leveraged their positions to mobilize immediate relief items to displaced populations. Women proved to be effective in assessing the needs for different types of groups such as the elderly, children, people loving with disabilities, and pregnant women. From this, feminist leadership was evidently displayed to be effective in disaster relief implementation through participatory approaches.
These are but a few examples of how women mobilized to warn their communities, and s support their immediate needs. These are absolutely fundamental roles in times of crisis. They should not be taken for granted, but elevated and built into disaster response strategies. Working collectively, knowledge sharing, feminist leadership, and efficiency in must be reinforced and spread across the globe. In order to build more resilient and inclusive communities that can withstand natural and human-made disasters, it is important that there is a representation from various categories of people, including women from the global south.
Written By Thelma Aretha Kaliu
Thelma Aretha Kaliu is a feminist leader, gender and development enthusiast with seven years of work and voluntary experience in promoting gender equality and development through feminist and human rights approaches in Malawi and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is also part of our sister to sister program 2023.