Gender expert meeting: partnerships for gendering disaster risk reduction

A group of Experts, men and women, on gender and disaster risk reduction, gathered at a meeting on 12-13 February in Geneva under UN/ISDR auspices, agreed on building a “Global Partnership for Mainstreaming Gender Concerns and Needs into Disaster Risk Reduction”. This Partnership will contribute to the ongoing long-lasting global effort to promote gender equality in social, cultural and economic development with an emphasis on disaster risk reduction (DRR). It will also provide a platform for gender activists and different stakeholders for sharing information, knowledge and experience of gender needs and concerns. Beyond those dialogues, the Partnerships will develop policy guidelines, user-friendly tools and training material for mainstreaming gender into DRR and encourage an active role played by national authorities and NGOs in developing gender-sensitive and -balanced DRR policies and programmes. This initiative is part of a long effort to integrate gender issues into DRR policies and plans. As results of this meeting, the experts have reached a consensus on a set of priorities for promoting gender needs and concerns in DRR.