The Disaster Crunch Model: Guidelines for a Gendered Approach

Overview

Globally disasters are occurring more often and in larger scale. Many policies and measures have been developed to analyse their causes and consequences, in order to strengthen the resilience of individuals, communities and institutions. Such measures and policies often disregard that the effects of disasters are likely to be different for women, men, girls and boys. Women’s and men’s (of whatever age) 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. Inequality between women and men means that, despite the incredible resilience and capacity for survival that women often exhibit in the face of disaster, they also experience gender-specific vulnerabilities. The odisaster pressure and release model also known as the disaster ocrunch model , helps practitioners to understand and react to people’s vulnerability to disasters. The current Guidelines introduce new elements into the ‘crunch model’ so that it is able to take into consideration how women and men experience different levels and types of vulnerability to disasters. This booklet is intended for practitioners and researchers engaged in disaster risk reduction (DRR) work in the context of a changing climate.