Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Disaster Recovery
It is often assumed that all members of a population experience the impact of disasters in the same way. In the pre-disaster context, women’s and girls’ unequal access to social, political, and economic resources influences their access to post-dis...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/339641587450784196/Gender-Equality-and-Women-s-Empowerment-in-Disaster-Recovery http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33684 |
| Summary: | It is often assumed that all members of
a population experience the impact of disasters in the same
way. In the pre-disaster context, women’s and girls’ unequal
access to social, political, and economic resources
influences their access to post-disaster assistance and
compensation for damage and losses. While the post-disaster
context presents a host of challenges for women, it is
important to recognize that women are not just victims of
disasters. The strength of post-disaster recovery lies with
how well it responds to the needs of both women and men.
This guidance note aims to provide action-oriented guidance
to local and national government officials and key decision
makers who face post-disaster challenges and to assist them
in incorporating gender-responsive recovery and
reconstruction efforts across all sectors through robust
gender assessments that lead to concrete needs
identification and gender-specific recovery strategies and
frameworks. Implementation of such actions will facilitate
both a more resilient, sustainable recovery, and advances in
reducing gender inequality. The note addresses the different
challenges that women face in post-disaster recovery and
reconstruction caused by underlying issues of inequality and
marginalization. The note provides guidance on how to turn a
post-disaster situation into an opportunity to enhance
gender equality and women’s empowerment, with a focus on
building back better, as the aftermath of a disaster can
present opportunities for new and more progressive gender
roles and relationships to emerge. The guidance note is
structured around three key areas: identifying and
prioritizing gender-specific recovery needs; protecting
women and men from physical and psychosocial harm; and
planning for gender-responsive recovery in the disaster
recovery framework and empowering women for sustainable and
resilient recovery. The final section of the paper provides
a long-term outlook on strengthening gender responsive
recovery systems. |
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