Reimagining Resilience
Collective Futures for Disaster Risk Reduction, 5–7 November 2026, Istanbul, Türkiye
The first global feminist conference on disaster risk reduction.
Global Gathering
Building a safer, more just and more resilient future together.
Members of the Women and Gender Stakeholder Group (WGSG) and partners are coming together in Istanbul, Türkiye, from 5–7 November 2026 for the first Global Feminist Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
The gathering will bring feminist movements, disaster risk reduction practitioners, humanitarian actors, climate and environmental justice movements, researchers, advocates and community leaders into conversation to advance a shared vision for disaster risk reduction rooted in justice, prevention, care, accountability, solidarity and collective resilience.
Context
Disasters are not simply “natural.”
Hazards may be natural, but disasters are shaped by the vulnerabilities, inequalities and systems that determine who is exposed to risk, who has access to resources and protection, whose knowledge is valued, and whose voices are heard.
While women and girls and marginalized communities bear disproportionate impacts, feminist leadership and knowledge remain deeply underrepresented in disaster risk reduction decision-making and practice. This conference aims to bridge the gaps between disaster risk reduction, climate justice, environmental and biodiversity protection, humanitarian action and feminist movements, and to build collective answers to what comes next.
Learning and Connecting
Three days of learning, connection, and action
5 November
Understanding the Landscape: Exploring global disaster trends, structural vulnerabilities, and feminist perspectives on risk and resilience.
6 November
Learning and Strategy Building: Sharing knowledge through interactive learning labs and developing strategies for policy influence, financing, and collective action.
7 November
Collective Commitments: Turning shared analysis into priorities, commitments, and a collective agenda for action and accountability.
"A world where care is recognized as infrastructure, prevention is valued over response, resources follow vulnerability, and feminist leadership is recognized as essential."
Shaping key Moments
A key moment on the road to COP31
Taking place between CBD COP17 and UNFCCC COP31, this global conference recognizes that the climate crisis and the disaster crisis cannot be separated, and neither can the movements working to address them.
Over three days, participants will examine the structural drivers of disaster risk, share knowledge and practical approaches, and develop collective strategies to influence policy, mobilize resources and strengthen feminist leadership in disaster risk reduction.
WHEN: 5–7 November 2026
WHERE: Istanbul, Türkiye
Event graphics
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Related Resources
From Evidence to Action: What the Global Assessment Reports (GAR) 2025 and 2026 mean for gender-responsive climate and disaster resilience
Presentation by Loretta Hieber Girardet, Chief of the Risk Knowledge Monitoring and Capacity-Development Branch UNDRR, from Nov. 5, 2026, Plenary 1 | A World Defined by Disaster: Crisis, Inequality and Survival
Download the Presentation
World Disasters Report: Truth, trust and humanitarian action in an age of harmful information
Presentation by Anna Bowen, Regional Humanitarian Diplomacy Coordinator, from Nov. 5, 2026, Plenary 1 | A World Defined by Disaster: Crisis, Inequality and Survival
Download the Presentation
Collectively Convened
The conference is convened by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), ActionAid, UNDRR, UN Women, Oxfam KEDV, AWID, HUDOTO Law Nature and Society Foundation, Shifting the Power Coalition, Duryog Nivaran and the Huairou Commission, on behalf of the Women and Gender Stakeholder Group (WGSG) of the UNDRR.
