Regional Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue January 2015

Purpose:

The humanitarian community is playing an increasingly active role in bridging the cultural and/or religious divide in fractured communities. Oftentimes, humanitarian activities in sensitive contexts cannot be approached without factoring in questions of religious and cultural understanding or adaptation. Migrant populations are an important part of the conversation to how society can build a culture of non-violence and peace through increase respect and understanding for difference cultures and religions.

It is within this context that the Center for Strategic and International Studies-Myanmar Development Resources Institute (CSIS-MDRI), Interfaith Dialogue Group (Myanmar), Myanmar Red Cross and the IFRC hosted a regional think tank focusing on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in Yangon from 24-25 January 2015.

The think tank dialogue is another part of the ongoing series, the Red Cross Red Crescent Doha Dialogue on Migration. The first event took place in May 2014 in Doha, bringing external partners such as the International Organization for Migration, State of Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migrant Forum in Asia, international NGOs, NGOs and others, in order to strengthen inter-regional collaboration on the issues relating to labor migration.

Overview:

 

Usage: Learning from experience

Audience: National Society Leadership, Technical staff, Communication staff

For Agenda of the dialogue, click here Agenda, size 0.58 MB

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ICRD-ConcepNote_Final.pdf

Gender Talk Training Pack: Improving gender equality and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions in ethnic minority areas of Northern Vietnam

Purpose

This training pack comes with a guide in English and Vietnamese, and pocket charts (series 1, series 2 and series 3) to support facilitators who directly implement gender talks in communities.

The guide provides guidelines on discussing the following issues with members of a community: sharing housework between men and women; participation of men and women in community activities; discussion and decision making in families; and equal treatment of boys and girls.

The purpose of the ‘talks’ is to help people realise existing gender inequality issues in their locality and then raise their awareness, aiming at behaviour changes and practices.

The guide is especially designed for ethnic minority groups in remote and disadvantaged communes of Northern Vietnam.  It is available in English and Vietnamese.

Overview

  • Men and women are equally responsible for housework. Men should actively share housework with women as a part of their responsibilities to the family. Families and men should create favourable conditions for women to participate in community activities.
  • Family decisions need to be agreed by both wife and husband. It is essential to take women’s opinions into account when making important decisions, because men and women have equal roles and contributions to family.
  • Boy and girls must be treated equally in schooling and in housework.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation, Training

Audiences: Technical staff; Gender and diversity practitioners; Communication staff

Limitations: Some of the charts are accompanied with explanations in English and others have no explanations.

Reference: Vietnam Red Cross and French Red Cross (April 2012). Gender Talk Training Pack: Improving gender equality and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions in ethnic minority areas of Northern Vietnam. Pp.1-29.

 

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Gender-Talk-manual-Eng-1.pdf

Audio Visual: Building Capacities – Participatory Planning

Audio Visual Building Capacities – Participatory Planning

Purpose

This video is one of five documentaries created to illustrate best practices in building community and Red Cross and Red Crescent capacity in a variety of cultural contexts from Mongolia, Australia, Nepal and Cambodia.

Overview

  • To start a participatory planning process a local Red Cross/Red Crescent branch should organise a discussion with vulnerable groups. This should include local government and other organisations that can meet some of the needs of the people. From these discussions come ideas for services, offers for community help such as volunteers and locally raised funds. Once a programme is designed and implemented with community participation, the community should give regular feedback to the Red Cross/Red Crescent to ensure that the service meets their needs or to suggest how it could be improved.
  • In deciding its role to support the supply of clean drinking water, and other basic schemes, the Nepal Red Cross ensured that it closely consulted affected communities.
  • In Cambodia, where flood, drought, storm and fire are the most frequent natural disasters, the Red Cross uses participatory planning with communities affected by regular disasters to strengthen community capacities.
  • The Red Cross in Mongolia set up volunteer councils as a new way to listen to the needs of specific groups of people such as the youth, elderly and disabled.
  • In Australia the Red Cross decided to find ways to work with young people, to understand better their needs and vulnerabilities.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation, Training

Audiences: Volunteers; Youth

The video could be accessed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bft-_gKvt8

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Building-capacities-Participatory-planning-1.mp4

Gender and HIV

Purpose

This briefing paper looks at the importance of gender within Red Cross programmes and services and provides some suggestions about how Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies might integrate gender into HIV programmes and strategies.

Overview

  • Suggestions for incorporating gender into HIV programme planning include:
  • Design interventions based on the different needs of men and women in the community;
  • Examining assumptions about how men and women might benefit from programmes;
  • Consult key people in the community. If not properly consulted, these key community figures may boycott the service, believing it to interfere with cultural practices;
  • Talk with women and men separately and use women to talk with women, particularly if they are uncomfortable talking about sex and contraception;
  • Use existing information and studies about gender differences to inform programmes;
  • Budget for activities and staff in order to gather, analyse and track information about gender.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audiences: Technical staff; Volunteers; Communications staff; National Society leadership

Reference: Australian Red Cross. Gender and HIV. Pp.1-8. Available from: http://www.redcross.org.au/gender-briefing-papers.aspx [Accessed: 19thSeptember 2015].

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Download: http://www.redcross.org.au/files/2011_Gender_and_HIV_fact_sheet.pdf

Voices of Ethnic Minority Children – Participatory Video on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change in Vietnam

Purpose

This publication introduces the Participatory Video (PV) methodology as a tool to amplify the voices of traditionally excluded groups who are greatly affected by disasters. The publication outlines the steps involved in carrying out the PV process held in Vietnam in late 2010. It also highlights the lessons learnt from the project and provides recommendations.

Overview

The PV was held with the participation of 12 children (six boys and six girls) from two communes – Thuan and A Ngo. The resulting films were to be used in those communes and in 10 additional Quang Tri communes that are part of the DIPECHO-funded project for community and government awareness and advocacy.

The PV methodology supports an empowering process whereby community members become drivers of change and are empowered to act on local knowledge by creating information videos that can help them prioritise and express their needs. The participatory video methodology involves awareness-raising, capacity-building and people-centred decision-making processes which can be built from the local level, to district, national and international levels.

Usage: Training, Learning from experience

Audience: Technical staff; Volunteers

Reference: Tamara Plush & Nguyen Trong Ninh. Voices of ethnic minority children: Participatory video on disaster risk reduction and climate change in Vietnam. Plan International in Vietnam, European Commission Humanitarian Aid. Pp. 1-10. Available from: http://www.preventionweb.net/files/26509_26509planparticipatoryvideoindrrpro.pdf [Accessed: 19th September 2015].

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Download: http://www.preventionweb.net/files/26509_26509planparticipatoryvideoindrrpro.pdf

Women, Gender and Disaster Risk Communication

Purpose

This note looks at the importance of gender in disaster risk communication. It provides a brief overview of Save the Children’s gender-targeted communication strategy in two Cuban communities.

Overview

  • Disaster risk communication and warnings miss the mark if overly-general and not informed by gender-aware risk assessments and community-driven preparedness. Disaster communication must be creative, sensitive to culture and context, and also gender-targeted, based on knowledge of how particular groups of women and men create, receive, interpret and exchange knowledge about hazards and disasters. Women must speak for themselves and be heard.
  • Women’s and men’s daily lives revolve around social networks, roles and relationships that make a difference to disaster risk communicators.
  • Men’s higher tolerance of risk calls for male-focused communication and awareness strategies. Gender norms shaping risk perception and risk tolerance may be a barrier to potentially life-saving information for boys, male youth and adult men about hazards to which they are especially exposed.
  • Gender-based and cultural barriers limit women’s access to vital information. The “digital divide” in access to, and control over, computers and the internet is still a barrier to reaching women in many parts of the world.

 

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audiences: Communication staff

Reference: Gender and Disaster Network. (October 2009). Women, gender and disaster risk communication. Gender Note #5. Pp. 1-4. Available from: https://www.gdnonline.org/resources/GDN_GenderNote5_RiskCommunication.pdf. [Accessed: 19th September 2015].

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/GDN_GenderNote5_RiskCommunication.pdf

Equity and Inclusion in Disaster Risk Reduction: Building Resilience for All

Purpose

This paper attempts to address some of the shortcomings of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and to move the debate beyond the simplistic focus of including vulnerable groups within disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy-making. By promoting socio-economic and cultural inclusion as well as the political recognition of marginalised people, this paper provides examples of where their participation as active agents of change has proven beneficial in effectively and equitably building resilience.

The paper also makes the case for increased attention to the wider issues of vulnerability, inclusion and empowerment. In this respect it focuses on four main aspects: marginalised groups are more likely to suffer from disasters; disasters exacerbate vulnerabilities and social inequalities; vulnerable groups tend to be excluded from DRR decision-making, thus making them even more vulnerable to the impacts of disasters; and vulnerable groups should be included in DRR as active agents of change to effectively and equitably build resilience.

Overview

Poor living conditions, inadequate infrastructure, a lack of income diversification and limited access to basic services, especially education and information, ensure that the poorest and most marginalised people are disproportionately affected by disasters. Committing to address the root causes of disasters will help to address peoples’ underlying vulnerabilities, increase their capacities to cope with the effects of natural hazards and facilitate empowerment processes. This can be achieved by the equal participation of all segments of society in DRR decisions.

Usage: Policy development

Audiences: National Society leadership; Technical staff

Reference: United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (April 2004). Making Risky Environments Safer. Women 2000 and beyond. Published by the Division for the Advancement of Women/DESA. Pp.1-28. Available from: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/w2000-natdisasters-e.pdf [Accessed: 19th September 2015].

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Download: http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CDKN-Equity-and-inclusion-in-disaster-risk-reduction-building-resilience-for-all1.pdf