Description
"The Huairou Commission envisions a widely practiced system of disaster response that leads to long-term sustainable development by deeply involving women and their communities in practice planning and policy setting." Introduction In the last decade, grassroots member organizations of the Huairou Commission have devised and demonstrated a portfolio of transformative community-based disaster response practices. Beyond their local practices, however, they share what they know: survivor group to survivor group. Furthermore, in venues the world over, they explain the common sense and high return of fully incorporating grassroots women's groups and local communities in the design, search for more forward looking disaster management policies and systems. Solutions Developed and tested in the rescue and recovery phases of four major disasters in three countries, Huairou's disaster-to-development strategy leads to social innovation, efficient use of local resources, transformation of social and political agendas, and the deepening of a participatory government. Its strategy, piloted by and hundreds of grassroots women's organizations in India , is simple: Engage the full partnership of local people who tend to be intimately knowledgeable about community needs and resources. Grassroots women are particularly valuable to this practice. Huairou's process, refined in Maharasthra , India ; Marmara , Turkey ; Gujarat , India ; and on the north coast of Honduras , is empowerment: