Gender

Women are excellent leaders, yet they are still underrepresented in decision-making and leadership in disaster risk reduction. When you work in a field where you are in the minority, it can feel isolating. This collection seeks to recognize and celebrate just a few of the many amazing women leading disaster risk reduction efforts across Asia and the Pacific, in the hope that these profiles will inspire other women doing the same. Women’s equal participation and leadership in public life, including disaster risk reduction, is both an important goal in itself and essential for reducing disaster risk and achieving a broad range of sustainable development goals. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) is committed to supporting women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction, including through our flagship Women’s International Network on Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR). We know that diversity in leadership improves results, and well-designed disaster risk reduction initiatives that provide for women’s full and effective participation advances gender equality and women’s empowerment while building our collective resilience.

This report focuses on integrating gender into community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR), outlining activities and accomplishments in this area across the reporting countries.

This report asks what needs to change in the approach of the United Nations system as a whole to make significant practical progress on gender equality in disaster risk reduction by 2030.