Mary Fran Myers was co-director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado for 16 years until her untimely death in 2004. She was instrumental in maintaining the Natural Hazards Center's international reputation as a driving force in hazards research and mitigation.

Established in 2002 by the Gender and Disaster Network, The Mary Fran Myers Award recognizes that vulnerability to disasters and mass emergencies is influenced by social, cultural, and economic structures that marginalize women and girls. Read more...

Hiroko Mirura lost her business, her home, and her husband in the March 2011 Japan tsunami. Today, she's organized 400 women to return to work processing the wakame seaweed that Minamisanriku is known for. Hiroko's impressive life boasts many accomplishments, including being the only female board member of the town's powerful fishery association.

With help from Mercy Corps and Peace Winds Japan, and thanks to the generous support of Walmart, she is transforming her community (Photo: Sylvia Ross/Mercy Corps). Read more...

Women in Orissa work via self-help groups to build houses for those left homeless, run community kitchens, organize medical relief, administer first aid and rescue drowning people.

Outside of the disaster seasons, community helpers have drawn up detailed charts on communicable ailments, nutritious regional foods, and various sources of water available to the community. In addition female construction workers have been trained in the special cyclone-resistant 'rat trap' design for buildings and low-cost dwellings. Read more...

Chaluay Kawaonag worked with a core group of leaders - many of them women - from 28 neighboring communities to mobilize, draw up the daily plan to cook and feed the 3050 households in the area, along with the thousands of outsiders stranded due to the 2011 Thailand floods.

Knowing that floods may come again, Chaluay Kawaonag and her committee of community leaders are now working to educate the populations on undertaking urgent renovations, such as raising the floors of their houses through government loans (Photo: UN Women/Oisika Chakrabarti). Read more...

Mirta Rodriguez Calderon is a Cuban-Dominican journalist based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, whose reporting shone a bright light on the challenges facing women and their families before, during and after the Haitian earthquake of 2010.

Her efforts to bring women's experiences and activism to life through her writing helped raise awareness among policy makers and the next generation of disaster reporters about the critical need for a gender lens to promote social justice in disaster response and recovery. Read more...

Nicky Gavron is a Labour London-wide London Assembly Member and the Labour Group Spokesperson for Planning and Housing. She served as Deputy Mayor of London under Ken Livingstone.

Leading London's response to climate change, she introduced policies and programmes to reduce C02 emissions across energy, water, waste and transport. Her initiatives include establishing the London Climate Change Agency and the C40: Large Cities Climate Leadership Group. Watch her interview about future challenges for cities...

Loren Legarda of the Philippines advocates for disaster resilience in her country and in the South East Asia region. She received the 2011 Asian Leader Award of Excellence in environmental policy and climate change adaptation and is the author of the Philippines Climate Change Act, as well as the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act. She is also UNISDR's Asia-Pacific Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction.

"Women are powerful agents of change... In fact, women have been silently and effectively at the frontlines of confronting climate change." Read more...

Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. In its citation, the Norwegian Nobel Committee noted Professor Maathai's contribution to "sustainable development, democracy and peace."

The Committee further stated that Professor Maathai "stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa. She has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women's rights in particular. She thinks globally and acts locally." Read more...

Hawa Aden Mohamed is the winner of UNHCR's 2012 Nansen Refugee Award for her exceptional, tireless and inspiring work for Somalia's refugee and displaced girls and women.

Hawa Aden Mohamed, who has come to be known in Galkayo as "Mama" Hawa, has created spaces where displaced women and girls, victims of all sorts of abuse and violence, can find safety, opportunity and be protected and sheltered. Her work stems from a belief that education lies at the root of everything, especially for girls. Read more...