The South Asia Women's Resilience Index

The Index looks at the disaster-preparedness of eight countries in the South Asia region: Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Japan, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It specifically focuses on the degree to which women’s needs have been incorporated and the extent to which these countries are prepared for disasters – and finds that each of these countries, Japan aside, fares poorly in this regard.

The Findings

• Six of eight countries included in new EIU South Asia Women’s Resilience Index (WRI) score in range between 40 and 46.4 out of 100. (Japan, included as a developed-country benchmark, scores 80.6.)
• Pakistan fares worse—scoring 27.8—owing to higher economic, social and institutional barriers to women’s participation in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience-building
• WRI shows need to empower women economically, improve monitoring of gender-specific DRR targets, and tackle high levels of violence against women in South Asia

The Advocacy

ActionAid is urging policy makers and world leaders to take stock of this new research that indicates that unless investments are made in women economically and socially, the impact of increasing disasters in the South Asia region will be catastrophic for communities.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) efforts are saving lives and reducing the death tolls, however more people are being affected by these crises’ and economic losses are rising. Gender inequality also means women bear the majority of the impact.  The research finds that economic and sociological barriers to women’s empowerment are key reasons that women’s resilience in emergencies is not included in disaster risk reduction and recovery.

Bangladesh Toolkit