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| Sunday, 29 August 2004 |
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Mary Fran Myers award for Madhavi Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu has been honoured with this year's Mary Fran Myers award from the Gender and Disasters Network and the Hazard Research Centre of the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. The award recognises her work in the field of disaster management, contribution to the academy and promoting gender issues in disaster research. The award highlights her contribution throughout the South Asia region on a continual basis, with a focus on linking gender issues with sustainable development and taking a progressive and gender-sensitive approach to risk reduction. It further states that with extensive research experience, Madhavi is easily able to move between the worlds of practice and theory, and has a demonstrated passion for social justice and change. The award was presented at the recent international conference 'Gender equality and disaster risk reduction' held at the East West Center, University of Hawaii. Disasters Madhavi is the Team Leader at ITDG South Asia of its programme of work on reducing vulnerability to disasters. ITDG is an international development organisation, with the ITDG-South Asia office based in Colombo. ITDG's work on reducing vulnerability and disaster mitigation covers five South Asian countries and collaborates with governments, international and local non-governmental agencies. Disaster risk reduction is a current issue in Sri Lanka as well as in other parts of South Asia, where recurrent disasters are traditionally tackled through relief measures. The organisations work in the region has contributed substantially to the debate that argues for an increase in the share of preparedness in relation to relief and emergency aid. The programme has led the way in promoting community-based preparedness for areas prone to natural hazards, emphasising on livelihood change and women's participation, in order to weave in disaster readiness to normal developmental plans in South Asia. While spearheading the five-country disaster risk reduction programme for ITDG, Madhavi has also authored a number of books. The most recent is the publication co-authored with Maithree Wickramasinghe Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management, a Guide for South Asia (2004), which places the issue of gender in the context of development and explores how gender and development concerns are reflected in disaster response activities of governments, donors and other organisations. She coordinates the Duryog Nivaran, a network of organisations and individual in South Asia working in disaster management who are committed to the community-based approach. Madhavi was educated at Vishaka Vidyalaya, Bambalapitiya, and holds MSc. degrees from Lumumba University, Moscow; and University of East Anglia, UK. She began her research career at the Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Colombo. She is the daughter of poet and journalist P. Malalgoda and Sriya Malalgoda. |
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