Two Earthquakes, One Lesson: Preparedness Starts Locally

Bangladesh is best known for floods and cyclones. Yet two recent earthquakes, while moderate in magnitude, are prompting renewed concern about structural safety and the knock-on effects for already vulnerable households. On 21 November 2025, a moderate earthquake (reported magnitude 5.7) was felt strongly in and around Dhaka, drawing attention to the exposure of dense urban areas to shaking and secondary hazards. More recently, on 27 February 2026, another earthquake was felt widely, triggering panic and precautionary evacuations in several areas. While initial public reports referenced multiple locations, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department reported a magnitude 5.4 event with an epicentre in Asaashuni, Satkhira (south-west Bangladesh), and shaking felt well beyond the epicentral area. 

Jannatul Mawa, head of the women-led organisation Bindu Nari Unnayan Shanghatan and co-lead of the local GiHA chapter, described why the group mobilised: 

“Government or other agencies’ data often highlight damages such as houses, livestock and agriculture, but there is no combined focus through a gender lens. We have seen and experienced that women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons are disproportionately impacted by disasters…so we focus on them”

Local women’s leadership turned data into protection 

In Satkhira, women-led organisations moved quickly after the seismic shock, not to replace official reporting, but to complement it with what is often missing: people-centred data. As tremors subsided, local women’s groups, part of Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Chapters, took ownership and organised a rapid community outreach to document damage and, critically, to collect information on women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, recognising that these groups are often disproportionately affected during and after disasters. The rapid assessment covered 71 unions across Satkhira district and documented mostly minor structural cracks in buildings, including houses and public facilities such as schools and mosques. Only a small number of injuries and health concerns were reported, including isolated cases affecting pregnant women and older persons. 

Their approach was made possible by capacity-building. Over numerous years, a network of women-led organisations in Satkhira has been strengthening its capacity on gender-responsive disaster response, including through training support from UN Women. In Bangladesh, there are currently 13 local chapters of the GiHA Working Group in some of the country’s most disaster-prone districts: Bhola, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Cumilla, Feni, Jamalpur, Khulna, Kurigram, Noakhali, Satkhira, Sirajganj, Sunamganj and Sylhet. Each chapter is co-chaired by the Deputy Director of the Department of Women Affairs and a local women-led organisation. But when the tremors hit, it was local women and community members who led the effort, deciding where to go, whom to speak to and what to prioritise based on their own understanding of the community’s risks and unmet needs. 

After earthquakes, early information can shape everything that follows, where support goes first, which services are prioritised, and which risks are recognised. Assessing physical damage is important. But it is equally crucial to map the less visible impacts: disrupted care for pregnant women, unsafe access to toilets and water points, barriers to evacuation for people with limited mobility, and increased protection risks when families sleep outdoors or crowd into shared spaces. 

By collecting disaggregated, community-level data, these women-led organisations help ensure that post-earthquake understanding is not limited to cracked walls and damaged structures but also includes the realities of households managing care responsibilities, accessibility challenges, and safety concerns. It is a reminder that preparedness is not only plans and equipment; it is people. Communities are always the first responders, and the first hours after a shock are decisive. When people are equipped to assess risk, share accurate information, and check on neighbours, they can reduce harm in that critical window before formal systems are fully mobilised and before avoidable losses become irreversible.