Ramping up women’s leadership in humanitarian action in Bangladesh

Satkhira, Bangladesh – UN Women has supported the establishment of two new local chapters of an inter-agency working group that is strengthening women’s voices and leadership in responding to humanitarian disasters in Bangladesh.

The Inter-Cluster Gender in Humanitarian Action (GIHA) Working Group, founded in 2017, comprises United Nations agencies, local and international non-governmental organizations, and local non-governmental organizations led by women.

The working group has boosted the leadership of women-led civil society organizations in humanitarian action and the ability of organizations to meet women’s needs in disaster preparedness and response. It is co-chaired by UN Women and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

UN Women Bangladesh has been helping set up local chapters of the working group in natural disaster-prone areas across the country. The first local chapter was established in Kurigram last year.

In February 2024, UN Women Bangladesh helped launch two more local chapters, in the districts of Khulna and Satkhira, both in Khulna Division, in the country’s southwest.

Attending the launch of the Khulna chapter on 11 February were a total of about 50 representatives of women-led civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and media professionals, including Dilruba Haider, Programme Specialist on Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Action at UN Women Bangladesh.

Hasna Hena, Deputy Director of the Department of Women Affairs Khulna, said at the event that the local chapter may help form community-based women’s groups and encourage women-led civil society organizations to provide immediate information on disaster losses and damages. “Such activity would foster women’s participation and leadership in humanitarian action,” she said.

Motahar Hossain, Deputy Director of the Department of Social Welfare, also mentioned the importance of timely information: “In a post-disaster setting, we often find it difficult to access data, especially sex- and age-disaggregated statistics of the affected population. It always hinders appropriate humanitarian response planning and effective implementation.”

The chapter in Satkhira was launched on the following day, 12 February. Over 40 representatives from women-led civil society organizations, disability rights organizations, national and international non-governmental organizations, and media professionals attended the launch.

Speakers at the event expressed concerns about women’s safety during disasters.

“Women are always under threat of several forms of exploitation including rape during disasters. We must prevent it together,” said Kohinoor Islam, the Satkhira Sadar Upazila Vice-Chair.

AKM Shafiul Azam, Deputy Director of the Department of Women Affairs Khulna, said: “We all have on-job training on humanitarian action. But we must make sure women and girls’ protection agenda is well implemented in humanitarian interventions.”

Timely access to good information was again a concern.

Asaduzzaman Sardar from the daily Bangla Tribune said that disaster-related information should be stored and analyzed in a more structured way.

He said: “How to respond to women’s needs and priorities in humanitarian crises? We often grapple with accessing official records and statistics at the local level. Government officials would be able to record and provide relevant local data if they are institutionally instructed to do so.”

The respective deputy director of the Department of Women Affairs (which is part of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs) and a representative of a civil society organization will co-chair the local chapters of the working group.