Disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change laws are part of a national framework of laws which need to work together to support women’s resilience, according to a report from the Asian Development Bank.
This report focuses on laws and policies, which are an essential foundations to build equality, prohibit discrimination, and empower women to participate in DRM and action on climate change. While the specific laws relating to disasters and climate change are an important focus area, good laws to support women’s resilience need to extend much further. This report develops and applies a National Good Practice Legislative Framework (hereinafter, “the Framework”) as an analytical tool to present a range of different laws across constitutional and national laws. It then provides individual country laws as examples.
This report can also be used as a good practice guide on developing laws that support women’s resilience to climate change and disaster risk. It draws on international norms, national laws, and research to create a tool for policy makers.
The Framework used in this report builds on research into the differential impacts of disasters and climate change on women. Women suffer disproportionate impacts from disasters, including higher mortality rates, injuries, loss of property, increased gender-based violence, loss of income and limited access to the means for recovery. This is not because women are inherently vulnerable, but because they collectively start from a position of disadvantage relative to men. Disaster impacts also vary greatly between national contexts, types of disasters, and different communities, but gender inequality and differentiated gender roles in work and family are important risk factors. The process of DRM itself can also further women’s vulnerability if systems and processes are not gender-sensitive and inclusive of women’s differentiated needs and priorities.
Read more:
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/gender-inclusive-legislative-framework-and-laws-strengthen-women-s-resilience-climate