Long before it became a buzzword, grassroots women have been doing what is now called resilience. Living and working in areas of poverty and marginalized from decision-making processes, women have been addressing water and sanitation issues, upgrading infrastructure, and seeking sustainable energy source because conditions of the built environment directly affect their ability to improve their lives and their families. Similarly, in rural areas, grassroots women have been developing seed banks, rotating crops and organising to build a collective asset base. What is new is the scale in which these resilience practices are happening, spreading across neighborhoods, communities, and across countries.
This document shares successful grassroots strategies for building community resilience to disasters and climate change. It showcases women leading sustainable development in their communities, and foregrounds scaling up strategies in order to influence global agendas such as the Hyogo Framework for Action 2 and the Post 2015 Development Agenda.
[Adapted from Source]