Disasters Are Gendered: What’s New? - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 266

importance of “lifting the roof off the household” - examining the dynamics of
power and privilege inside households. The early warning community has not yet
taken on board this analytical lesson.

14.4 Gender-Aware Policy: Unfi nished Business

The World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Hyogo, Japan, in 2005 yielded,
among other accomplishments, a global mandate on gender equality in disaster risk
management (Hyogo Framework for Action 2005 ). The Hyogo Framework is one
of the most recent international efforts to require the integration of gender equity in
all decision-making and planning processes related to disaster risk management.
The Framework includes several gender-specifi c mandates:
“A gender perspective should be integrated into all disaster risk management policies, plans
and decision-making processes, including those related to risk assessment, early warning,
information management, and education and training (Gender consideration of action pri-
orities).” (p. 4)
“Develop early warning systems that are people centered, in particular systems whose
warnings are timely and understandable to those at risk, which take into account the demo-
graphic, gender , cultural and livelihood characteristics of the target audiences, including
guidance on how to act upon warnings, and that support effective operations by disaster
managers and other decision makers” (p. 7)
“Ensure equal access to appropriate training and educational opportunities for women
and vulnerable constituencies, promote gender and cultural sensitivity training as integral
components of education and training for disaster risk reduction” (p. 10)

The importance of the Hyogo Framework is that it is specifi c to disasters, but the
principles of gender equity embraced by it are not new. Similar “gender aware”
mandates preceded Hyogo, including Agenda 21 (1992), Chapter 24 of which out-
lined a development paradigm to establish equity and equality between men and
women, and the Beijing Women's Conference ( 1995 ) Platform for Action. The
United Nations has in place a system-wide mandate of gender mainstreaming. The
Millennium Development Goals position gender equality as a primary development
goal. However, this robust rhetoric has yielded little actual forward movement in
integrating gender into DRR strategies. The UNISDR itself concluded in 2009 that
there was little substantive progress to report:
Ultimately, although there are numerous policy documents clearly stating political commit-
ment to mainstream gender issues into DRR, no tangible or sustainable progress has
resulted, with the exception of some ad hoc activities. Furthermore, there has not been
much substantial progress made in mobilizing resources for mainstreaming gender perspec-
tives into disaster risk reduction process (UNISDR 2009 , p. 3).

Governments that have committed to the Hyogo Framework are required to make
regular “progress reports” to the Secretariat. A brief analysis of these progress
reports offers an indication of the extent to which gender is “taken seriously” in
disaster planning at the national level. Based on the national reports produced from
2009 to 2011, the coverage of gender issues is dismal.