Women, gender and the hyogo framework for action

Gender is a cross-cutting concern requiring attention throughout the planning, implementation and evaluation phases of the activities adopted to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action. Toward this end, the need for sexdifferentiated data is stressed as is the need to analyse the gender division of labour and power relationships between the sexes as these may impinge on the success or failure of all risk reduction strategies. As gender is a central organising principle in all societies, the daily routines of women and men across and within societies put women and men, girls and boys, differently at risk. While gender concerns in disasters cannot be equated with poverty or the challenges of sole parenting alone, it is evident from past disasters that low-income women and those who are marginalised due to marital status, physical ability, age, social stigma or caste are especially disadvantaged. It must be recognised, too, that gender also shapes the capacities and resources of women...