Bangladesh was positioned sixth among the seven South Asian countries in the Women’s Resilience Index (WRI) on preparing for and recovering from disasters, said a report by the intelligence unit of UK-based weekly newspaper The Economist.
According to the report, prepared in collaboration with ActionAid, Bhutan and Sri Lanka was positioned first and second, respectively, in the overall ranking in the Women’s Resilience Index while Nepal, India, Maldives and Pakistan obtained the third, fourth, fifth and seventh positions, respectively.
Despite the country’s good reputation in facing disasters, Bangladeshi women are far behind in this regard, which happened due to lack of proper implementation of the disaster response policy, said Farah Kabir, ActionAid’s country director in Bangladesh.
While presenting the report at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity hall in the capital yesterday evening, she said Bangladesh has to increase the expenditure to prepare for and recover from disasters to decrease the vulnerability of women in this regard.
The Women’s Resilience Index assesses a country’s capacity for disaster risk reduction and recovery, and the extent to which the needs of women are being considered in national resilience building efforts.
Bangladesh achieved an overall score of 40 out of 100, while Bhutan scored 46.4 and Pakistan scored 27.8.
The scores were determined by 68 different indexes under four categories – economic, institutional, infrastructure and social.
The study had Japan as benchmark regarding the disaster preparedness and recovery while preparing the index for the South Asian countries, as Japan faces similar types of, and frequent, disasters.
Japan’s overall score is 80.6 in the index.
In case of the individual categories, Bangladesh was placed third in the economic category, with a score of 48.6, while India and Maldives ranked first (55.9) and seventh (18.2), respectively.
Maldives scored the highest, 59.6, in the infrastructure category, while Bangladesh scored the lowest – 22.3.
In the institutional category, Bangladesh was positioned third with an overall score of 45.4, while Bhutan and Sri Lanka was first (49.7) and seventh (29.4), respectively.
In the social category, Bangladesh was fifth with 43.8, with Bhutan in the first place (55.6) and Pakistan in the last (21.6).
The report suggested that the economic empowerment of women in the community can make all the difference for their experience in disaster risk reduction.
It also said women in Bangladesh do not play vital leadership roles in disaster resilience, and even though they represent the majority of micro-finance borrowers – 90% – their access to credit at both formal and informal institutions remains limited.
Bangladesh is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters such as cyclone, flood and storm surge. The frequency of such natural hazards increased in recent years as a result of climate change.
According to the WRI report, Bangladesh’s economic damage is more than $10b, and 15,719 people lost their lives between 1995 and 2014, due to natural disasters.
Farah Kabir suggested that the government should make the local governments stronger so that they can respond intensively during disasters, and make women empowered by providing training and other support. The role of local government institutions should be inclusive in this regard as they are located nearest to common people, she said.
She also said the disaster issue should be included in the government’s different economic plans so that both men and women can bring themselves out of the vulnerabilities.