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State Minister Highlights Strengths of Women during Disasters

By: , September 21, 2018

The Key Point:

Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Alando Terrelonge, says women are oftentimes the unsung heroes during and after natural disasters, always ensuring the safety of family, including young children.
State Minister Highlights Strengths of Women during Disasters
Photo: Garwin Davis
Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Alando Terrelonge (left), converses with Director General in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Dr. Sharon Crooks, at the start of a three-day Climate Change and Gender Focal Points Workshop, at the Melia Braco Resort on September 18.

The Facts

  • Addressing a three-day Climate Change and Gender Focal Points Workshop at the Melia Braco Resort on September 18, Mr. Terrelonge added that communities usually cope better during natural disasters when women are allowed to play a leadership role.
  • “Women are able to detect and ensure that their families are protected. Women are often at home when we have natural disasters and are, therefore, able to protect the children and to ensure that the house is also protected,” he said.

The Full Story

Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Alando Terrelonge, says women are oftentimes the unsung heroes during and after natural disasters, always ensuring the safety of family, including young children.

Addressing a three-day Climate Change and Gender Focal Points Workshop at the Melia Braco Resort on September 18, Mr. Terrelonge added that communities usually cope better during natural disasters when women are allowed to play a leadership role.

“Women are able to detect and ensure that their families are protected. Women are often at home when we have natural disasters and are, therefore, able to protect the children and to ensure that the house is also protected,” he said.

The State Minister pointed out that it is not uncommon in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, to see women actually taking measures to “baton down the homes” and to make sure that dangerous objects are “removed from the yards”, to ensure that family survival “is never at stake”.

“Jamaica Sectoral Climate Change Adaptation Programmes acknowledge that women, men, girls and boys experience the impact of climate change in different ways and have different needs, opportunities and capacities to respond. As such, it is important to identify gender-sensitive strategies that respond to these crises,” Mr. Terrelonge argued.

He said that based on the national policy for gender equality in 2011, the Jamaican Government continues to promote gender mainstreaming across ministries, departments and agencies, adding that the Bureau of Gender Affairs has been given the responsibility for carrying out the mandate.

“This is done within the public and private sectors, with the goal being to ensure gender equality and the elimination of gender-based violence and gender discrimination,” the State Minister said.

“These objectives are implemented through gender-specific policies, plans, programmes and projects. This is done in collaboration and partnership with international development partners and other key stakeholders on key decisions relating to gender matters, to promote sustainable development within a human rights framework,” he added.

More than 30 specialists from Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean met for the first time to discuss gender and climate change adaptation planning, and how they intersect.

The three-day workshop was co-hosted by the Government, UN Women, and the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Global Network.

The main aim was to find ways to work together to identify critical next steps on how to integrate gender considerations into national adaptation plans and policymaking.

“We brought these two teams together – the gender specialists and the climate change focal points – because we need a common understanding of these issues and how they relate,” said Una May Gordon, Principal Director for Jamaica’s Climate Change Division.

“We discussed our shared challenges and opportunities, with the goal of incorporating our findings into Jamaica’s National Adaptation Plan process,” she added.

In addition to Jamaica, gender and climate change focal points were also presented by Antigua and Barbuda, Turks and Caicos, and Dominica.

Last Updated: October 8, 2018

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