Mainstreaming women into disaster risk reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka

Intense damage to women caused by natural disasters urges the necessity of incorporating a
women’s perspective into DRR. Gender mainstreaming has been demonstrated as a way of bringing a gender perspective into DRR as it could translate into identifying the different capacities and needs of different gender roles. Due to the criticality of the built environment’s role in DRR, mainstreaming women into the built environment in order to reduce their vulnerability could be considered vital. The paper in this context, aims to investigate how women can be mainstreamed into DRR in the built environment based on case study on Sri Lanka. The process of mainstreaming women is distinguished into two sequential steps in the paper. It consists of identification of women’s DRR knowledge and needs followed by the integration of the knowledge and needs into development within the built environment. Participatory methods, community feedback and complaints, expert knowledge, and relevant literature are identified as the most appropriate methods to identify women’s DRR knowledge and needs whilst the identified knowledge and needs can be integrated into
development within the built environment through regulations, project documentation, and awareness,
expertise and commitment of the built environment professionals. The paper further outlines the
existing barriers, responsible parties, relevant protocols and ways of promoting the process in relation to mainstreaming women in DRR in the built environment.