AIMING to develop more gender-sensitive services, a United Nations-led conference held from 5-7 November in Geneva is spearheading a drive to ensure that weather and climate services reduce women's vulnerability to disasters and climate change, and help them realise their potential as champions of community resilience.

Hosted by the World Meteorological Organization

(WMO), the Conference on Gender Dimensions of Weather and Climate Services, hopes to produce concrete actions to empower women to produce and use weather and climate services.

Women, especially in developing countries, are often more exposed to the risks of extreme weather because they can be less mobile than men, lack access to traditional means of communication, and are more vulnerable to associated risks such as under-nutrition and water-borne diseases, according to the WMO.

For instance, in the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 people in Bangladesh, 90 per cent of victims were women. Explanations for this include the fact that more women than men are homebound, looking after children and property. In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis came ashore in Myanmar. Among the 130,000 people dead or missing in the aftermath, 61 per cent were female.

"We have made great progress in improving weather forecasts and climate services such seasonal outlooks to help protect lives and livelihoods," said the head of the WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

But if we are to help communities cope with long-term climate change and the anticipated increase in hazards like floods and heat-waves, then we need to do more to reach out to women with gender-sensitive services, he added.

The gathering was co-sponsored by a wide range of partners including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO), among others. Among UN agencies, conference participants include meteorological and hydrological experts, academic institutions and civil society representatives, national authorities, and national and international women's rights advocates.

SOURCE: UN.ORG.