SOLLIMS Sampler Volume 9, Issue 4 | Page 6

2. LESSONS A. Host Nation Gender Considerations in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (Lesson #2487) Observations: Studies have shown that women have higher mortality rates than men during natural disasters, due primarily to vulnerabilities arising from gender inequalities and cultural gender roles. Yet despite this vulnerability and their capacity to address disasters, local women are often excluded from humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) and prevention measures. As such, all humanitarian actors involved in disaster response (including the Host Nation (HN), United Nations (UN), U.S. Government, military, civil society, international agencies, etc.) need to understand how HN men and women may be impacted by disasters, mainstream such gender considerations into disaster response, and include HN women in leadership, as encouraged by several UN Frameworks. Discussion: During natural disasters, mortality rates for women are typically much higher than for men, as shown through several studies. This was primarily brought to attention during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which struck 14 countries, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, with approximately 230,000 fatalities. Oxfam found in a 2005 study that in the worst affected villages in Aceh, Indonesia, 80% of victims were female, and approximately three times as many women were killed as men in Cuddalore, India. Other disasters have produced similar results. Victims of the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 140,000 were 90% girls and women. Furthermore, one study of life expectancy within natural disasters from 141 countries between 1981 and 2002 showed that natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women much more so than that of men. Even more recently, the 201