"In emergency settings, there is rarely enough time to conduct full household surveys or collect detailed information, and field teams often face staffing, funding, and logistical constraints," study co-author Sonia Akter told CG. "The survey instrument overcomes these challenges."
A recent study may help demonstrate that deploying a short survey of straightforward questions could play a part in addressing the gender data gap plaguing disaster response efforts.
"Having this information early supports gender-inclusive recovery efforts and enables evidence-based policy and program design for disaster response and climate resilience," said Sonia Akter, a co-author of the study and Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, in response to a CG inquiry.
To conduct the study, researchers collected data from 2,031 people across 37 coastal villages in Bangladesh one week after Cyclone Remal struck the country in May 2024. They provided respondents with a limited set of clear questions that could be answered in 10 to 15 minutes, aiming not to overburden participants in the wake of personal loss and hardship. Questions were designed to generate data on food security, sanitation, health care, employment, unpaid work, and gender-based violence.
The deadly Cyclone Remal reportedly destroyed over 35,000 homes in the wake of floods and high winds, impacting more than 3.5 million people as well as municipal infrastructure, farmland, and fisheries. Rising global temperatures and warming ocean waters have increased the number and severity of cyclones in the region.
Co-authored by researchers in Australia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines and published last month in the journal Natural Hazards, the study aims to provide an example of how humanitarian groups can more rapidly and accurately target disaster relief to meet the real needs of affected populations.
Those working at the intersection of gender justice and disaster management have regularly called for data to inform budgeting, supply planning, and more. But barriers to data collection have persisted, including time and capacity constraints.
"In emergency settings, there is rarely enough time to conduct full household surveys or collect detailed information, and field teams often face staffing, funding, and logistical constraints," Akter told CG. "The survey instrument overcomes these challenges."
The study points to a type of survey that relies on "a limited number of clearly worded questions" and a simplified structure to gather actionable information from individuals rather than whole households — which may be helpful but also cumbersome and sometimes glosses over certain experiences if lumping family members together. With relief efforts typically addressing economic and asset losses, information based on individual, sex-disaggregated responses can help to ensure that even more needs receive support.
"This data collection makes it possible to capture those overlooked losses — including impacts on food security, health access, unpaid work, and personal safety — at the individual level for men and women," Akter said.
This particular study's findings indicated that men and women experienced declines in income, food security, health care, and sanitation. But gendered disparities existed, with, for example, women facing more hurdles to accessing health care and men facing more hurdles to accessing sanitation in this context. "Our findings also reveal that women spent significantly more time collecting water and cooking fuel due to disrupted infrastructure and gendered domestic roles," the co-authors wrote.
But they hold that improved data-gathering sets the stage for addressing these issues head-on. "By generating timely evidence, this approach supports more targeted and equitable relief and recovery interventions," Akter told CG.
Some experts have posed concerns that recent cuts to foreign aid could lead to a "humanitarian data drought." Streamlined strategies like this may help to address such shortfalls and not only respond to disasters but also prepare for them.
"Without proper data, we cannot develop appropriate solutions," Vanessa Brizuela, the expert at the World Health Organization who issued the call, told CG. One aim of the effort, which emphasizes community voices and lived experiences, is to generate evidence to inform national adaptation plans.
Lize Barclay, Senior Lecturer in Futures Studies and Systems Thinking at Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa, told CG about how data center expansion in the region has the potential to further burden women and girls already disproportionately tasked with water collection.
Mothers displaced by floods across Kenya have shared accounts of infant illness, insufficient food, and decreased breastmilk supplies. One mom was forced to carry her newborn above rising waters. CG heard from Susan Onyango and Hellen Wanjohi-Opil, experts based in Nairobi, about the path forward.
"Cesar's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people," Dolores Huerta wrote in her statement. "We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever."
