It must include women and girls, not only as the recipients of health and social protection services, but also as advocates, as health workers, as active members, representatives and leaders of communities. Building resilience and protecting communities from the negative effects of a disaster must therefore be connected to a robust development agenda that takes into account individual, social, economic and cultural vulnerabilities. Given that high maternal and child mortality are concentrated in countries with conflict and natural disasters, establishing robust connections between resilience-enhancement programmes and development targets will be essential to both achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and mitigating the effects of disasters.