ActionAid Australia

Photo credit: ActionAid Australia

ActionAid is a global women’s rights organisation working in over 70 countries to support women living in poverty and exclusion to claim their rights and lead their communities through crises. For a decade, ActionAid Australia has been supporting women-led emergency preparedness and responses.

Women and girls often suffer the most during humanitarian emergencies. Typically, more women than men are killed by rapid onset disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes. Violence against women and girls increases during all emergencies, especially in conflict.

Despite being disproportionately impacted by disasters, women’s leadership in times of crisis still goes unrecognised and under resourced. This means that women’s needs during an emergency are too often overlooked, jeopardising their rights and security and further adding to their burden of care work in crisis. And yet, when disaster strikes, women are the first to take action, often putting their lives on the line to protect others.

ActionAid's Approach in an Emergency:

We work directly with local women’s organisations to empower women to lead the response to a disaster. When women are supported to lead crisis response, communities are better prepared, women’s rights are better protected and women’s position in society is transformed contributing to significant gains in gender equality. Women know best what their communities need and are able to get life-saving supplies quickly and fairly to those who need it most.

In the long-term, we work to support women’s movements and organisations to prepare for disasters and strengthen their resilience to future crises. We train women in leadership skills and disaster preparedness so that they are better equipped to lead their communities in times of crisis.

Visit ActionAid's website to learn more.

Photo: Betty, Betina and Rosetta, members of the Women I Tok Tok Tugeta Network, at an ActionAid-run disaster preparedness training in Vanuatu