Gender-Blind DRR Blunts Response and Recovery
Publisher: Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA
Author(s): Maryruth Belsey Priebe
Date: 2024
Topics: Climate Change, Disasters, Gender
Countries: Japan, United States
Extreme weather is becoming the new normal in modern life. Preventing climate-fueled crises from escalating into full-blown disasters is a must for national security experts, including those in Japan and the United States. With increased disasters come an uptick in defense and security involvement in disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives due to the strain they impose on national defense systems. To maximize the effectiveness of DRR investments, the defense and security sector must broaden DRR policymaking, planning, and budgeting beyond traditional approaches that focus too narrowly on state-centric issues. To meet the moment, a human security lens will be foundational in DRR policymaking due to the impacts of disasters on civilian populations and the potential for individual insecurities to erode community resilience and peace. One approach is to adopt the principles of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda to move toward gender-transformative approaches to DRR that ensure the diverse needs of all affected populations are met and to foster broader positive changes in gender norms and human security.