Gendered poverties and power relations: looking inside communities and households.

The study focuses on four communities in Nicaragua including one that was constructed to house those displaced by Hurricane Mitch. The aim of the study was to better understand how women and men experience poverty. It considers poverty within wider notions of well being and also works within a vulnerability framework to consider how women use different assets to respond to crisis situations and the utility of these. It demonstrates that while income poverty and low consumption are immediate concerns, issues such as insecurity and violence are also of great concern to the women interviewed. This includes the concern over localised and re-current disasters, such as drought, and continued insecurity in the face of a larger scale event. The study notes how little advancement has been made in disaster mitigation since Mitch and how this can influence the well being of communities. The study also highlights that reducing one type of vulnerability may increase another, noting a trade -off between reducing physical vulnerability to hazards and increasing social and economic vulnerability. Language: English and Spanish