Integrating rights and equality in disaster preparedness and response: Insights from six countries

As countries in Asia face growing disaster and climate risks, governments are coming under increased pressure to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capacity. One important and often overlooked aspect of this is the need to consider and respond to gender inequality and human-rights based issues in the context of disasters and climate change. A necessary first step in this process is to overcome the perception that effectively integrating human rights- based approaches and gender and social equality actions into disaster preparedness and response policy is burdensome, unnecessary and a distraction from other priorities. This report presents findings from research conducted in the six focus countries in Asia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka to understand how rights and equality are integrated into national disaster preparedness and response policies and actions.