The Gender Affairs Division within the Ministry of National Mobilisation, in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will be hosting a consultation and training workshop on Gender and Vulnerable groups in Early Warning Systems (EWS). This activity is scheduled for September 10 – 11, 2019, at the Sunset Shores Hotel Conference Room, commencing at 8:30 a.m. each day.
Disasters affect women, girls, boys and men differently as these groups face different exposure, participation, power and vulnerability conditions that influence risk. In addition, gender inequality and social marginalization of vulnerable groups, increases vulnerability to disasters; heightens exposure to risk and restrain capacity. This often results in a gendered post-disaster downward spiral of poverty. As a consequence, when gender dis-aggregated data is collected the research shows that women and girls are dis-proportionally affected by disasters. They are more likely to die in disasters and have different and uneven levels of resilience and capacity to recover. Therefore, gender and vulnerable groups must be considered in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Early Warning Systems (EWS).
The objectives of this workshop are to:
- Enable dialogue among different actors working together with either gender or EWS, and to increase the knowledge of gender and EWS at the national level;
- Fill in the gender and vulnerable group gaps in EWS;
- Further define how gender, age and vulnerable groups status affect the four (4) pillars of the EWS in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Caribbean.
- Pre-identify what is required in order to fill these gaps at the national and regional levels.
SOURCE: Ministry of National Mobilisation and the Information Technology Services Division (I.T.S.D)
