This Guidance Note aims to provide action-oriented guidance to local and national government officials and key decision makers who face post-disaster challenges and to assist them in incorporating gender-responsive recovery and reconstruction efforts across all sectors through robust gender assessments that lead to concrete needs identification and gender-specific recovery strategies and frameworks.

The note also addresses the different challenges that women face in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction caused by underlying issues of inequality and marginalization.

Further, the note provides guidance on how to turn a post-disaster situation into an opportunity to enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment, with a focus on building back better, as the aftermath of a disaster can present opportunities for new and more progressive gender roles and relationships to emerge.

The guidance note is structured around three key areas:

  1. Identifying and Prioritizing Gender-Specific Recovery Needs
  2. Protecting Women and Men from Physical and Psychosocial Harm
  3. Planning for Gender-Responsive Recovery in the Disaster Recovery Framework and Empowering Women for Sustainable and Resilient Recovery