WUNRN
Direct Link to Full 11-Page World
Bank 2012 Document:
Making
Women's Voices Count : Integrating Gender Issues in Disaster Risk Management :
Overview & Resources for Guidance Notes
The countries of East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) are among
the most vulnerable in the world to the physical, social, and economic effects
of natural disasters. Disaster impacts are not distributed uniformly within a
population. Due to existing socio-economic conditions, cultural beliefs and
traditional practices, women and men are affected differently. In many cases,
the mortality rates for women in the aftermath of a disaster are much higher
than those of men. For example, women represented an estimated 61 percent of
fatalities in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, 70 percent after the 2004
Indian Ocean Tsunami in Banda Aceh, and 91 percent after Cyclone Gorky in Bangladesh
in 1991. Failure to consider the different impact disaster have on women and
men are likely to lead to overlooking the true costs of disasters and making
disaster risk management (DRM) support less effective. Gender-blind responses
can also reinforce, perpetuate and increase existing gender inequalities,
making bad situations worse for women and other vulnerable groups. To make DRM
effective, therefore, it is essential that both women and men's voices and
needs are integrated on equal terms men in the design and implementation of DRM
programs. To address key issues and bottlenecks for mainstreaming gender issues
into disaster risk management projects; and to help teams design and implement
gender dimensions into disaster risk management work, the infrastructure and
social development groups of the World Bank's Sustainable Development
Department in the East Asia and Pacific region have jointly produced a set of
operationally relevant guidance notes for World Bank staff, clients and
development partners. Grounded in extensive field work in Lao PDR and Vietnam,
and drawing on the significant amount of material already available, these
notes aim to condense a number of complex issues and themes to provide 'first
stop' practical information.