Gendering responses to El Niño in rural Peru

Abstract

This article reflects on the gender-specific lessons learned after El Niño in a poor rural community in Peru. The author starts by explaining that El Niño had different impacts in different areas in Peru. On upland areas, where small-scale agriculture is the basis of food source, heavy rains caused devastation. In these areas, food insecurity and epidemics affected women more. The article also sums up government responses to disasters. Government neglected that disasters have different impacts in different places and on different people, and they favored development of agro-exports and rural communities were absent in the development process. The article presents a table of women's vulnerabilities and capacities during El Niño including the perspective of citizenship and social organization, psychological attitudes, and physical and material factors. Suggested preventive measures include, investing in capacity building, mainstreaming gender in participatory processes and local organizations, and the need to recognize women's knowledge of survival techniques.