Gendering Environmental Reconstruction: A study of the gendered dimensions of UNEP’s environmental reconstruction assessments

Abstract: As we are facing a future of more frequent and extreme weather events targeting primarily low income countries, research on effective and inclusive environmental reconstruction following these crises is vital. In this study, the gender inclusion of UNEP’s environmental reconstruction assessments is examined by looking at four cases in which the organisation has performed assessments on widely different premises. With contrasting combinations of low contra high governmental equality, and natural disaster contra armed conflict, these cases created a spectrum used to map and generalise the overall gender inclusion of the organisation’s post-crisis assessments. Using findings from the emerging academic field of gender and environmental security to aid the analysis, this study adds to the research by creating a text analysis framework for gender evaluations of reconstruction assessments. It finds that UNEP is not consistent in their gender inclusion, neither in matter of prioritised areas, recommendations or inclusion of women. It also shows that the equality of the government requesting the assessment and the type of crisis causing the environmental degradation does not seem to affect the gender approach of UNEP’s environmental reconstruction assessments.