Reflections on the Regional GEDSI Alumni Leadership Summit in Manila

Hien’s reflections echoed this:

“All the different panels from the Summit all highlighted the importance of leaving no one behind and acknowledged diverse lived experiences. Only when the communities we are serving are also involved in proposing the solutions to their specific needs, can we work towards ensuring that [disaster risk reduction] efforts are participatory and cause no harm.”

Building on this, Thao underlined the need for more focused learning in this area:

“We all know that to effectively support people with disability, their voices must be included in decision-making processes, and this can be achieved by integrating disability perspectives into all climate-related programs instead of treating them as separate issues. However, determining how to implement this integration within each program remains a critical question that requires further exploration.”

Reflecting on this, we see an opportunity to bring people with lived experience of marginalisation and disasters into panel discussions like these to strengthen learning opportunities for participants.

Finally, Shaheen reflected on the issue of focusing on participation rather than genuine empowerment, and the tendency for GEDSI efforts to focus on gender (AKA women):

“…one of my key takeaways [from the panel discussion] was the statement: ‘Working with women does not automatically satisfy GEDSI.’ This resonated with me, and I plan to apply this perspective in the committees I represent.”

Culture can act as an enabler for inclusion

Recent research on gender equality in the Pacific emphasises the opportunity to harness positive cultural and religious norms to advance gender equality. Reflecting this, Dr. Jayson Ibanez, Director for Research and Conservation, Philippine Eagle Foundation, talked about using culture and tradition as enablers for women’s empowerment. Through the Foundation, indigenous women are employed as forest guards and have formed a women’s guard group, where they feel valued and have opportunities to voice their perspectives at community gatherings. This particularly resonated with co-author, Ruth, who is a Papua New Guinean woman working on GEDSI in the Pacific.

There were similar reflections during the Quiapo Muslim Town tour, led by Shari’ah Counselor at Law Amanah Lao. Participants had the opportunity to sit with the leader of the Barangay in Quiapo Golden Mosque and ask questions about the experiences of Muslim communities in the Philippines. We met with women business owners in the town and heard about the aspects of Islam that support women’s safety and rights.

Data and robust monitoring, evaluation and learning can help us to better respond to disaster risks

Humanitarian crises have immediate, significant, and compounding impacts that disproportionately affect women and girls, alongside other groups that experience marginalisation, such as people with a disability, the elderly and people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), among others. However, data gaps still exist, hindering our ability to deliver tailored interventions that respond to people’s specific needs.

For Hien, this was a key takeaway from the sessions:

“I highly appreciated the call throughout the Summit for people-centred approaches to DRR. However, there are often huge information gaps about the needs of these groups and how to best address their needs, and in an increasingly inclusive world, connections and experience sharing is vital in closing this information gap. After all, you cannot address issues you don’t know exist, and overly scientific/data-driven approaches may overlook actual human experiences.”

This further solidifies the need for engaging with people and communities to inform decision-making and development of solutions, as well as capturing knowledge and data to inform future programming. In line with this, creating stronger cultures of learning was a key focus for Hien:

“Robust monitoring and evaluation are needed to know whether our current approaches are actually working for everyone and practitioners also need to recognise the possibility that current actions may not benefit everyone equally and be open to adjust their plans to ensure that they do.”

Adequate resourcing remains a significant challenge

For Thao, a clear takeaway from the Summit was the need to address funding challenges for organisations focused on climate resilience in Vietnam, the Philippines, and other countries.

“It is essential to explore more sustainable funding strategies, as reliance on [corporate social responsibility] initiatives or foreign donor support may not be viable long-term.”

Rioli built on this, articulating the challenge of when intent is not matched with adequate resourcing. When reflecting on the Independent Living and Learning Center excursion, facilitated by Prof Abelardo (Archie) Apollo David, Jr. and the situation in Nauru, he shared:

“Nauru Education system has the ideology [of] inclusive education and has developed its Inclusive Education Policy. However, it is difficult to implement inclusive education as they don’t have the resources for it. We don’t have an adequate number of teachers, who are qualified to teach students with special needs or even the teacher’s aid to assist individual students who require special assistance in mainstream schools. So this is very challenging for our Education department.”

Cherrie De Erit Atilano’s speech, detailing her work through AGREA, an agri-business founded on sustainable agriculture, fair trade and a replicable model of an agri-based economy, sparked ideas for Thao:

“Ms Cherrie De Erit Atilano illustrated how effective networking can unlock business growth by connecting individuals who share similar values and goals. It seems that this potential is often overlooked in development work, where fundraising primarily relies on fixed project proposals and team members are “busy” implementing activities and meeting donor/local government “expectations” set up when the project was approved rather than leveraging networking channels. By prioritising relationship-building and collaboration, it is obvious that community development organisations can enhance their impact and secure more sustainable funding sources for their initiatives.”