Human mobility as a climate and disaster risk management strategy: Addressing intersectional vulnerability and enhancing women's agency

Climate-related disasters are increasingly driving human mobility, forcing millions to relocate. Recent disaster risk scholarship recognizes mobility as an adaptation strategy, enabling individuals and communities to reduce hazard exposure and pursue more secure livelihoods. Yet governance frameworks overlook how access to mobility is shaped by gendered power relations and intersecting inequalities. This article situates mobility within transformative risk management, drawing on Leppert et al. (2021) to conceptualize migration as a multi-stage process shaped by climate impacts, context, and governance interventions. Using an intersectional lens, we examine how gender structures experiences, agency, and decision-making. Through comparative analysis of policy instruments of cases from climate-vulnerable contexts in the Global South, the study assesses (a) the drivers and constraints shaping women's mobility decisions, and (b) the extent to which disaster risk management and climate change adaptation policies address gendered dimensions of mobility. Particular attention is paid to how governance arrangements and norms mediate access to rights, resources, adaptation strategies, and protection. Findings show that while mobility can function as an adaptation strategy, its risk-reduction potential depends on inclusive governance that expands—not restricts—agency. The article advances disaster science debates and offers policy recommendations for integrating equity and intersectionality into climate risk and disaster risk management.. • Intersectional constraints limit women's access to disaster and climate risk management. • Climate-related human mobility is a transformative climate change adaptation strategy. • Drivers from micro to macro levels hamper women's agency over mobility decisions. • Countries innovate by incorporating human mobility into gender-sensitive climate governance. • Climate mobility policies can assert women's agency throughout the mobility cycle.