Call for good practices: Integrating gender in Early Warning Systems

By: UNISDR – The Americas.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) through its regional office for the Americas is carrying out a call for good practices throughout Central America and the Caribbean on integrating gender and women empowerment in Early Warning Systems (EWS).

Stage of the Call	Date
Opening	1 July, 2015
Closing	31 July, 2015
Publication of results	7 August, 2015

 

Contacts: Cyril Fonteneau cfonteneau@eird.org and Jennifer Guralnick jguralnick@eird.org

Introduction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The impact of disasters affect men and women differently. Due to a variety of socio-economic and cultural factors women tend to be more vulnerable to the negative effects of hazards and often suffer more during emergency situation. According the UNDP, women are 14 times more likely than men to die during a disaster. They also play a pivotal role in emergency preparedness and responses as well as in disaster risk reduction.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, approved by the United Nations States on the 18 March, 2015, recognized the importance of gender and women empowerment for disaster risk reduction and strengthening the resilience of nations and communities. Through the priority 4 of the Sendai Framework, this international framework recognises that "empowering women and persons with disabilities to publicly lead and promote gender equitable and universally accessible response, recovery rehabilitation and reconstruction approaches are key".

 

Integrating gender in Early Warning Systems

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) through its regional office for the Americas is carrying out a call for good practices throughout Central America and the Caribbean on integrating gender and women empowerment in Early Warning Systems (EWS). Good practices will be selected based on the following criteria:

Thematic pertinency General approach Relevance Replicability Sustainability

 

The initiative is developed in the context of the project “Implementing the post 2015 Disaster Risk Reduction framework in the Caribbean at the local, national and regional levels”, financed by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) through the DIPECHO Humanitarian Action Plan 2015-2016.

An EWS is the set of capacities to generate and disseminate timely and meaningful information to alert and enable people, communities or organizations threatened by a natural hazard. Studies showed that such information often does not reach men and women equally and the subsequent emergency measures do not consider differentiated gender aspects that affect women in particular. By incorporating a gender perspective in EWS, it will allow women to strengthen their capacity to be more resilient, and in this way facilitate society as a whole to be better prepared in case of an emergency.

Good practices

The selection of experiences will be based on the criteria selection mentioned above, as well as the geographic consideration. UNISDR will facilitate the participation of the selected organizations to present the experiences in two regional eventsplanned in the Caribbean. The call is addressed to representatives of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, communities and cooperation agencies from local, national, subregional and regional levels.

Related Links

Download Flyer PDF 

Download Flyer JPG 

Download Terms of Reference in PDF 

Download application form

 

 

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