NATO
November 23, 2022
Deep Dive Recap: Resilience and the Gender Perspective
On the 15th November 2022, the NATO International Military Staff (IMS) GENAD Office hosted its monthly Deep Dive Session, this time focused on the relationship between resilience and the Gender Perspective. This session explored the crucial role of integrating Gender Perspective for strengthening national and collective resilience to support NATO….
Subject matter expertise was provided by Mr. Damiano Rinauro, Defence Policy and Planning (DPP) Division at NATO HQ, Mr. Anthony Icayan, Military Resilience Analyst and Gender Focal Point (GFP) at NATO ACT, Ms. Gergana Vaklinova, GENAD at the Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence (CMDR COE) and Dr. Jocelyn Kelly, Director for the Program on Gender, Rights and Resilience (GR2) at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI).
First speaker Mr. Rinauro…explained that resilience is the first line of defence, functioning as a deterrence to an adversary and enabling NATO to absorb and recover from strategic shocks. Mr. Rinauro then proceeded to outline NATO’s seven baseline Requirements of Resilience….
…Mr. Rinauro highlighted the need for adaptive coordination between civil society and the military for a whole-of-society approach to strengthen the baseline requirements, including the use of gender disaggregated data.
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Mr. Icayan then proceeded to discuss how integrating the Gender Perspective in these thematic areas serves to strengthen overall resilience….Mr. Icayan explained how the use of gender-disaggregated data and the application of the Gender Perspective improve situational awareness and understanding for the cognitive domain. Lastly, he explained the need to understand human security dimensions and the different perspectives of women, men, boys and girls to build perseverance towards developing individual resilience.
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Ms. Vaklinova discussed the way to build a 360 degree approach including the Gender Perspective for security….She explained how resilience and gender are both complex and transformational concepts that necessitate a collaborative multidisciplinary approach….Ms. Vaklinova further explained that, because militaries are reflective of their societies and because society is a complex system with gendered relations, ensuring agency and empowerment for people in resilience planning by integrating a Gender Perspective is crucial.
Ms. Vaklinova expanded on the concept of…how different genders may perceive and understand risk differently. She discussed how the intersection of gender and resilience offers opportunities….Understanding the different risk perception and risk acceptance levels of the different genders can improve our understanding of what drives conflicts and in turn how conflict generates differentiated impacts for women, men, boys and girls. At the same time, strengthening resilience is instrumental to fostering gender equality and ensuring that social inequalities are not reinforced. Finally, Ms. Vaklinova highlighted the importance of gender training, Gender Focal Points and Gender Advisors to reinforce resilience….
Dr. Kelly discussed the crucial relationship of gender with the state and human security, and how incorporating a gendered lens leads to stronger and more resilient societies and improved early warning systems, including aspects of atrocity prevention and peace building. She demonstrated the significant relationship between the physical security of women and the peacefulness of states, highlighting how women’s security is a better indicator of state stability than the level of democracy or per capita GDP. Dr. Kelly further examined how women’s experiences and perceptions should be utilized as a resource in resilience building, due to their unique understanding of harms and early warning signs of conflict. Thus, integrating a gender-sensitive analysis into early warning systems can contribute….
Dr. Kelly continued to explore the relationship between gender, human security and resilience by discussing how insecurity and increasing community violence have different impacts on women, men, boys and girls, with an often particularly negative impact on women and other vulnerable groups….
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Blue: NATO members
Orange: Partnership for Peace members
Red: Mediterranean Dialogue members
Purple: Istanbul Cooperation Initiative members
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