Gender-Transformative Preparedness
Introduction
Natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, and earthquakes, are gender neutral — but their impacts are not. Men, women, boys, and girls experience distinct and varying degrees of impact from disasters, even when residing within the same household. The disproportionate impact of disasters on women and girls, particularly those who are already marginalized and face pre-existing vulnerabilities, is further pronounced by the lack of sufficient and accurate data disaggregated by sex and intersecting social dimensions of risk, presenting a challenge for disaster risk reduction and management practitioners. As such, gender transformative anticipatory measures are imperative in disaster risk reduction (DRR). By gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to gender-differentiated vulnerabilities in disaster impacts, we can develop more effective policies and implementation frameworks around preparedness and anticipatory interventions to enhance resilience for everyone and achieve substantive equality.
Gender transformative preparedness and anticipatory actions for disaster risk reduction need to be situated within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and international human-rights conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Convention). Gender equality as a human right is, thus, inextricably tied to risk-governance, and has been reiterated by the CEDAW Committee’s 2018 General Recommendation 37, Gender-Related Dimensions of Disaster Risk Reduction in the Context of Climate Change (CEDAW/C/GC/37) and the UN Commission on the Status of Women at its 66th Session in March 2022, Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes (E/CN.6/2022/L.7).