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Written by Marcela Natalicchio
This country profile analyzes gender gaps in the disaster risk management (DRM) agenda in Jamaica that influence the exposure and vulnerability, preparedness, and coping capacity of different populations. Identified gender gaps need to be considered when preparing and implementing DRM policies, programs, and projects before, during, and after disasters strike to improve their effectiveness and equity.
This paper was written to support the preparation of DRM projects, programs, and policies by the Government of Jamaica, World Bank teams, and other development partners. It has also served as an input to the recent Jamaica Gender Assessment report (World Bank 2023), which—along with the World Bank’s Jamaica Country Poverty Assessment—provides insights for the Jamaica’s Systematic Country Diagnostic (World Bank 2022), which was the basis for discussions with government and the preparation of a new World Bank Jamaica Country Partnership Strategy (2023).
The profile follows the framework developed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank to identify gender dimensions of DRM and resilience (Erman et al. 2021). According to this framework, gender gaps are presented according to (1) exposure and vulnerability, (2) preparedness, and (3) coping capacity.
The profile was built through a desk review drawing on global literature on DRM and gender, along with several studies and reports about DRM and gender in Jamaica specifically. The desk review also drew from available damage and loss assessments of different disasters as reported by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee, and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM). The main identified gender gaps in Jamaica are found in policies, exposure and vulnerabilities to disasters, preparedness, and coping capacity.