Gender
High on the Swedish agenda
Gender issues are high on the Swedish international DRR agenda. The official delegation statement of "Sweden" made at the Fourth Session o the Global Platform for DRR in 2013 particularly highlighted gender issues and the role of women in DRR. See the statement here by Anna Westerholm, Deputy Director-General, Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Web quality video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjHiTWeQlNs
Women and men
Disaster and climate change risks are not gender-neutral. The nature and extent of their exposure and vulnerability is different for women, men, girls and boys because of their different roles, responsibilities, access to resources, domestic and traditional law, and legal and cultural issues (Turnbull et al 2013).
For example:
Women may be less able to evacuate to a safe place following a hazard because they are pregnant or caring for children and less-mobile dependents. Their exposure, and that of their dependents, may be much greater than that of others who are able to leave high-risk areas.
Women’s lack of formal land ownership may prevent them from accessing credit to introduce climate-adaptive measures in their livelihoodsG, invest in appropriate building materials or ability to move to a safer location.
A decline in the productivity of traditional rural livelihoods may put men under pressure to migrate in search of work, or to undertake higher-risk livelihood activities in order to continue to provide for their families.
Boys/men may not know how to feed and care for young children if required to take on these roles if women in the household are killed or injured as a result of a disaster event.
The root causes of women’s vulnerability often lie in unequal power relations within societies, which pervades all aspects of their lives and deny their basic rights, from access to education to participation in community governanceG. Their vulnerability may also be conditioned by cultural roles that restrict them from developing knowledge and skills that would enable them to save lives and prevent disaster losses, such as learning to swim, or participating in public meetings. This, in turn, affects other vulnerable members of their households.
In most societies, men’s vulnerability is also closely associated with cultural expectations. Many men are conditioned to feel that it is their duty to meet their family’s basic needs and, when they are unable to do so, they may resort to dangerous work,
or migration to seek employment elsewhere, or turn to alcohol or substance abuse.
Women’s and men’s capacities for building disaster and climate resilience are shaped by their social, cultural, economic, and natural resource management roles.
For example:
Women often have a major influence on the behavior of children and other members of their households, as well as of the wider community, and can therefore play a key role in reducing risk by ensuring safe food storage, adopting climate-appropriate practices for water consumption and hygiene, and preparing for adverse conditions.
In many cultures, men spend more time outside the home and may receive public early warning messages before women and children. They can reduce risk for their families by passing on this information as quickly as possible.
Both mothers and fathers pass on traditional livelihoods knowledge and skills to their sons and daughters, including how to manage risk through diverse income-generating activities, and how to adapt to different weather patterns or fluctuations in market conditions.
Women and men may have specific knowledge about the management of natural resources critical for their livelihoods, and may therefore have unique skills in adapting these in the face of climate change.
Crises and stresses also offer opportunities for women and men to challenge socially conditioned gender roles and power structures, such as community leadership roles in negotiations with local government on priorities for adaptation, or as recipients of financial assistance for disaster-recovery. In such situations, building disaster and climate resilience can offer win-win outcomes in terms of risk management and gender equity.
Examples of gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation
programming
Ensuring that women and men participate in planning processes, training and drills for early warning and evacuations.
Providing safety-net cash transfers for household food security and basic needs directly to women.
Providing fodder and veterinary attention for animals traditionally kept by women and men.
Facilitating consultation of women and men in participatory risk analyses, and generating inputs from both with respect to their resilience-building priorities.
Supporting research on gendered impacts of disaster and climate change risk and successful practices in gender-sensitive programming.
Facilitating access to appropriate credit facilities and training to women and men for adapting their livelihoods to changing conditions.
Involving women and men in the development of land-use policies, to generate awareness of high-risk areas and opportunities for relocation.
Providing legal support to women and men to get birth certificates, ID cards and registry titles, to enable them to claim their rights and participate in political processes to their benefit.
FAQs
Who is more at risk; women or men? Is this different for disasters and climate change?
The nature and extent of disaster and climate change risk for women and men is different in every location and set of circumstances. In terms of mortality following hazards, in Hurricane Mitch (1998), more men than women died because men were more involved in rescue efforts, while in the Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) more women than men died because they were less likely to know how to swim and their long clothing hampered their movement.19 But being at risk includes other types of potential losses, such as losing livelihood assets, housing, health and wellbeing.
Following the Peru earthquake of 2007, the unemployment rate rose more sharply for women than for men as key production and service industries which had employed them were affected, whereas in rural Australia repeated flooding and drought events are reported to be impacting more heavily on men’s mental health and suicide rates
than on those of women.20 A study of the 2007 floods in Nepal found that women in particular were affected by anxiety, sleeplessness and feelings of helplessness as a result of their displacement and a loss of social networks they depended on.21
To ensure that programs are gender-sensitive, risk assessments should involve men and women, and relevant data should be disaggregated by sex as well as other variables (age, livelihood type, location etc.) to the greatest extent possible. Gender considerations and gender-differentiated impacts of the program should continue to be monitored and addressed at all stages of the program cycle. Use the Checklist of this section for further guidance.
In cultures where women do not feel empowered to put forward their views, particularly in public, how can they be sufficiently involved in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation actions?
If one does not already exist, a gender analysis of the social, economic, political, and natural resource management roles of women, men, boys and girls should be carried out before starting other activities. This will provide baseline information for programming, and can also be used to generate discussion on the results. For this, and throughout the program, focus group meetings should be held with separate gender groups, women and men should be interviewed independently, surveys should be conducted in ways that provide disaggregated data, and facilitation methods in mixed gender meetings should enable men and women to make contributions. Not all disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation action involves speaking in public forums. Risk reduction measures are taken at all levels, from the household up to national policy making, and in all areas of daily life, from water collection to harvesting crops and practicing emergency drills in factories and schools. There are multiple opportunities for participation of women and men, both within and outside of their cultural or traditional roles.
Tools and resources
Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change A practical tool designed to increase the capacity of policy and decision makers to develop gender-responsive climate change policies and strategies. IUCN, UNDP, UNEP, GGCA, Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) (2009). L. Aguilar. https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/
eng_version_web_final_1.pdf
Gender, Climate Change and Community-Based Adaptation: A guidebook for designing and implementing gender-sensitive community-based adaptation programmes and projects Guidance on integrating gender into CBA programming. UNDP (2010).
K. Vincent, L. Wanjiru, A.Aubry, A. Mershon, C. Nyandiga, T. Cull, and K. Banda. Dr. L. W. Garmer (ed). http://www.adaptationlearning.net/guidance-tools/gender-climate-changeand-
community-based-adaptation
Making Disaster Risk Reduction Gender-Sensitive: Policy and Practical Guidelines Policy and practical guidelines for national and local governments to further implement the HFA. IUCN, UNDP, United Nations International Strategy For Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR) (2009). http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/publications/v.
php?id=9922
Adaptation, gender and women’s empowerment. CARE International Climate Change Brief Brief on gender and climate change adaptation including points on incorporating gender-transformative adaptation in strategies. CARE International (2010).
http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/adaptation/CARE_Gender_Brief_Oct2010.pdf
Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: A Learning Companion
Practitioner’s guide on gender, DRR and CCA in programming. Oxfam GB (2010).
http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/OxfamGender&ARR.pdf
Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction: A Training Pack Training pack on gender and DRR. Oxfam Great Britain (2011). M.C. Ciampi, F. Gell, L. Lasap, E. Turvill. http://reliefweb. int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Full_report_116.pdf