BONN, Germany (May 24, 2016) – Shaila Shadid, of the Gender and Water Alliance in Bangladesh, spoke on the need to improve the capacities of vulnerable groups and to take a gender-sensitive approach in activities that address loss and damage in relation to disaster and climate change. Loss and damage cannot be measured only in terms of physical assets or GDP. Examples of non-economic losses include loss of life, cultural heritage or ecosystem services. Gender differences play double roles in the non-economic losses of climate. First, women often contribute to their families and their communities in non-monetary ways – often termed ‘care work’ (Genanet 2013). Therefore, an assessment of loss and damage that is based only on monetary or financial quantification may not take into account the value of women’s contribution to society. Second, it is possible that loss and damage affects women in developing countries more directly than men, for example, in terms of loss of life, or in relation to nutrition and migration.