Disaster Risk Reduction Plans from a Gender Perspective: A Tool for Their Analysis, Design, and Evaluation

Abstract

Introduction: The development of disaster risk reduction (DRR) plans aims to identify, manage and reduce the factors that increase a population's vulnerability to disasters. However, the literature on gender and disasters suggests that DRR plans adopt an ineffective approach to face gender inequalities, particularly where they intersect with axes of vulnerability such as social class, ethnicity and/or race, and age, among others. Aim: This article shows the development of a methodological tool that can be used to systematically analyse the extent to which gender and intersectional issues have been considered in the content of existing plans, and to formulate DRR plans from such perspectives. Methodology: The design of this tool took into account both the content and the silence in these areas of the main international agreement on DRR, the Sendai Framework, as well as eleven of the disaster risk management plans developed in Spain. It has also been inspired by the findings of scientific literature on gender and disasters. This process was carried out by an international group of eight experts on gender and disasters. Results and originality of the proposal: A matrix has been developed that integrates gender and intersectional perspectives in a cross-cutting manner in the disaster phases and in the different phases of the public policy cycle for disaster risk reduction. The proposed tool facilitates the analysis, design and evaluation of DRR policies and is adaptable to different geopolitical contexts.