Women take brunt of suffering in disasters

Women are far more exposed to disasters than men, given their front-line roles in the home and in healthcare, the UN said, arguing that improving gender equality is key to saving lives.

Globally, women and children are up to 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster, according to UN Population Fund account executive Lamar Dawson.

"Women are more exposed to disasters," United Nations Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark told AFP on the sidelines of a once-a-decade UN conference on disaster risk reduction in Japan.