Systems
Enabling gender-responsive systems
To reduce the gender inequalities of risk, it is critical to create an enabling governance environment that allows women and girls to leverage their abilities and potential, to meet their needs and priorities, and to participate meaningfully in decision-making on disaster and climate risk governance.
System-wide changes are needed to proactively address structural and systematic inequalities (including gender norms and gender roles), which lie at the root of women’s disproportionate disaster and climate risk.
Gender-responsive prevention, preparedness, and recovery systems therefore:
i) consider gender norms, roles, relations, and access to resources;
ii) accommodate the specific needs and capacities of women and girls;
iii) address the underlying causes of disproportionate risk;
iv) identify ways to transform harmful gender norms, roles, and relations;
v) promote gender equality; and
vi) incorporate strategies to foster changes in power relations, empowerment, and leadership.
Gender-responsive systems go beyond “adding” gender as an afterthought, or simply increasing sensitivity and awareness of women’s needs, to actually putting women' leadership, meaningful participation at the centre of decision-making and creating an enabling environment for gender-responsive action.
Key Publications
