INFORM Risk Index: Inequality

Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development. The Inequality component introduces the dispersion of conditions within population presented in the Development & Deprivation component. It includes a Gender Inequality Index, which reflects gender-based disadvantages in three dimensions—reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market, and the Gini coefficient, a measure of the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.