Social, Economic, Environmental, and Physical Vulnerability Assessment: An Index-Based Gender Analysis of Flood Prone Areas of Koshi River Basin in Nepal

Gender analysis in vulnerability assessments is needed in disaster risk reduction (DRR). This study examined headship-based household vulnerabilities in the Koshi River Basin of Nepal. This comparative study between male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs) analyzed the social, infrastructural, economic, and environmental components of vulnerability assessments. A mixed method was used to collect data, including a survey of 216 households, 15 key informant interviews, 40 in-depth interviews, and 8 focus group discussions. The results from the weightage average index (WAI) revealed that the FHHs are more vulnerable in all components. Social and physical components show greater vulnerability for FHHs compared to economic and environmental components. The t-test showed that the difference in multidimensional vulnerability is highly significant (F = 3.423, p-value = 0.000). The WAI calculation showed 42%, 51%, and 7% FHHs and 6%, 35%, 49%, and 10% of MHHs are in very high, high, moderate, and low levels of vulnerability, respectively. Sociocultural norms were the main factors driving the gap which affected households' ability to respond to and recover from flood disasters and impacted the DRR process. The study suggests that more attention is given to FHHs through increased access to services, capacity building, awareness training, livelihood initiatives, participation in preparedness activities, and inclusion in the DRR process to minimize the impact of floods in the future, particularly for FHHs.