@unpublished{pittir9900,
           month = {January},
           title = {Natural Disasters, Gender and Health: Maximizing the Role of Women in Disaster Response and Recovery},
          author = {Lindsay Martin Wood},
            year = {2011},
        keywords = { development; nutrition; public health; tsunami},
             url = {http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/9900/},
        abstract = {This paper explores the intersection between public health and disaster from a gendered angle. The health of women and men is affected differently during disasters due to factors which intensify individual, social and economic vulnerabilities. As illustrated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami's impact on Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the resulting humanitarian response as well as specific NGO programming, women are essential to the improvement of health outcomes for themselves and their communities in the aftermath of disaster. Public health and disaster response systems should be strengthened by adopting a gendered perspective and incorporating nutritional interventions within existing programming, such as by designing sensitive health and hygiene kits and organizing their distribution by female community health workers. Targeted attention to nutrition would enhance effectiveness and transferability from disaster to development, thereby improving health and achieving lasting change for disaster-affected lives. There is a pressing need for public health and development professionals to explore realistic, innovative and sustainable solutions to the conundrums that characterize natural disasters; women play a critical role in improving disaster response systems and subsequent health outcomes of individuals, families and communities. Gender-sensitive disaster response and recovery activities containing a nutritional component will comprehensively improve health outcomes and are of vital public health significance.}
}