Natural Hazards Observer
| May 2005 | Volume XXIX | Number 5 |
Call for Submissions:
2005 Gender and Disaster Sourcebook
What is the link between gender equality and disaster risk management? What lessons have been learned in the field and through scientific study? How can this knowledge be applied in practice to reduce risk and respond equitably to disaster events?
A one-stop, user-friendly electronic guide is currently under development to help answer these questions with support from the Public Entity Risk Institute and the Pacific Disaster Center/East-West Center. The final product, written in English with reference to resources easily revised and adapted, will be available in December 2005 through the Gender and Disaster Network (http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/geography_research/gdn/).
Submissions are encouraged from all regions and areas of expertise, particularly:
- Recent gender-sensitive case studies
- In-house reports or documents on gendered capacities, vulnerabilities, impacts, and responses in disaster contexts
- First-person accounts in disasters
- Research protocols
- Good practice models
- Gender-sensitive checklists and field guides
- Positive photographs of women and girls in action
- Ready-to-use guides to mainstreaming gender in mitigation
- Information about grassroots community and women’s groups active in disaster response and risk reduction
- Good sources of information for the newcomer as well as the specialist on gender, development, and disaster
- Links to useful Web sites
- Training opportunities and materials with a strong gender focus
- Relevant college syllabi or modules
- Policy guides and sample practice protocols
- Topical bibliographies
To contribute ideas or materials to the 2005 Gender and Disaster Sourcebook, e-mail Elaine Enarson at eenarson@earthlink.net.
New Emergency Alerting and
Messaging Initiative
A group of National organizations representing a multitude of emergency response organizations has announced the launch of the National Emergency Alerting and Response Systems (NEARS) Initiative. NEARS, a nonprofit, cooperative effort, was launched to develop an effective approach to interagency messaging to better protect the public as well as first responders themselves.
The NEARS partners plan to deploy interoperable emergency data messaging using national emergency message and data standards, commercial information technologies, and a shared, electronic directory of agencies called the Emergency Provider Access Directory (EPAD) that gives agencies the ability to register for emergency messages based on their geography, incident interest, and agency type.
Current NEARS partners include representatives from fire, law enforcement, 9-1-1, emergency medical services, emergency medicine, public health, emergency management, private infrastructure, and the media.
Upon completion, NEARS partners expect that:
- Every emergency agency that participates by registering in EPAD will be able to send an emergency data message to any other emergency agency in the directory;
- Agencies will benefit by improving their preparedness planning and emergency event coordination efforts;
- Agencies will be able to send and receive external information into their current technology tools, so they do not lose that investment; and
- NEARS will provide one approach for all-hazards emergency messaging.
More information about the NEARS initiative can be found at http://comcare.org/nears/ or by calling (202) 429-0574. The Emergency Information Infrastructure Project Virtual Forum hosted an online discussion about NEARS on April 6. Read the transcript at http://www.emforum.org/.