Gender Checklist: Preparedness and Response Planning1
Gender is a core factor in disaster risk and in the reduction of risk. Differences in gender
roles lead to differing risk profiles for women and men in a disaster. In all settings - at home, at
work gender shapes the capacities and resources of individuals to minimise harm, to adapt to
hazards and respond to disasters. It is evident from past disasters that low-income women and
those who are marginalised due to marital status, physical ability or age, social stigma or caste
are especially disadvantaged. At the grass roots level, on the other hand, women are often well
positioned to manage risk due to their roles as both users and managers of environmental
resources, as economic providers, and as caregivers and community workers. For these
reasons it is necessary to identify and use gender differentiation information, to ensure that risk
reduction strategies are correctly targeted at the most vulnerable and are effectively
implemented through the roles of both women and men.
Gender as a category of analysis emphasizes upon analysis of needs and interests of women and
men as it assists the organizations in development of appropriate emergency response and profiling
the resource and capacity gaps, identifying the vulnerabilities and channelizing the assistance,
protection, rehabilitation and development in a gender sensitive manner. It also helps in mobilization
of a significant proportion of the population whose capacities are often underestimated. (differences
in roles, needs, opportunities, capacities, resources, status and crisis coping behavior of women
and men across identity lines and vulnerability factors)
Preparedness planning aims to establish a standing capacity to respond to a range of different
situations that may affect a country or region by putting in place a broad set of preparedness
measures. This includes for example early warning systems, ongoing risk and vulnerability
assessment, capacity building, the creation and maintenance of stand-by capacities and the
stockpiling of humanitarian supplies.
A combination of field experience and document review suggests there are a number of
strategic entry points for advancing gender equality in preparedness and response planning.
The checklist may be considered as a first-cut thinking and more importantly adapted to
variations relevant to each specific environment.
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Advocate for appropriate senior gender input into national DRR planning processes with
government. These processes should strategically involve the UN gender network, the
gender machinery of government and be supplemented, as needed, by external gender
resources.
Support the clusters/UN agencies in nurturing meaningful participation of women and of
men in preparedness and response planning in collaboration with NDMA. Support the
gender specialists within the broader humanitarian community to support NDMA gender
and Child cell, including the sharing of roles and responsibilities among all the
humanitarian actors.
Ensure the distinct needs, realities, coping strengths and problem-solving skills of
women, girls, boys and men are reflected in:
o Analysis (what are the likely risks and issues and the varied impact?)
o Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis
o Scenarios (reflect the varied implications)
Establish an effective hazard monitoring and warning service that considers the abilities
and needs of women and men
Adapted from various OCHA, ICRC and UN agency documents available on the web
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Place priority on the full and active participation of community women and men (boys
and girls as age appropriate) in designing and implementing preparedness activities.
(Planning and the delivery of goods and services are cognizant of traditional social and
community structures and cultural considerations).
Culturally sensitive pro-active facilitation may be needed to overcome barriers to
women’s meaningful participation and acceptance of women’s participation by both men
and women. Invest in understanding how community men and women can be involved in
decision making, planning, implementation and evaluation of service provision and
projects.
Establish a gender-sensitive systematic, standardized process to collect, assess and
share data, maps and trends on hazards and vulnerability. These should be grounded in
a sex and age disaggregated baseline and information management system. Also
ensure that the specific needs of vulnerable groups have been assessed and accounted
for.
Promote gender equality indicators being featured in all elements of preparedness. Put
special emphasis on the oft-neglected public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder
response mechanisms.
Encourage explicit allocation of resources so gender needs and issues can be
appropriately addressed.
Specific actions for integrating gender into preparedness are related to all facets of humanitarian
activity. It is not for a specific stage/phase but an ongoing tool for sustainable and relevant action.
The actions include:
 All data disaggregated by sex & age
 Baseline gender analysis
 Targeted actions based on gender differences
 Assessment and response teams comprising of women and men
 Ensure all staff assigned to emergencies (incl. NGO partners) is knowledgeable on Code of
Conduct of Humanitarian workers and abide to it
 Roster of gender expertise is available.