Gender and Disaster Risk Management (DRM): Jamaica Country Profile

Natural disasters catalyze gender-differentiated effects. Women and girls are disproportionally impacted because of inequalities in access to endowments, economic opportunities, and agency. The objective of this desk review is threefold. First, present recent data on key gender gaps concerning disaster risk management (DRM) in Jamaica and compare its performance against regional and structural peers. Second, present gender-differentiated effects of previous disasters in Jamaica based on existing evidence. And finally, use the evidence on gaps and differentiated effects of disasters to help task teams identify gender-responsive activities and indicators for the gender tag, a tool to systematically track the implementation of the WBG gender strategy and measure the quality and results of World Bank operations. This desk review presents examples of results chains for project teams working on DRM-related operations to obtain the gender tag, focusing on exposure and vulnerability, preparedness, and coping capacity. Details about key policy documents on gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV), gender gaps in DRM national level policies and laws in Jamaica, and recommendations for policy makers to address gender gaps—beyond the gender tag requirements for World Bank project teams—are presented in the annexes.

In general, gender data are scarce in the Caribbean region. Disaster risk management, in particular, lags behind other sectors in collecting and reporting of sex- and age disaggregated data. This desk review draws on existing evidence and data about how men and women have been impacted by, prepare for and cope with disasters and climate-related events in the country, national reports on gender and DRM, and country level data and statistics. Some of the assessments and data used for this review might be considered outdated, but acknowledging lack of current data on gender and DRM, they nevertheless provide valuable information to understand the differentiated impacts of natural disasters on women and men due to prevailing inequalities.