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Introduction

Discriminatory gender norms and social structures are the foundations of gender inequality, explaining why females are rendered more vulnerable than males in many aspects of life. In times of crisis, when familial and community structures and institutions are disrupted or destroyed, gender norms may be impacted and gender inequality increased.
This report looks at six areas, each of which impact gender norms and women’s ability to survive, cope, and recover from natural disasters and conflicts:

• Gender-based violence in emergencies
• Maternal and reproductive health in emergencies
• Women’s economic and social rights in emergencies
• Women’s voice and participation in emergencies
• Women’s leadership in peace-building and humanitarian operations.
• Funding and evidence gaps for women in emergencies

It is important to note that all six areas - although ranging from the household to the global level - are interlinked, and supporting women in emergency settings goes beyond the emergency itself. Accordingly, many solutions do not lie in the emergency response itself, but in a focus on longterm efforts towards gender equality. Women and girls are at the heart of the transition from crisis to stability at the family-, community and national-level. Investing in women’s empowerment and in their capacity to participate and lead in disaster preparedness, risk reduction and contingency planning, and developing their skills and employment opportunities, can provide the foundation for families to have sustainable sources of income, making them better able to survive and cope with crises. A focus on gender equality and women’s participation thus has the potential to bind together efforts in the nexus between humanitarian assistance and long-term development.

1.1. Methodology

This report collects and summarizes new data and evidence from reports and research on women and girls’ specific vulnerabilities in natural disasters and conflicts. It shows that disasters disproportionally affect women and girls and offers insight into the underlying reasons why.

Despite that this is already agreed upon across UN agencies, and development-, and humanitarian organisations, there is a consistent lack of data proving the concrete impact of crises on women and girls’ lives. In many contexts, the challenge in collecting data is affected by significant cultural or religious barriers to admitting, confronting, or even discussing discrimination and violence against women and girls. However, data is essential to help quantify and qualify problems, inform policies and design effective programmes, and to raise the funds needed to address gender inequality. This report therefor aims to address the existing information gap regarding women and girls in emergencies and its consequences. These include insufficient gender programming and funding, resulting in humanitarian responses where humanitarian actors fail to address the specific needs of women.

The report aims to encourage international and national humanitarian implementing agencies, donors and donor governments, and governments affected by disasters to incorporate a larger focus on gender and women in both policy and the allocation of resources.

The report does not wish to argue that men and boys are not vulnerable or affected by disasters, nor does it seek to argue that males should not be included in programming and humanitarian action. The report does however argue that gender analysis should play a bigger part in the humanitarian effort to understand social structures and gender norms affecting the specific vulnerabilities of women, girls, boys, and men in order to accommodate these specific needs in humanitarian responses and to decrease gender equality.