TOKYO - Climate change and disasters affect everyone, but it is women and girls who face the greatest impact. The most marginalized among them are most likely to be the worst affected and are the least likely to recover quickly. This is due to existing inequalities experienced by women and girls.
The recent flash floods in Nepal, which swept through the Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers on Aug. 26, 2026, devastating entire communities, shows this. More than half of those in need of urgent humanitarian assistance -- an estimated 43,000 or more -- are women and girls.
The scale of destruction and loss of life, livelihoods and access to essential services such as healthcare and education has been catastrophic and deeply traumatic. And during disasters, women's care and household responsibilities skyrocket, all in increasingly difficult conditions while they are managing grief and trauma.
Nepali women already perform 85 percent of unpaid care work, including housework and caregiving. They spend roughly six times as much time on such work as men. With homes, roads and water systems destroyed, care responsibilities increase, leaving women -- especially those who lost male relatives -- with less time and fewer resources for their own recovery, rest and self-care. This can have a long-term impact, including higher risks of school dropouts and early marriages for girls, patterns we have seen in previous disasters in Nepal and elsewhere.
To prevent these risks, U.N. Women works to ensure the humanitarian response meets the needs of women and girls. To do this, within a week of the disaster, we consulted more than 20 women-led organizations supporting the response to identify emerging needs and response gaps. We learned that the conditions in the holding centers further put their safety at risk due to a lack of clean and private toilets or dedicated spaces for women and girls. Dalit communities face further inequalities and challenges. Crowded living conditions, grief, trauma and uncertainty increase protection risks, while access to reporting mechanisms, sexual health and reproductive rights services, and mental health and psychosocial support have been limited.
We know that language barriers, low literacy rates and lack of land ownership prevent many women from even applying for public relief or participating in decisions about recovery.
Although critical steps have been made in recent weeks, the needs of women, girls and marginalized groups -- such as people with disabilities, Dalit communities and indigenous peoples -- require sustained efforts to be considered and addressed in relief and recovery.
We must not forget that women are front-line responders and planners, and they must be included as decision-makers within the response.
U.N. Women is supporting the government to assess postdisaster needs while advocating for the needs of women and girls and the role of women, to be key considerations across the response. U.N. Women is also working closely with local women's rights organizations to provide humanitarian assistance that meets the needs of women and girls, including four community kitchens that have provided more than 15,000 hot and nutritious meals a day and cash-for-work opportunities for women who work as kitchen staff. By moving work traditionally shouldered by women within households into collective spaces, these kitchens reduce the burden of unpaid care while supporting livelihoods and creating opportunities for recovery.
As the increasingly frequent floods and other disasters across the world illustrate, these are familiar issues confronting affected communities, including in Japan. As the climate crisis intensifies, vulnerabilities during disasters and challenges facing women and girls are issues that concern every region.
To achieve meaningful climate action and build resilient societies, it is essential to integrate gender equality into disaster preparedness, evacuation, humanitarian response and recovery, with women and women's organizations meaningfully involved in decision-making.
(Naoe Yakiya has served as director of the U.N. Women Japan Liaison Office since 2025. She has assumed posts related to humanitarian and development aid, such as director of the World Food Program Japan Relations Office.)
