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What is the News?
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has released a report titled “Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2022: Our World at Risk: Transforming Governance for a Resilient Future”.
What are the key findings of the report?
Disasters
Every year between 350 and 500 medium to large-scale disasters took place over the past two decades.
The number of disaster events is projected to reach 560 a year – or 1.5 each day, statistically speaking – by 2030.
Disasters disproportionately impact developing countries which lose an average of one percent of GDP a year to disasters, compared to less than 0.3% in developed countries.
Impact of Disasters on Women and Children
Violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters and at the extreme end, this even takes the form of intentional homicides.
This strong correlation between the number of people affected by disaster and the number of female victims of intentional homicide was found to be the highest in central and South Asia, followed by East and Southeast Asia.
Shadow Pandemic
The report highlighted a ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence globally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, a study on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and associated economic losses on urban populations in four Latin American cities found a high correlation between stresses and violence within the home affecting women.
Source: This post is based on the article “Increase in disasters leads to spike in intentional homicides of women: UN Report” published in Down To Earth on 26th April 2022.
