Travel funds were awarded to the East-West Center of Honolulu, Hawaii to increase representation of US and international scholars at the Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction workshop (Honolulu Hawaii, August 10-12, 2004). The international workshop provides a forum for information exchange, dialogue and action planning informed by science-based knowledge in the new field of gender and disaster studies. While disaster social science has not historically focused on gender, recent empirical studies demonstrate the practical and theoretical significance of gender relations in decision-making, gender-specific needs and capacities in emergencies, and gender as a factor in risk perception and emergency preparedness. Practical and science-based strategies for mitigating and reducing social vulnerability to natural, technological and human-induced hazards will be examined from a gender perspective to develop a more inclusive and representative knowledge base about social structure and human interaction in disasters.
Women and men from the US and from high-risk nations in the developing world will share their community-based, governmental and academic expertise in the new field of gender and disaster studies. This award enables young and established scholars in the social and natural sciences to attend the workshop, with emphasis on increasing women's participation in the historically male-dominated dialogue about hazards, disasters and society. They will join practitioners and policy-makers from around the world who will present regional case studies, construct a research agenda and current international bibliography, and identify "best practices" for engendering risk reduction initiatives globally and locally. The meeting will is also an important venue for forging new networks and mentoring relationships between under-represented women and persons from high-risk nations, building a strong foundation for research and action collaboration in this area in the future.
