Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction: A training pack

Overview

Understanding how gender relations shape women’s and men’s lives is critical to disaster risk reduction (DRR). This is because women’s and men’s different roles, responsibilities, and access to resources influence how each will be affected by different hazards, and how they will cope with and recover from disaster. Unequal power relations between women and men mean that, despite the incredible resilience and capacity for survival that women often exhibit in the face of disaster, they also experience a range of gender-specific vulnerabilities. Oxfam believes that all of its work should strive to strengthen gender equality and women’s rights by transforming the balance of power between women and men. It sees this as both a matter of justice and basic rights, and as a means of addressing poverty and suffering more effectively. This is particularly important in preparing for, and responding to, disasters and the impacts of climate change, as these tend to magnify existing inequalities between women and men. This training pack has been written for Oxfam programme staff, partner organisations and other agencies working in areas associated with DRR. Its purpose is to provide a ‘gender lens’ through which they can plan, implement, and evaluate their work. The focus here is on the operational aspects of projects and programmes, and to a lesser extent on influencing broader institutional policies and practices through policy and advocacy work. The pack aims to develop participants’ skills and competencies in addressing gender issues throughout the project cycle, from assessment, analysis, and planning through to implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.