Cebu City, Philippines October 24, 2008

On the night of October 22nd, the Mayor of Cebu City inaugurated the Grassroots Women's Academy, "Empowering Grassroots Women to Build Resilient Communities at a special dinner hosted by the City for participants of the Asian Grassroots Academy on "Empowering Grassroots Women to Build Resilient Communities."

This six-day Academy brings together 85 participants - mainly grassroots women - from 16 countries speaking 13 different languages. While the majority of grassroots leaders were Asian, they were also joined by experienced grassroots leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Nicaragua and Honduras who were interested in learning about Asian women's resilience building strategies. While we have held Grassroots Academies since 2000, this is the first time the Huairou Commission has organized such an Academy in Asia. This was made possible by local hosts Lihok Pilipina and the Bantay Banay networks with the support of several local and national level sponsors including: Cebu City Government's Family Affairs and Women's Program the PHILSSA network and Zonta International.

In addition to these local partners, Huairou Commission secured the support of the following global institutions to support the Academy: UNIFEM East and Southeast Asia, the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations on Disaster Reduction, ProVention Consortium, UNHabitat, American Jewish World Service and UNDP.

The Academy brings together grassroots leaders supported by NGO representatives from Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, S.Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and India; and includes grassroots leaders from Uganda, Kenya, Nicaragua, Honduras, Netherlands, US and Canada, In addition partner organizations such as the Beautiful Foundation, Korea, CAPWIP, UNDP and UNHabitat are also represented at the Academy.

At the plenary on the morning of the 23rd of October. grassroots women shared their experiences of disaster relief, recovery and reconstruction in their communities. It was clear from their presentations that the disaster response had created n opportunities for grassroots women to organize themselves to participate in relief recovery and reconstruction. Grassroots leaders from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India shared their efforts to design and construct houses, restore livelihoods and food security, improve health and sanitation and counter the dependency syndrome after the tsunami. Participants from the Philippines presented their efforts to organize themselves to negotiate with local, provincial and national governments to access resources, services and secure housing for their communities. The common thread running through all these experiences was the better development outcomes for grassroots women as a result of their organized interventions after disasters. Families had safe houses, livelihoods were restored, health and sanitation improved in the community and women's participation in public decision making significantly increased.

In the afternoon, there was a rich sharing among smaller break out groups of participants from communities who had experienced tsunami, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods and drought. Participants identified the major problems women experienced as a result of disaster and practical solutions to these problems. In effect the list of problems could be translated into vulnerabilities identified by women. These vulnerabilities were not just the list of structural and geo-physical features but also, social, economic features which increase women's burden and vulnerability to disaster.

The day ended with community leaders briefing five groups of participants who would visit five different urban and rural communities around Cebu City to create risk and vulnerability maps.

In the coming days the agenda for the Academy includes a day on analyzing disaster mapping as a community tool for organizing, learning and advocacy; a grassroots women's framework on resilience; the creation of a grassroots women's network that can lead the local implementation of the Hyogo Framework of Action; and a Dialogue with local and global partner institutions.

This Academy is also the preparatory event that will enable grassroots women to identify priorities for advocacy at the World Urban Forum in Nanjing in November 2008.

- Disaster Watch, November 2008