2. LESSONS
A. Host Nation Gender Considerations in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster
Relief (Lesson #2487)
Observations:
Studies have shown that women have higher mortality rates than men during natural disasters, due
primarily to vulnerabilities arising from gender inequalities and cultural gender roles. Yet despite this
vulnerability and their capacity to address disasters, local women are often excluded from humanitarian
assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) and prevention measures. As such, all humanitarian actors involved in
disaster response (including the Host Nation (HN), United Nations (UN), U.S. Government, military, civil
society, international agencies, etc.) need to understand how HN men and women may be impacted by
disasters, mainstream such gender considerations into disaster response, and include HN women in
leadership, as encouraged by several UN Frameworks.
Discussion:
During natural disasters, mortality rates for women are typically much higher than for men, as shown
through several studies. This was primarily brought to attention during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
which struck 14 countries, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, with approximately 230,000 fatalities.
Oxfam found in a 2005 study that in the worst affected villages in Aceh, Indonesia, 80% of victims were
female, and approximately three times as many women were killed as men in Cuddalore, India. Other
disasters have produced similar results. Victims of the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 140,000 were
90% girls and women. Furthermore, one study of life expectancy within natural disasters from 141
countries between 1981 and 2002 showed that natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women much
more so than that of men. Even more recently, the 201