Mr. Joseph Blankson Nyarko, Brong Ahafo Regional
Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has called for a sustained educational drive to get women to contribute
effectively to the risk of climate change.
He stressed the need for women to participate in risk management and disaster risk reduction in their communities.
Mr. Nyarko made the call when he presented a paper on: "Managing Disaster from Gender Perspective," at a day's workshop in Sunyani.
It was on the theme: "Promoting Gender Responsive Culture in Climate Change, Risk Management and Disaster Risk Reduction," organised by ABANTU for Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with NADMO and the 6th March Women's Foundation, another NGO.
The 25 participants included representatives of women's groups, security agencies, civil society groups and the media.
Mr. Nyarko said disaster management was a collective responsibility that called for the participation of both males and females.
The regional co-ordinator noted that although women were involved in the decision making process in disaster management at all levels, their stage of involvement was "very low" and expressed the hope that the situation would change.
Mr. Nyarko said women, children and the aged were the most vulnerable to disasters and called for greater collaboration between ABANTU and NADMO to get more females involved in managing such situations.
Mr. Folley Jaleiba, Representative and Co-ordinator of ABANTU who led the participants in the discussions said the workshop was aimed at helping to strengthen women capacity in disaster risk management and reduction.
He said climate change posed a number of problems to women such as prolonged rain or drought that resulted in shortage of food and fuel wood.
"Women are the ones who are obviously found to spend time looking for these important commodities in order to feed the family. In the process some girls drop out of school, jeopardising their future," Mr. Jaleiba said.
He expressed the hope that the training would enable all stakeholders to contribute to building the disaster resilience of both women and men in
order to achieve sustainable development.
The workshop was expected to strengthen the ability of the participants to strive for the integration of gender perspectives into disaster risk reduction legislation, policies and programmes.
There was a unanimous view at the workshop that since women are well informed about the causes of climate change and the state of their
vulnerability to the phenomenon, they would be positioned to reduce the effects of disaster and other ramifications.
One of the concept notes explained that because women are the main agents of socialisation and therefore spend greater time with children, it is prudent that they are educated on disaster risk reduction so that the
knowledge would in the long run be passed on to the younger generation.
Ms Veronica Aryee, Sunyani Municipal Director of Education Director in charge of Girls, who presided, expressed the hope that the participants would share the knowledge they had acquired by carrying out education in their communities.
She urged women to ensure they attain more managerial positions and contribute effectively to disaster management.