A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

and production, soil conservation, irrigation,watershed management, sanitation, coastal zoneand marine resource management, integratedpest management, land-use planning, forestconservation and community forestry, fisheries,natural disaster prevention, and new and renewablesources of energy, focusing particularly onindigenous women's knowledge and experience."Five years later, the review and appraisal of theimplementation of the Beijing Platform forAction (2000) identified natural disasters andepidemics as emerging issues, which deservedgreater attention. It was noted that the social andeconomic impact of natural disasters andepidemics remained relatively invisible as a policyissue, in particular their impact on the statusof women and the achievement of gender equality.In their responses to a questionnaire, severalstates in Africa and Asia cited the feminization ofpoverty, often aggravated by natural disastersand crop failure, as an obstacle to improvinggender equality.The twenty-third special session of the GeneralAssembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality,development and peace for the twenty-firstcentury" acknowledged an increase in casualtiesand damage caused by natural disasters andraised awareness of the inefficiencies and inadequaciesof existing approaches and interventionmethods in responding to such emergency situations,from a gender perspective.It suggested that a gender perspective be incorporatedinto disaster prevention, mitigation andrecovery strategies. The special session alsorecommended that the UN system and internationalorganizations should assist governments indeveloping gender-sensitive strategies for thedelivery of assistance and responses to humanitariancrises resulting from natural disasters.Related international commitments and the UN role in disaster risk reductionGender mainstreaming: This is the process ofbringing a gender perspective into the mainstreamactivities of governments at all levels, as a means ofpromoting the role of women in the field of development,integrating women's values into developmentwork. Gender mainstreaming builds on theknowledge and lessons-learnt from previous experienceswith gender equality policies.Gender analysis: Gender analysis involves thecollection and use of sex-disaggregated data thatreveal the roles and responsibilities of men andwomen, to be fed into the policy process forenabling assessments of how existing and futurepolicies and programmes potentially affect men andwomen differently. Gender analysis needs to be bothquantitative and qualitative.The committee has urged certain states to paygreater attention to environment and natural disasters.In the case of Nicaragua, it suggested thataspects of natural disasters impeded women's fullenjoyment of their rights. When it considered thereport of Kazakhstan, the committee expressedconcern about the degree of environmental degradationin the country and its extremely negativeimpact on the health of the whole population, inparticular on women and children.The committee also expressed its concern aboutthe degree of environmental degradation inUzbekistan and its negative impact on the healthof the whole population, in particular womenand children.In the case of Belarus, the committee noted thegovernment's attempts to deal with the healthimpact of the Chernobyl disaster and addressedthis issue as a principal area of concern.Commission on the Status of Women6Convention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against WomenSeveral articles of the Convention on the Eliminationof Discrimination against Women explore theviolations of women's human rights in the case ofnatural disasters. A number of general recommendations,adopted by the Committee on theElimination of Discrimination Against Women,also offer interpretation of articles of the conventionas they relate to disasters and environment.The UN Commission on the Status of Women,in its programme of work for 2002-2006, willconsider the "environmental management andmitigation of natural disasters: a gender perspective".In preparation for this topic, an expertgroup was organized by the United Nations Divisionfor the Advancement of Women (DAW) incollaboration with the ISDR Secretariat.The expert group meeting discussed the linkbetween gender and environmental manage-297