Women’s Resilience: How Laws and Policies Promote Gender Equality in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management in Asia and the Pacific

KEY POINTS

• Data continue to show gendered impacts of sudden disasters, revealing that gender inequalities are exacerbated by climate change.

• The importance of gender-responsive action on climate change and disaster management has been recognized in global and regional frameworks, yet few national laws and policies directly link gender equality commitments to climate, disaster risk, and resilience building.

• Women’s machineries and women’s groups need to be actively engaged to integrate their priorities into climate change and disaster risk management actions.

• A national framework approach—combining existing gender equality laws, policies, and institutions with climate change and disaster risk management laws and policies—is necessary; and addressing underlying drivers of gender inequality should be part of this framework.

• To strengthen women’s resilience to climate change and disasters, gender-responsive laws and policies are needed in addition to properly resourced, key actions—such as increasing women’s participation in decision-making, using sex-disaggregated data, and following guidelines on gender mainstreaming

INTRODUCTION

Research demonstrates that, compared with men, women experience differential impacts from climate change and disasters, disproportionately suffering higher rates of death, injury, property and income loss, and lower access to the means of recovery. Women also account for more than 75% of displaced persons as a result of severe natural hazard events such as droughts, fires, and floods This is not due to their inherent vulnerability, but because women collectively start from a position of disadvantage and multidimensional inequality relative to men.

Gender inequality exists worldwide and is connected to social and gender roles, underpaid and unpaid work, and women’s unequal access to economic assets and information. Women still do not enjoy the same land and inheritance rights as men.

Furthermore, women’s participation in decision-making roles—including climate change management—also continues to be significantly lower than men’s. This is all compounded by the prevalence of violence against women (or gender-based violence [GBV]), which remains a serious concern in Asia and the Pacific.

In this region, links between gender inequalities and climate change and disaster impacts are increasingly recognized, as are the disproportionate effects of COVID-19—which have impacted women with increases in unpaid work and job losses, as well as soaring rates of GBV. The region is susceptible to climate-related hazards—and gender inequalities prevail—so immediate action to strengthen women’s resilience is required from governments, private sector stakeholders, and communities. Governments have advanced significantly by enacting laws and developing policies to manage climate change and natural hazard risks in Asia and the Pacific—and some of these include explicit references to addressing gendered vulnerabilities.

But more must be done to consolidate gender equality mandates in climate change and disaster-related laws and policies, as well as fostering socioeconomic development to strengthen women’s resilience.