Gender equality and women’s empowerment in disaster recovery

This Guidance Note aims to provide action-oriented guidance to local and national government officials and key decision makers who face post-disaster challenges and to assist them in incorporating gender-responsive recovery and reconstruction efforts across all sectors through robust gender assessments that lead to concrete needs identification and gender-specific recovery strategies and frameworks. Implementation of such actions will facilitate both a more resilient, sustainable recovery and advances in reducing gender inequality.

The note also addresses the different challenges that women face in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction caused by underlying issues of inequality and marginalization. Further, the note provides guidance on how to turn a post-disaster situation into an opportunity to enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment, with a focus on building back better, as the aftermath of a disaster can present opportunities for new and more progressive gender roles and relationships to emerge.