“Specifically engaging those groups most vulnerable to disasters is an essential part of building disaster-resilient communities”

This fact sheet provides short summaries of the six principles to ensure gender equality in disaster relief: Think big. Get the facts. Work with grassroots women. Resist stereotypes. Take a human rights approach. Respect and develop the capacities of women.

Published in 2010, this online course provides the basic steps a humanitarian worker must take to ensure gender equality in programming. The course includes information on the core issues of gender and how it relates to other aspects of humanitarian response.  The three hour, self-paced course provides information and scenarios which will enable you to practice developing gender-sensitive programming.

This Handbook sets forth standards for the integration of gender issues from the outset of a new complex emergency or disaster, so that humanitarian services provided neither exacerbate nor inadvertently put people at risk; reach their target audience; and have maximum positive impact.

Key questions and considerations for integrating gender into needs assessment and disaster relief.

There is a general lack of research on sex and gender diff erences in vulnerability to and impact of disasters. The limited information available from small scale studies suggests that there is a pattern of gender differentiation at all levels of the disaster process: exposure to risk, risk perception, preparedness, response, physical impact, psychological impact, recovery and reconstruction.

These Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women have been prepared to help the staff of UNHCR and its implementing partners to identify the specific protection issues, problems and risks facing refugee women. In doing so, they cover traditional protection concerns such as the determination of refugee status and the provision of physical security. They outline various measures that can be taken to improve the protection of refugee women.

The 'tyranny of the urgent' in emergencies tends to override longer-term developmental concerns. In this issue, we ask how constraints to integrating gender in relief can be overcome and highlight the potential for tackling biases in the distribution of food aid and support for coping strategies. Rehabilitation offers an opportunity to redress inequalities between men and women, but is it that simple? Currents, our back page column, previews our forthcoming issue on gender and economic reform.