UN Agency Hails Indonesian Women’s Bid for Greater Role in Tsunami Recovery
New York, Jun 24 2005 12:00PM
The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has welcomed the efforts of women in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the
area most devastated by last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami, to demand a greater role in the recovery process.
The first Acehnese women’s meeting since the disaster ended earlier this week, attended by nearly 400 women, was the
largest such gathering in five years, representing a wide cross-section of society from farmers, fisherwomen, students
and business women to religious leaders, government officials and academics.
Women’s participation has been lacking in the development and implementation of Aceh’s blueprint for reconstruction,
despite their significant role in emergency and recovery efforts, and their concerns must be included in key
decision-making processes, meeting participants declared.
Hailing the move, UNIFEM recalled the visit to Aceh earlier this year by its Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer. “Women
must be at the heart of all recovery and reconstruction processes,” Ms. Heyzer said then.
“For decades, they have been the lifeline of their communities, leading survival systems and mutual-aid networks,
including among the internally displaced and refugee communities. Women are not just victims, they are survivors and
they need to be part of the solution,” she added.
“The reweaving of the social fabric of life is the foundation for reconstruction and a necessary part of the healing
process. It is women, in their families and their communities, who are playing this role.”
Acehnese women identified four critical issues: the urgent need to re-establish livelihoods; the issue of land titles
and ownership, including inheritance rights in the case of children who lost their entire family; creation of adequate
settlements and housing, and the lack of gender sensitivity in planning and management of temporary barracks; and the
need for more opportunities for women to interact with local and national authorities and participate in
decision-making.
UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment
and gender equality, focusing on four strategic areas: reducing feminized poverty; ending violence against women;
reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times
of peace as well as war.
ENDS