On 17 February 2026, the Gender and Disaster Risk Finance Dialogues featured Dr Humaira Hansrod, Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist and Research Lead at Oxford Policy Management. She presented an intersectional analytical framework for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI). This framework was applied in the Gender Analysis of CDRFI conducted across Global Shield against Climate Risks Countries to investigate the factors driving exclusion and limited access to CDRFI instruments.
This dialogue focused on how applying an intersectional lens to vulnerability assessments can inform and guide context-specific, practical CDRFI instruments, particularly in fragile and climate-vulnerable settings.
Gender Gaps vs Structural Diagnosis
The presentation challenged a common limitation in most gender analyses: they often stop at identifying gaps. Women are treated as a single group, and recommendations tend to remain generic, such as improving financial literacy.
The framework applied by OPM focuses on understanding how gender interacts with other factors such as location, age, social norms, and access to resources. This gives practitioners insights into why exclusion occurs and through which systems it is reinforced.
The framework is structured across three linked pillars. Pillar 1 focuses on diagnosis by examining vulnerabilities, social norms, power dynamics, and access to resources to understand who is at risk and why. Pillar 2 translates these findings into action by integrating them into the design and delivery of CDRFI instruments. Pillar 3 defines what success looks like, including improved resilience, increased financial protection, and stronger participation in CDRFI systems. In Somalia, for example, a standard analysis might conclude that women need more financial literacy. The intersectional analysis instead identified multiple interacting constraints, including religious concerns around insurance, reliance on savings groups, and the widespread use of mobile money. This led to recommendations for microinsurance distribution through trusted women’s groups, using local languages and formats adapted to literacy levels.
Across the Gender Analyses conducted, women are often excluded from formal financial systems but remain highly active in informal ones. Social norms, property rights, and decision-making power influence access to finance and the viability of CDRFI products. The implication is that CDRFI design cannot rely solely on formal financial channels. It must engage with existing systems that people already use and trust.
Community Reflections
From Diagnosis to Design, but Not Without Challenges
This framework links diagnosis, design, and delivery to help practitioners and policymakers understand the underlying constraints affecting access to financial protection. At the same time, it introduces a practical challenge. Intersectional analysis adds layers of complexity, and without clear prioritisation, it risks producing detailed diagnostics that are difficult to translate into concrete products or policy decisions.
Data constraints and decision-making under uncertainty.
Limited availability of gender-disaggregated data is a common constraint. The framework relies on triangulation through stakeholder interviews and contextual analysis to identify likely risk patterns, while explicitly acknowledging where stronger data is needed. This positions the analysis as a guide for both immediate action and future investment in data collection.
Balancing ambition with feasibility in recommendations.
A recurring theme in the discussion was how to propose recommendations that address structural barriers while remaining actionable for policymakers. The approach taken was to provide a range of short-, medium-, and long-term options across different levels, allowing governments and insurance actors to act within existing constraints while working toward more systemic change.
What Comes Next
The findings from the gender analyses conducted in each country undergoing the In-Country Process in support of the Global Shield against Climate Risks aim to inform more inclusive and gender-responsive approaches to Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI). The insights and recommendations from the gender analyses have also shaped capacity-building sessions in Costa Rica and The Gambia, where stakeholders are exploring the specific needs of women and vulnerable groups in their contexts and looking for inclusive approaches to designing financial protection mechanisms.
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