GENDER

ISSUE GUIDE
GENDER RESPONSIVE RISK REDUCTION
AND REHABILITATION
GENDER
ISSUE GUIDE
GENDER RESPONSIVE RISK REDUCTION
AND REHABILITATION
Gender Issue Guide: A Gender Responsive Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation

First published in Nairobi in 2015 by UN-Habitat

Copyright © United Nations Human Settlements Programme 2015
PO Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA
Tel: 254-020-7623120 (Central Office)
www.unhabitat.org

HS Number: HS/017/15E

Disclaimer
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion
whatsoever on the part of the secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or
area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries regarding its economic system or degree of
development. Excerpts may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. Views expressed in
this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United
Nations and its member states.

Acknowledgements
Author: Jacinta Muteshi-Strachan, PhD (Consultant)

Contributors: The Gender Issue Guide builds on the collaboration of the Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation Branch that set
aside time for discussions and interviews and provided comments and inputs to the final report. Contributors from Urban Risk
Reduction and Rehabilitation Branch include: Jan Meeuwissen and Dan Lewis.

Contributor from Gender Equality Unit: Angela Mwai

Editor: Tom Osanjo

Design and layout: Freddie Maitaria

Cover photos:
Left - Aerial view of the residential area of the suburb of Milton during the great Brisbane Flood of 2011. © Shutterstock.
Right - People take photographs at Bangkok’s Chinatown during the worst flooding on October 31, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.
© Shutterstock

Printing: UNON Publishing Services Section, Nairobi, ISO 14001:2004-certified

Contents

Section 1: Background: Natural and human-made disasters...................................1

Section 2: Gender Issues in Natural and Human-made Disasters.............................3

Section 3: RRR: The urban/human settlement issue(s) ............................................5

Section 4: Gender issue(s)/concern(s) and needs of RRR..........................................7

Section 5: Mainstreaming gender into Urban Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation

to achieve sustainable urbanisation/development...................................9

Section 6: Women’s empowerment and RRR........................................................13

Section 7: Integrating women’s empowerment need(s) into Urban Risk

Reduction and Rehabilitation to ensure gender equality.......................15

Section 8: Gender-sensitive indicators in Urban Risk Reduction

and Rehabilitation................................................................................17
Heavy flooding from monsoon rain and tide from sea in Samutprakarn near
Bangkok on November 8, 2009 in Samutprakarn, Thailand. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 1

1
SECTION

Background:
Natural and human-made disasters

Cities experience large and small scale disasters that can pose
great challenges to sustainable development, for natural
and human-made disasters1 have enormous economic, social
and political impacts on human lives. “Cities, where half of
humanity currently resides and much of the world’s assets
are concentrated, are fast becoming the locus for much of
[the] destruction and loss from disasters.” 2 These risks will
increase as urban populations continue to grow.

The greatest vulnerability to natural and human-made disasters is experienced by

those who live in urban informal settlements for they have the least assets to cope
with disasters. At the individual level disaster impacts are further differentiated by
gender, age and ability; with poor women, children, the elderly and disabled being
the most vulnerable urban dwellers (UN-Habitat 2007).3

The scale of human losses and suffering experienced is, moreover, determined by the
nature and processes of urban development and urban governance. For example,
the vulnerability of cities to the effects of natural and human-made disasters is often
due to the growth and location of cities along coastal areas; the modification of the
natural environment through human actions; the expansion of settlements within
cities to hazard prone locations; and the failure of urban authorities to regulate land
use building and planning strategies (UN-Habitat 2007)4. Consequently, the effects
of disaster risks and impacts can be reduced and or prevented through equitable
and sustainable human settlement planning, management of risk reduction and
strengthening local resilience through access to economic, social, political and
physical assets.

1 Natural disasters are inclusive of earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, landslides, floods, volcanic
eruptions and wind storms. Man-made disasters are associated with explosions and chemical releases. Further,
human actions such as construction of human settlement on flood prone areas or on slopes of active volcanoes
exacerbate human-made hazards (UN-Habitat 2007).
2 UN-Habitat, 2007, Global Report on Human Settlements: Enhancing urban safety and security. Earthscan, UK.
Page 163
3 Ibid
4 Ibid
2 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

Disasters can present opportunities for transformative change to begin and advance
more quickly because the vulnerabilities that emerge as a result of crisis or disaster
are clearer and consensus may be obtained more quickly to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Population displacements as a result of disasters further create new settlements that
present opportunities for planning how municipalities or cities will be managed and
planned to cope, in equitable ways, with population changes.

Greater understanding to inform and address the underlying vulnerabilities of urban

areas, and their urban inhabitants to disaster risks is therefore very much required.

This issue guide focuses attention on Urban Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation in order
to broadly outline the where and how of gender responsive interventions to strengthen
planned and future actions to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

People buying and selling stuffs in front of a collapsed building in Port-Au-Prince,

Haiti on August 21 2010. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 3

2
SECTION

Gender Issues in Natural and

Human-made Disasters

Gender is the way human society deals with male and female bodies. That dealing
has many consequences for the lives of women, men, girls and boys. Gender refers
to cultural interpretation and prescription of roles, identities and values assigned
to women, men, girls, and boys. Gender is highly variable across cultures, socially
constructed and subject to changes over time. Gender further defines the unequal
conditions between women and men. In most societies to be a woman is to be more
disadvantaged: with less power, fewer rights and privileges relative to men.

Natural and human-made disasters tend to exacerbate or intensify existing gender

disparities and gender-based discrimination.

Women and girls are often at greater risk from natural and human-made
disasters, especially in low income contexts.

Gender relations also increase men’s vulnerability, for example, through risky but
“heroic” search and rescue activities, self-destructive ‘coping strategies’ involving
interpersonal violence and substance abuse, and masculinity norms which may limit
their ability to ask for needed help5.
Furthermore, when women and men confront disasters or crisis, their responses tend
to mirror their status, role and position in society.6
• Accounts of disaster situations worldwide show that responsibilities follow
traditional gender roles, with women’s work carrying over from traditional tasks in
the home and household, and men taking on leadership positions.
• Gender-based inequalities can put women and girls at high risk and make them
particularly vulnerable during natural disasters. There are many casualties among
women in disasters, for example, if they do not receive timely warnings or other
information about hazards and risks or if their mobility is restricted or otherwise
affected due to cultural or social constraints.
• Field accounts repeatedly demonstrate how unwritten or unexamined policies
and practices disadvantage girls and women in emergencies, for example,
marginalizing them in food distribution systems, limiting their access to paid relief
5 Elaine Enarson, 2000. Gender Issues in Natural Disasters: Talking points and research needs. Geneva. ILO.
6 http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/w2000-natdisasters-e.pdf
4 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

work programmes and excluding them from decision-making positions in relief and
reconstruction efforts.
• Emergency relief workers’ lack of awareness of gender-based inequalities can
further perpetuate gender bias and put women at an increased disadvantage in
access to relief measures and other opportunities and benefits.
• The direct and indirect impact of disasters on women’s lives and livelihoods extend
to their aftermath. Gender-based attitudes and stereotypes can complicate and
extend women’s recovery, for example, if women do not seek or receive timely care
for physical and mental trauma.

Other factors that expand on the above concerns and help account for differences in
women’s and men’s vulnerability to natural hazards and their post-crisis aftermath include:
• Early warning systems, where these exist, are most often designed by men, often
without consideration of whether they are effective for transmitting warnings to
women. Studies have shown that women are often not aware of early warning
messages that could protect their lives;
• In relation to men, women have less access to resources – including money, social
networks and influence, transportation, information, education (including literacy),
control over land and other economic resources, personal mobility, secure housing
and employment, freedom from violence and control over decision-making - that
are essential in disaster preparedness, mitigation and rehabilitation.
• Because women are often caregivers – responsible for care of children and the
elderly, sick or disabled – they have less mobility than men. More women than men
died during the 2005 Tsunami primarily because women drowned trying to save
children and the elderly who were in their care.
• Poor quality housing and construction that does not respect safety codes affects
women more than men, since in many cultures women are more frequently at
home when disaster strikes; likewise, building in high-risk areas – on steep slopes or
floodplains – similarly places women, children, the very old, the ill and disabled at
higher risk;
• In many societies, women do not have the liberty of migrating to look for work
before or following a disaster. Men, on the other hand, often do migrate from
poverty-stricken and disaster prone areas, leaving behind very high numbers of
female-headed households.
• Women’s poverty and poor working conditions greatly increase their vulnerability
to natural disasters. In relation to men, they are overrepresented as agricultural
workers, in self-employment and the informal economy, in under-paid jobs with
little security and no benefits such as employment insurance and healthcare.7
7 UN-Habitat. DATE (Still missing). Practitioner’s Handbook on Gender and Governance in Post-Crisis Situations.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 5

3
SECTION

RRR: The urban/human

settlement issue(s)

What is/are the urban/human settlement issue(s) being

addressed (including current and planned/future) by Urban
Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation?

The Urban Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation (RRR) Branch seeks to increase the
resilience of cities in the face of the impacts of natural and human-made crises.
The RRR Branch further assists governments and local authorities in managing
catastrophes through its disaster response services and early recovery programmes.

The RRR Branch comprises the following sub-units

• Shelter Rehabilitation Unit
• Settlements Recovery Unit
• Urban Risk Reduction Unit

The programmatic focus of RRR is to:

• Engage in both reducing urban risk and responding to urban crises through its
Resilient Cities Programme and Settlements Recovery Programme, respectively, in
partnership with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
and the Making Resilient Cities Campaign.
• Address crisis-affected cities in terms of both disaster prevention and disaster
response.

RRR has five key entry points for urban risk reduction and post-crisis reconstruction:
shelter and housing; basic infrastructure and services; land use and tenure; climate
change and urban environment; and economic recovery and livelihoods.8 The
expected strategic outcome for the RRR branch is: Cities have increased their
resilience to the impacts of natural and human-made crises, in an equitable manner,
and undertaken rehabilitation in ways that advance sustainable urban development.

8 UN-Habitat, Strategic Plan of UN-Habitat 2014-2019

6 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

A big Tent city for the Victims of the earthquake on August 28, 2010 in Port-Au-Prince,
Haiti. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 7

4
SECTION

Gender issue(s)/concern(s) and

needs of RRR

What is/are the gender issue(s)/concern(s) and need of this

urban/human settlement issue(s) that is/are being addressed?

The RRR Branch has developed the following tools and materials to strengthen
gender responsiveness in risk reduction and rehabilitation programmes:
• UN-Habitat, 2012. Women in Post-Conflict Settlement Planning. United Nations
Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
• UN-Habitat, 2007. Post Conflict Land Administration and Peace building
Handbook. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
• UN-Habitat, 2007. Practitioner’s Handbook on Gender and Post-Crisis
Reconstruction. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
• UN-Habitat, 2007. Handbook on Post-Conflict Land Administration and Peace
Building from Emergency to Reconstruction Series 1: Countries with Land Records.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
• UN-Habitat, 2003 Toolkit for mainstreaming gender in UN-Habitat field
programmes: Kosovo Urban Planning and Management Programme. United
Nations Human Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya
8 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

These tools will guide the processes for gender equity by guiding interventions to
strengthen gender equality.

Gender equality
Means availing similar opportunities to both women and men. Gender equality means that
women and men have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to
engage in and contribute to political, economic, social and cultural development and to benefit
from the outcomes. Working towards gender equality does not mean treating women and men in
the same way.
Source: UN-Habitat “Gender in Local Government
- A Source Book for Trainers” page 18

Gender equity
Is the process of carrying out the different measures that may be needed for women and men
to achieve gender equality. Gender equity is therefore the course of actions that are undertaken
to ensure fairness to women and men. For example, such actions may include reviewing and
transforming policies and activities in order to take account of women’s caring and domestic
work so that these tasks are not a barrier to their engagement in the public sphere.
Source: UN-Habitat “Gender in Local Government - A Source Book for Trainers” page 19.

“Belgrade for Japan”, Support for the people of Japan after the earthquake and
tsunami in Belgrade, Serbia. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 9

5
Mainstreaming gender into Urban
SECTION

Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation

to achieve sustainable
urbanisation/development

How can gender be mainstreamed into interventions/

projects/programmes developed to address the urban/
human settlement issues in order to achieve sustainable
urbanisation/development?

UN-Habitat literature9 notes that:

• Field practitioners face challenges when being asked to mainstream gender
equality into their relief and reconstruction programmes and projects.
• The specific post-crisis context in itself poses some of these challenges, but also
the ever more complex policy, operational, and practical requirements that are part
of the organisational culture of external actors.
• Even though these challenges are considerable, there are not insurmountable.
• Predominantly, post-conflict situations are highly politicized and complex. As
standards and values are being reinvented, people and their relationships take on
extraordinary importance. This is why considering gender dimensions just at this
time is a particularly important endeavour.
• De facto, gender relations are highly affected by the state of crisis of a particular
society.
• Blatant discrimination and violence against vulnerable groups must be responded
to by protection measures, but in addition, all assistance programmes/projects can
be more effective if they pay attention to gender concerns.

9 UN-Habitat, DATE. Practitioner’s Handbook on Gender and Post-Crisis Reconstruction. United Nations Human
Settlements Programme. Nairobi, Kenya. Is this still a Draft- not for citation. Agneta Johannsen/ 18 Dec 2006. Most
materials in the K drive did not have dates, and several were works in progress but I have referenced them in the
document.
10 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

To respond adequately to these concerns requires mainstreaming gender issues into

RRR interventions.

Gender mainstreaming
Makes women and men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic
and societal spheres so that both sexes benefit equally. Gender mainstreaming assesses the
implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or
programmes, in all areas and at all levels. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.
UN-Habitat, 2008. Gender in Local Government. Source: A Source Book for Trainers. Page 20 UN-
Habitat Nairobi, Kenya.

Mainstreaming gender into RRR will call for developing and implementing responses
which recognize that:

Women are not universally or identically impacted by disasters. Highly

vulnerable women have specific needs and interests before, during, and after
disasters:10

Highly vulnerable girls and women may not be socially visible or included in disaster
plans but they have urgent needs, for example for: safe and accessible evacuation
space and temporary housing; equitable access to food, clothing, and other relief
goods; transportation assistance and emergency communication in community
languages; child care and other services supporting women’s long-term care of
surviving dependents; reproductive health care and gender-sensitive mental health
services during evacuation, relocation, and resettlement; provision for mitigating
violence against women in disaster contexts; long-term economic recovery assistance
and access to paid disaster relief and recovery work.

Taking gender relations into account suggests that those most likely to be hard-hit
and to need long-term assistance recovering from environmental disasters, include:
• destitute, low-income, and economically insecure women; women who are
contingent workers or unemployed; domestic workers and others in the informal
sector; small-scale farmers; women in care-giving jobs and professions
• women in subordinated racial/ethnic/cultural groups; recent immigrants and
undocumented women; women migrant workers
• women heading households, those in large complex households, and women caring
for many dependents
10 The section draws on research work by: Elaine Enarson, 2000. Gender Issues in Natural Disasters: Talking Points and
Research Needs. Geneva. ILO
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 11

Building Seawalls. Tarawa, Kiribati. © World Bank/Lauren Day

• frail senior women, undernourished women and those with chronic health problems
or disabling physical and mental conditions, and women whose mobility is restricted
due to pregnancy or childbearing
• widows and single women; socially isolated women; rural women
• women subject to domestic and sexual violence, and those insecurely housed in
shelters
• functionally illiterate women; women not fluent in majority languages

Gender mainstreaming in RRR must further take into account:

• Post disaster mortality, injury, and illness rates which are often (but not
universally) higher for girls and women;
• Economic losses which disproportionately impact economically insecure women
(e.g. agricultural losses of women farmers, the destruction of women’s home-based
businesses, limited access to post disaster economic aid);
12 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

• Work load changes which suggest that disasters increase women’s responsibilities
in the domestic sphere, paid workplace, and community through the disaster cycle of
preparation, relief, reconstruction, and mitigation;
• Post disaster stress symptoms which are often (but not universally) reported more
frequently by women;
• Increased rates of sexual and domestic violence against girls and women in
disaster contexts.

Thai people making sandbags to prevent flooding during the monsoon season
in Bangkok, Thailand. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 13

6
SECTION

Women’s empowerment and RRR

Is there a need for women’s empowerment in the urban/

human settlement issue areas to foster/facilitate gender
equality? If yes, what is/are the women empowerment
need(s)?

Given that the poor, and especially poor women, will especially be hard hit by the
impacts of natural and human-made disasters and that the poor, especially poor
women, are more often than not “disenfranchised from institutional power”11 and
thus disempowered, is reflected by the following examples:12

• Women’s economic insecurity (e.g. high poverty rates, contingent labour,

homework, lack of credit and savings). Ideological constraints on female mobility
may limit access to lifesaving information, shelter, or relief goods.
• Male dominance in disaster decision-making undermines women’s greater
willingness to mitigate the effects of known hazards (e.g. moving livestock, tools, or
household goods to safer locations, making evacuation plans), or targeting funds or
responses to male heads of household, (limits women’s paid disaster recovery work).
• Sexual and domestic violence magnifies the demands women face during crisis.
• Extensive care giving responsibilities throughout the disaster cycle substantially
increase women’s emotional and material work load and, when caregivers put the
well-being of others first, may endanger women’s lives.
• Heterosexist practices and kinship relations place women outside the norm (e.g.
widows, single women, lesbians, single mothers) at greater risk when relief programs
are designed to reach women through male-headed households.
• Urban migration and hyper-urbanization brings women to unsafe living
conditions and informal sector work in huge urban centres, where they are
increasingly exposed to urban environmental pollution and disasters such as mudslides
and earthquakes.
• Environmental degradation clearly endangers women as the primary users and
managers of natural resources (e.g. drought effects on women farmers, deforestation
effects on fuel wood gathering).
11 Naila Kabeer, 1994. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. Verso, London and New York.
12 Elaine Enarson, 2000. Gender Issues in Natural Disasters: Talking Points and Research Needs. Geneva. ILO.
14 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

Most of the buildings in Downtown Port-Au-Prince still remains untouched

and risky, in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on August 27, 2010. © Shutterstock
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 15

7
Integrating women’s
SECTION

empowerment need(s) into Urban

Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation
to ensure gender equality

How can the identified women’s empowerment need(s)

be integrated into the interventions/projects/programmes
developed to address the urban/human settlement issue(s) in
order to ensure gender equality?

Empowerment for women means that women are able to organise for support
and mobilisation around their self-defined needs and strategic concerns and that
crucially they will be enabled to articulate their priorities and concerns to the relevant
institutions and gain access to the platforms that set policy agendas.

Interventions to reduce urban risks and respond to urban disasters must thus
empower women and girls by:

• Providing women with analytical skills, timely information channels, education and
training to strengthen the empowerment of women.
• Supporting the development of women’s networks and institutions for conflict
prevention, disaster risk reduction, peace building, and post-conflict/post-disaster
reconstruction.
• Incorporating gender analysis in the assessment of disaster risks, impacts and needs at
the start of all interventions into risk reduction and rehabilitation.
• Bringing gender analysis into all post-conflict and post-disaster planning tools and
processes.
• Ensuring recovery efforts provide equal economic opportunities for women including
access to assets and strengthen women’s greater control over resources for long term
sustainability.
• Ending violence against women by increasing the gender responsiveness of security
institutions, strengthening the rule of law and working with men and boys to end
gender based violence.
16 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

A house designed to meet technical specifications to reduce risks from earthquakes.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia. © World Bank/Nugroho Nurdikiawan Sunjoyo
 GENDER RESPONSIVE URBAN LEGISLATION, LAND AND GOVERNANCE 17

8
Gender-sensitive indicators
SECTION

in Urban Risk Reduction and

Rehabilitation

What are gender sensitive indicators to monitor gender

mainstreaming progress in Urban Risk Reduction? Provide
some examples.

The process of monitoring in contexts where disasters have occurred will be complex.
However, there is need to capture information and data to understand and learn
from current practices and to manage for gender equitable results in risks reduction
and rehabilitation.

Examples of gender-sensitive indicators in Urban Risk Reduction and

Rehabilitation

Expected Outcomes Illustrative Indicators

Cities, regional and national • Availability of sex-disaggregated data in risk reduction and
authorities, and partner resilience programs;
organizations with improved • Evidence of gender-responsive application of resilience
capacity for gender responsiveness indices.
to manage disaster risk reduction
and resilience programs
Increased number of gender- • Availability of sex-disaggregated data in urban recovery
responsive partner cities that have programmes;
implemented sustainable urban • Evidence of equitable participation by women and men
recovery programmes in planning and equal access to the benefits of urban
recovery programmes.
Improved capacity of partner • Evidence of gender-sensitive policies and strategies of
organizations to deliver gender- partner agencies in shelter rehabilitation programs;
responsive shelter rehabilitation • Evidence of equitable participation by women and men in
programs contributing to disaster- the planning and implementation of shelter rehabilitation
resilient permanent housing. programs that respond to the needs of both women and men.
Gender Equality Fostered • Number and percentage of women and men in local
disaster preparedness and management committees, and
risk assessment and planning teams.
18 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

Good Practices: Urban Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation

Ensure that women’s rights and gender equality are central to how crisis-affected
cities in terms of both disaster prevention and disaster response are managed
planned and financed.
• Undertake gender analysis to inform the development of the Resilient Cities Programme and
the Settlements Recovery Programme.
• Take steps to reflect women’s rights and gender equality targets in the way urban risk
reduction and post-crisis reconstruction is carried out in the following interventions: shelter
and housing; basic infrastructure and services; land use and tenure; climate change and urban
environment; and economic recovery and livelihoods.
Develop a process for community based consultations with all key stakeholders
inclusive of women, especially poor women, youth and minority groups wherever a
re-examination of risk reduction and post-crisis reconstruction is to be undertaken.
• Recognize that women, poor women and girls face numerous constraints given their gender
roles, responsibilities and discriminations in participating in consultative or decision-making
processes.
• Take steps that encourage and ensure that women and girls, especially poor women, become
active participants in a safe environment.

Ensure that legal interventions or reforms with regards to how land is managed,
how post-crisis reconstruction of municipalities or towns are to be planned;
establishment of mechanisms addressing violence against women and other
human rights violations, and how rights to post-crisis basic services, housing and
economic resources are being expressed and equal treatment in documentation are
effectively targeting and benefiting the poorest women, girls, boys and men.
• Collect sex-disaggregated data and undertake gender analysis to ensure effective targeting of
interventions.
• Monitor consultation and participation of women, men, boys and girls in planning and
implementation of disaster responses.
• Monitor implementation processes to measure progress in targeting the needs of women, girls,
boys and men.
• Evaluate and report on results of the interventions to assess whether the interventions have
indeed been effective in benefiting the poorest women, girls, boys and men.
 20 GENDER ISSUE GUIDE

Cities experience large and small scale disasters that can pose great challenges to
sustainable development, for natural and human-made disasters have enormous
economic, social and political impacts that have gendered consequences
on the lives of women, men, boys and girls. The scale of human losses and
suffering experienced is moreover determined by the nature and processes of
urban development and urban governance. UN-Habitat seeks to increase the
resilience of cities in the face of the impacts of natural and human-made crises
and assist governments and local authorities in managing catastrophes through
its disaster response services and early recovery programmes. The objective of
this gender issue guide on Urban Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation is to:
• Increase understanding of how natural and human-made disasters exacerbate
or intensify existing gender disparities and gender-based discrimination.
• Increase understanding of gender concerns and needs in Urban Risk
Reduction and Rehabilitation.
• Develop staff and partners’ capacity to address gender issues in human
settlement areas that have experienced natural and human-made disasters.
• Encourage staff and partners to integrate gender perspectives into policies,
projects, and programmes for sustainable post disaster urban development.
• Support institutionalization of the culture of gender mainstreaming and
gender equality through the implementation of gender-sensitive projects/
programmes and the monitoring of gender mainstreaming progress.

HS/017/15E

March 2015

United Nations Human Settlements Programme

PO Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO Kenya
Tel: 254-020-7623120
infohabitat@unhabitat.org

www.unhabitat.org