We work in partnership with community and key stakeholders, including local governments and organisations, to apply an intersectional gender lens to their planning, response, and recovery efforts to ensure that no one is left behind.
In July and August 2023 WHLM held a series of focus groups with women and gender diverse people across flood impacted areas within the Loddon Mallee region as part of the Women Rising project. By hearing first-hand from local women, WHLM has been able to build a stronger understanding of the gendered impacts of natural disasters to be able to effectively advocate for the needs of women and girls in disaster planning, response and recovery efforts across our region.
The Women Rising report, officially launched in Cohuna in March 2024, includes lived experience data collected from the focus groups to centre lived experience data from across the region. The report is aimed at supporting local governments and organisations in Regional Victoria to apply a gendered lens at each stage of disaster for more effective and inclusive emergency management, from prevention and planning to response and recovery.
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WHLM provided support for a DEECA Loddon Mallee funding application Preparing together Loddon Mallee: informed and inclusive disaster risk reduction action – Disaster Relief Fund Round 2, 2024-25 (successful).
The Preparing Together Loddon Mallee project will provide leadership training, resources, and bring together the skills, knowledge and experience of First Nations people, young people, multicultural and rural communities with climate disaster experts prioritising opportunities for resilience outcomes. This will integrate unique local knowledge and lived experience into disaster risk reduction action across the region and ensure meaningful inclusive partnerships to support community networks and community-led climate resilience projects.
The project will be undertaken in 2024-25
WHLM provided support for the Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places and Gender and Disaster Australia funding application Gender Lens Framework- Disaster Ready Fund Round 2, 2024-25
The project was designed to bring together qualitative and quantitative data and link existing health and social datasets under a single framework to highlight gender and social justice issues across domains within the emergency and disaster management sector. The project recognises the need to consider gender equity within the context of climate change adaptation and disaster management, and increase understanding of the impact of gender and intersectionality on climate change adaptation and disaster management. Whilst it was not successful, WHLM continue to pursue partnership opportunities with Jesuit Social Services.
Women Rising: Empowering Natural Disaster Recovery
Building on the Women Rising flood recovery work undertaken by Women’s Health Loddon Mallee (WHLM) in 2023, this project aims to work with community and stakeholders in the Loddon Mallee region to develop a community responsive model of disaster planning, response and recovery that centres the voices and lived experiences of women. Using a range of place-based codesign methods we will explore solutions to the gendered impacts of disasters as identified in the literature and in the work previously undertaken by WHLM.
Using a codesign process captures rural women’s lived experiences to inform disaster recovery planning. In addition, capacity building will be provided to a broad range of stakeholders who work in disaster planning, response, and recovery to address the harmful impacts of gendered expectations in disasters.
WHLM partnered with La Trobe Rural Health School in an ongoing study exploring rural health implications of climate change, including women’s health and safety. In particular, we are exploring how Victorian rural councils address potential health implications of climate change including what consideration if any has been given to women’s health and safety.
This includes:
We are proud to announce that our work has been applied for two prestigious awards this year. Our submission for the Resilient Australia Awards 2024 focuses on the “Women Rising: Empowering Flood Recovery” project, which aims to centre the mental health and wellbeing of women during extreme weather events. Additionally, our project has been submitted in the Victorian Public Healthcare awards, highlighting our efforts to build a localised evidence base that ensures women’s voices and experiences remain central in disaster planning, response, and recovery.
