BRIDGETOWN – There is a strong correlation between gender equality and disaster resilience, and it is one that the Region is taking into account on the path to ending poverty. To improve awareness of the importance of this relationship and measure its impact on vulnerable groups in the Region, the Caribbean Development Bank is designing a toolkit, in collaboration with its borrowing member countries (BMCs). The Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) toolkit, financed by the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, of which the Government of Canada and the European Union (EU) are donors, is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2018. It will have the capacity to measure how communities, and vulnerable groups, including women, children, and people with disabilities are affected by natural hazards and climate change impacts and assist in making recommendations to build resilience.

A 2010 United Nations report indicates that disasters lower women’s life expectancy more than men’s; and women and children, especially girls, are 14 times more likely to die. Women and girls are also more likely to be victims of domestic and sexual violence in post-disaster situations. These and other statistics demonstrating the multi-dimensional and gendered nature of poverty have been informing discussions among regional statisticians, social development practitioners and representatives from international development organisations who convened in Barbados from December 6 to 8 to participate in shaping the final stages of the toolkit prior to its implementation.(CDB)…[+]