AWE Newsletter – April 2024

AWE and International Women’s Day

AWE celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) this year with a range of events and get-togethers. 100 members registered to attend our IWD webinar to hear from Coral Ross, AGEC Chair, and Victoria’s CFA CEO Natalie MacDonald, about women’s recognition and remuneration, while AWE NT members gathered to hear a great presentation on eradicating citrus canker from Claire Morton, Principal Plant Biosecurity Officer. A range of AWE Chapters gathered members to celebrate over breakfasts, lunches and dinners, while AWE members Amanda Lamont and Lisa Jackson attended the ESF IWD Forum and were thrilled to meet former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon AO, APM.

      
IWD Yarra Ranges                        AWE at ESF’s IWD Forum                 IWD Wellington, NZ

AWE Sponsored Courageous Conversations workshop

Having courageous conversations is an important skill, especially for women in the emergency and disaster sector. AWE is sponsoring two members to attend Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia’s Tools for Changemakers Workshop: Essential Skills for Courageous Conversations on Tuesday 9 April.

Please send an email to [email protected] with your name, email, emergency role, and a short statement about how this workshop will be a changemaker for you in your emergency role (50 words or less) by 9am Friday 5 April.

Australian Gender Equality Strategy

In March the Australian government launched the country’s first national gender equality strategy. Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality is a 10-year strategy aimed for an Australia where people are safe, treated with respect, have choices and have access to resources and equal outcomes no matter their gender. The Strategy focuses on five priority areas for action: Gender-based violence; Unpaid and paid care; Economic equality and security; Health; Leadership, representation and decision-making. AWE welcomes the Strategy which brings us in line with other countries around the world including Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Auslan Day   

13 April is Auslan Day. Everyone has the right to information and advice during an emergency. Accessible communication is critical to the effective mitigation, planning and preparedness, and to response, relief, and recovery. AWE recognises that Auslan is the preferred language of many Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing people across Australia.

Check out these fantastic resources from National Auslan Communications for Emergencies designed to assist with communicating basic ideas with Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing people who use Auslan. This Auslan Day let’s all say, “Thank you!” to all those hard working Auslan interpreters who help ensure our emergency messages get through to everyone in our communities.

Seven Philippa Woolf Scholarships are on offer in 2024, providing AWE members the opportunity to study three nationally accredited disaster relief and recovery units. 

Scholarship recipients will study these units as a cohort from July – September 2024.

Key dates

• 30 March Scholarship applications open
• 17 April online Scholarship overview and Q&A (1-2pm AEST)
• 30 April Scholarship applications close
• 30 May Scholarship recipients announced
• 24 July – 11 September 2024 study period (Wednesdays from 4pm – 7.30pm AEST)

More information 

• For information about the Scholarships, including the selection criteria and how to apply, please click here
• For  information about the study units please click here
• For information on ACIM Solutions please click here  

Queries

• Queries regarding the study content should be directed to [email protected]
• All other queries should be directed to [email protected]

Diverse roles in climate adaptation: This new report explores the fair distribution of climate actions between governments, civil society, citizens, the private sector, and others.

Ethical and safe disaster research: This blog explores whether there is such a thing as ethical and safe disaster research, and a growing recognition within the disaster studies that there is a need to engage in more ethically and risk aware research practices.

Flood recovery for migrant and refugee women: This new report contributes to evidence about migrant and refugee women’s experiences of disaster in an urban setting, and the impact on their health and wellbeing.

Gender and Sexuality in DRR: Check out this GaDAus and AIDR webinar which will explore gender and sexual minorities in disaster risk reduction.

Gender and climate playbook: This playbook is a guide to understanding how climate change affects the lives of different genders and seeks to provide practical tools to address these issues. 

Heat survey 2024: ACOSS has released its Summer Heat Survey 2024 which tracks the intersection between housing, energy costs, heat, and people experiencing financial and social disadvantage.

Housing recovery survey: Researchers at UNSW and RMIT University are conducting a short 15-minute survey on how public and private post-disaster housing recovery programs enable or constrain resilience to future disasters. Insights will help identify local policy and actions for strengthening community resilience.

International Women’s Day, gender and disaster: IWD generated significant coverage of issues relating to gender and disaster including this blog on the unequal impact of disasters on women; this article on the challenges for young female professionals in DRR; this article on the Sendai Framework’s Gender Action Plan; and this article on climate injustice toward women.

Place-based expertise and experts: The FRRR Expertise Pool offers a range of professional skills, sector expertise, specialist advice and support to enable community organisations to deliver place-based projects – from leadership training and capability building workshops to networking events and small-scale infrastructure initiatives.

Sendai Gender Action Plan: The Gender Action Plan to Support Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was launched in March. Read more about the Action Plan here.

Trauma and women first responders: This podcast with ESF CEO Siusan MacKenzie and PhD candidate Helen Frazer explores the effects and causes of trauma on women first responders.

Weather and Climate Extremes 2023: This report provides a summary of selected significant extreme weather and climate events which occurred across Australia in 2023. The report provides a description of each event and an explanation which reflects our understanding of the causes.

Understanding the wellbeing economy: This report is a collection of mini briefing papers that look at the idea of a wellbeing economy, how it relates to other ideas for economic change, including climate change, and what some of the core elements of a wellbeing economy are.

If you’ve got any news or resources you would like shared in the AWE Newsletter, please email us the details by the end of the calendar month in time for publication the first week of each month.

NSW
Environmental Project Officer (Sustainability), The City of Canterbury Bankstown
Manager Social Recovery Coordination, Department of Communities and Justice Lismore

QLD
PhD scholarship: Understanding urban complexity for climate resilience, Queensland University of Technology
Disaster Management Project Officer, Rockhampton Regional Council

SA
Manager Disaster Resilience Unit, SA Health – Central Adelaide Local Health Network
Strategic Project Officer, City of Adelaide

TAS
Coordinator Operational, Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management
Training Instructor (Volunteers), Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management

VIC
Coordinator Healthy Environments, Central Goldfields Shire Council
Manager Lessons and Improvement, Department of Justice and Community Safety

WA
Senior Environmental Health Officer, Town of Port Hedland
Community Safety Ranger, Shire of Mundaring

NZ
National Manager Response Capability, Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Emergency Management Lead, Northland in Whangarei Central

If you’ve got a job vacancy you would like to promote in the AWE Newsletter, please email us the details by the end of the calendar month in time for publication the first week of each month.

22-23 April                  Climate and nature 2030

14-16 May                  Natural Hazards Research Forum

21-24 May                  2024 Floodplain Management Australia National Conference

11-12 June                  The Future is Now: Biodiversity, Climate and Us (NZ)

16-17 July                   Emergency Management Conference 2024

22-23 July                   2024 Disaster & Emergency Management Conference

3-6 September            AFAC24

8-10 October               The Global Nature Positive Summit 2024

October                       Australasian Women in Emergencies Day

14-17 October            Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (PH)

9-10 September         Climate Change and Business Conference Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland NZ.

7 – 9 November           Australasian Conference on Traumatic Stress

1-2 December            International Conference on Climate Change and Global Warming (NZ)