The number of people affected and displaced by conflicts and natural disasters has almost doubled over the past decade
and continues to rise. Climate crisis is a major driver and amplifier of disaster risks and losses, even as armed
conflicts compel hordes of people to flee their homes in search of safety. Slow onset disasters, like extreme
temperatures and droughts, have added to disaster related economic losses.
Infectious disease outbreaks among refugees and displaced persons are also becoming increasingly common and pose a major
threat to health security and social protection. The impact is especially severe on women and girls, people living with
disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
This changing humanitarian landscape is even more relevant in the Asia Pacific region, which is the most disaster-prone
region of the world. In 2018, 50% of all the 281 global natural disasters occurred in Asia Pacific, with 8 out of the 10
deadliest ones also in this region.
The growing impact of recurrent and protracted disasters and humanitarian crises is posing a major threat to sustainable
development and reinforces the importance of developing long term interventions that address humanitarian needs as well
as development and peacebuilding challenges.
While delivering the plenary address at the 9th virtual session of the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and
Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR10), Dr Tomoko Kurokawa, Regional Humanitarian Advisor at United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) Asia Pacific, made a case for building resilience across the humanitarian, development and peace-building
triple nexus.What is triple nexus?
The "humanitarian, development and peace nexus" is about synergising the efforts of members of the humanitarian,
development, and peace community by ensuring that humanitarians can focus on acute needs and those in development can
focus on long term resilience, promoting peaceful and robust communities.What is resilience?
Resilience is the ability of an individual, a community or a country to cope with, adapt and recover positively,
efficiently and effectively from the impact of a natural disaster, violence or conflict. Resilience covers all stages of
disaster - from prevention to adaptation.
Dr Kurokawa calls resilience "the unifying approach that transcends the various pillars and is a prerequisite for
achieving sustainable development, peace and prosperity for all and particularly those who are furthest behind".
Systems, institutions, communities, families and individuals are considered resilient when they have the capacities and
resources to cope with and bounce back from both anticipated and unanticipated shocks.
She gives a very lucid explanation of resilience at different levels.
"At the national and societal level resilience may be about having positive social norms and customs that support gender
equality. It entails having early warning and early action systems and having strong social protection schemes. At the
institutional level resilience is having strong health and school infrastructures, sea walls built along vulnerable
coastal areas and mobile health units and skilled personnel that can mobilize quickly at the onset of a disaster. At the
community level it means local leadership and participation and decision making of women and youth groups. At the family
and individual level it means having equal household decision making, equal livelihood and economic opportunities for
all, especially women and having supportive intergenerational relationships."
An individual’s resilience may depend on factors such as their economic well-being, education, health, and age as these
define their capacity to cope and adjust. Building communities’ resilience is critical to minimise the impact of
disasters and prevent future humanitarian crises.
The Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction - the first major agreement of the post 2015 development agenda -
provides governments with concrete actions to protect development gains from the risks of disaster. It prioritises that
disaster risk reduction is inclusive of and accessible for people disproportionately affected by disasters. It also
advocates for gender and disability to be integrated in all policies of disaster risk management and the comeback of
young people in humanitarian action.
Even under normal conditions, reproductive health issues are some of the leading causes of death, illness and disability
among women. Moreover, during and after any disaster, women and girls are disproportionately exposed to the risk of loss
of livelihood, security and even lives. They face significantly increased risks for unintended pregnancies, gender-based
violence, sexually transmitted infections and maternal mortality, says Dr Tomoko Kurokawa.
Globally some 500 women and girls die every day from pregnancy and childbirth related complications in countries facing
humanitarian and fragile contexts. This is often a result of unavailability of sexual and reproductive health services
and not having access to delivery and emergency obstetric services.
The non-availability of voluntary family planning services (like condoms and emergency contraception) in crisis
situations increases the risk of unintended pregnancies, increases health risks for pregnant women and for those who
resort to unsafe abortions. Gender based violence, one of the most pervasive human rights violations, that is already
widespread in times of peace, is exacerbated during conflicts and disasters when communities’ protection systems break
down.
Dr Tomoko Kurokawa feels that during emergencies availability of sexual and reproductive health and family planning
services and protection of women from violence are as essential as food and shelter. So much so that very often access
to basic sexual and reproductive health services determines the choice between life and death for women and girls.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put to test all health systems and national response capacities - both in terms of scaling of
public health preparedness as well as for mitigation of broader socio-economic impacts. Some countries in the Asia
Pacific region have also had to simultaneously contend with the already existing humanitarian crises and overlapping
natural disasters. It has made them particularly vulnerable and less equipped to respond effectively.
The pandemic has already had far reaching impacts on poverty, inequality, employment, economic downturn, human rights
protection, which will leave long lasting scars on the process of recovery and rehabilitation and inter-development work
for years to come.
Recovery will require application of a comprehensive approach across the triple nexus through a resilience lens. There
are already reports of increase in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, increase in unmet need for family
planning and increased risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices during the lockdowns.
But Dr Tomoko Kurokawa is upbeat with examples of innovative and creative demonstrations of resilience at various levels
for the continuity of provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services across the Asia Pacific
region during the pandemic. She shares that "In Pakistan, a women's safety App was upgraded as an innovative solution to
counteract challenges posed by lack of mobility and gender-based violence during the lockdown. In Afghanistan, a youth
health line providing adolescent sexual and reproductive health information and services has reached over 5000 young
people. In Mongolia, telemedicine services were set up by practising physicians to provide quality sexual and
reproductive health services. In Mongolia a legendary Mongolian queen chatbot avatar provides counselling to adolescents
about life and love on Facebook. In the Philippines, a free condom delivery service under 'a condom heroes program', is
enabling people in lockdown to access condoms".
Investing in resilience helps prevent and curtail economic, environmental and human losses in the event of a crisis,
thus protecting development gains and benefiting many of the sustainable development goals.
The 'new normal', necessitated by COVID-19, will require agility, creativity and nimbleness to bridge the humanitarian
development peace divide and to empower women, girls and young people as agents of change to build resilience and ensure
sustainability of effective humanitarian action.
Shobha Shukla is the founding Managing Editor of CNS (Citizen News Service) and is a feminist, health and development
justice advocate. She is a former senior Physics faculty of Loreto Convent College and current Coordinator of Asia
Pacific Media Network to end TB & tobacco and prevent NCDs (APCAT Media). Follow her on Twitter @shobha1shukla or read her writings here www.bit.ly/ShobhaShukla