Greater efforts need to be made to empower women to be part of the decision-making process for disaster risk reduction policies, according to a senior Canadian emergency management official.

Studies show that women and children are heavily impacted when natural and man-made catastrophes strike.

Experts from across the Americas recently gathered at a UN conference in Asuncion, Paraguay to discuss disaster mitigation in the region using the Sendai Framework as their focus.

Agreed in Japan last year, the Framework is a strategy to reduce the number of people who die in disasters and to curtail environmental damage and economic losses.

Daniel Dickinson asked Lori MacDonald, Canada’s Assistant Deputy Minister for emergency management, why risk reduction is a gender issue.

Duration: 2’44”