Gender-Inclusive and Culturally Sensitive Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery Plans for an Agta Community in the Philippines

The study aimed to analyze the lived experiences of Agta men and women, including their gender roles, before, during, and after a natural calamity. Also, the study sought to examine the implications of breaking gender stereotypes in disaster preparedness, in the Agta community to develop gender-inclusive and culturally-sensitive disaster risk preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery plans within the Agta community. Employing a case study research design, in-depth interviews with the Agta research participants, key informant interviews, naturalistic observation, and triangulation using the retrieved documents were conducted to gather relevant and significant data. Based on thematic analysis, the lived experiences of the Agta men and women before, during, and after the typhoon highlighted the traditional roles of men and women from disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and disaster recovery. Agta men typically performed the hard and critical jobs while women performed the household chores and took care of the children during calamities. However, during the observation, there were non-traditional roles that both Agta men and women have performed. The switching of gender roles between Agta men and women formed new schema to the minds of younger Agta regarding the roles of men and women, thus, embracing both traditional and untraditional gender roles.