Women as a force for change: four years of activism

This report is an account of four years of grassroots activism, from the aftermath of Japan’s 3/11 earthquake and tsunami to the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), held in March, 2015 in Sendai, a city severely damaged by 3/11. The report documents the efforts of activists from their initial direct help for the victims of 3/11, including addressing the acute and unnecessary suffering of women in the evacuation centers, to later focus on planning and reconstruction policy reform at all levels of government in Japan. It elucidates their growing awareness of the implications of the issue of gender in relation to disaster risk reduction, and the need to meet the disaster-related needs of all marginalized groups, and follows their efforts at internationalization of citizen participation and inclusion of gender perspectives in the renewed international framework on DRR through to the Third World Conference on DRR and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.