Gender equality
Promoting gender equality and women’s leadership in the 2025 Global Platform
UNDRR is committed to promoting and supporting gender equality and women’s empowerment at the 2025 Global Platform, in line with global and UN system-wide commitments. For UNDRR, this entails ensuring substantive discussions on gender equality and the gendered dimensions of risk are integrated across the Global Platform sessions; as well as recognizing the disaster risk reduction expertise of women and people of diverse genders and ensuring gender parity among speakers.
In 2024, the Gender Action Plan to support implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (Sendai GAP) was launched. The Sendai GAP recognizes the urgent need to substantially increase resource allocations, activities and impacts of gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and substantially decrease gender-related disaster risk to achieve the Sendai Framework. The 2025 Global Platform marks the first Global Platform since the launch of the Sendai GAP and an important milestone at which to discuss progress.
GP2025 AND GENDER EQUALITY
1. Supporting women's participation in the global platform
Governments are strongly encouraged to ensure gender balanced delegations and to promote senior/high-level women’s representation at the 2025 Global Platform.
UNDRR’s efforts in promoting women’s participation in the Global Platform has resulted in improved gender parity, with an increase from 30% female participants at the 2015 World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to 40% at the 2022 Global Platform for DRR held in Bali, Indonesia.
2. Ensuring gender parity among speakers at the Global Platform
UNDRR achieved gender parity among speakers across all formal sessions of the 2022 Global Platform and is committed to maintaining this achievement in 2025. These efforts are expected to result in an equal representation between women and men as session chairs, panelists and moderators. UNDRR is also committed to ensuring gender parity in the organizing teams of the 2025 Global Platform substantive sessions.
3. Integrating substantive discussions on gender equality across the Global Platform
UNDRR advocates for a twin-track approach in support of gender equality. For the Global Platform, this means ensuring that substantive discussions on gender equality are mainstreamed across the formal sessions and that gender targeted discussions are part of the agenda. As part of these efforts, gender experts are invited to participate in the Organizing Teams of the 2025 Global Platform substantive sessions.
4. Ensuring the 2025 Global Platform is safe and welcoming to all
UNDRR has zero tolerance for harassment at the Global Platform. UNDRR commits to upholding the UN Code of Conduct to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment, at UN system events. Any participant who feels that they have been harassed at the Global Platform can report the matter to a UNDRR staff member or relevant security authority, and any participant who witnesses such harassment should make a report. The Code of Conduct can be viewed here.
For more information, please contact UNDRR’s Gender Advisor at branwen.millar@un.org.