Women, information communication technologies, and emergency telecommunications: opportunities and constraints

This report shows that the digital gender divide is blocking women from becoming equal stakeholders in society; putting entire communities at greater risk during emergencies. It also highlights the importance of advancing gender equality in disaster risk management and leveraging context-appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs) which are critical to deliver essential information to the most vulnerable of communities in a timely manner, before, during and after disasters strike. The report also shows that access to these technologies has a major impact on women's ability to prepare for, survive and recover from disasters. It addresses good practices on how to enable women to have inclusive access to, and use of ICTs, and shows a way forward to reduce gendered disaster vulnerability as well as the gendered digital divide.