Webinar: Integrating gender equality in health emergencies and disaster risk management

Tuesday  June 14, 2022

11:00 AM EST

Register in Zoom  - There will be interpretation available in Spanish, Portuguese and sign language.

The Department of Health Emergencies and the Office of Equity, Gender and Cultural Diversity of the Pan American Health Organization invite you to participate in the online seminar "Integrating Gender Equality in Health Emergencies and Disaster Risk Management".

In this session, key considerations will be presented to strengthen and integrate gender equality in health emergency and disaster risk management . Regional experts from PAHO and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will participate.

During emergencies and disasters, women and girls are generally exposed to a higher risk of mortality and gender-based violence, including sexual, physical and emotional violence and intimate partner violence, as well as of being victims of trafficking, contracting sexually transmitted infections and having unplanned pregnancies, which is why many women avoid going to shelters and receiving humanitarian aid for fear of being abused or assaulted. 

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic made it evident, as with complex emergencies in the past, that women are more likely to experience social and economic problems, as well as deprivation and limited access to resources, and women and children are almost 14 times more likely to die in a disaster than men.

To implement cross‐cutting actions with a gender perspective, it is necessary to understand women´s role in society in an integral way, to respond to the particular challenges presented by different health emergencies and disaster crises, whereas only addressing gender inequality from the standpoint of access to reproductive and maternal services.

Agenda

We thank the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for participating in this activity.