Abstract
Bangladesh is a tropical delta-shaped country with complex geo-physical characteristics and many rivers which make flood the most common natural disaster in the country. This paper assesses flood induced vulnerabilities faced by gender in the 2017 flood, one of the most devastating floods in recent years. Gender here refers the most vulnerable groups of people including women, children, adolescent girls, elderly, disabled and other disadvantaged people. Two districts from north-west, Kurigram and Nilphamari and one district from north-east, Netrokona were selected as study area. Primary data were collected using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools; 12 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and a number of Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were accomplished focusing on affected gender. Flood affects daily life, damages infrastructure, valuable assets, crops and crop lands, but is particularly devastating for gender groups. . Gender groups need to fight for food, drinking water, safe shelter and sanitation more than other affected people. The Capacities and Vulnerabilities (CVA) framework has been used to assess the vulnerabilities faced by gender in the event of a disaster. The ability of a society to cope with and recover from disasters depends largely on the social, economic and cultural capacities, which vary among different groups of people. This paper concluded with few suggestions to develop gender focused disaster risk reduction, planning and management.
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Acknowledgments
This study was performed under the “Research on Disaster Prevention/Mitigation Measures against Floods and Storm Surges in Bangladesh (SATREPS)” project funded by JICA-JST, Japan. The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the informants in the field for their help and support. The authors would also like to thank JICA-JST for providing financial support for this study.
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Leya, R.S., Saha, D., Bala, S.K., Huq, H. (2020). Gender Vulnerability Assessment due to Flood in Northern Part of Bangladesh (A Case Study on 2017 Flood). In: Haque, A., Chowdhury, A. (eds) Water, Flood Management and Water Security Under a Changing Climate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47786-8_17
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