NEMA CALLS FOR END TO MARGINALIZATION IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT [DETAILS]

The ‎National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has highlighted the essence of integrating gender perspectives when managing disasters in Nigeria.

The Agency says this would ensure that policies and programmes are gender-sensitive for attainment of national development and Sustainable Development Goals‎ (SDGs).

Speaking at a Conference on Gender And Disaster Risk Management in Abuja, Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sidi said women and girls were more affected in armed conflict situations.

He said the devastating effects of disasters on women and girls in the country during armed conflict situations and other emergencies cannot be overemphasized.

“Women also make up more than half the population affected by the insurgency. Demographically, out of the over 2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, 53% of them are female while 54% are children,’’ he said.

“While women’s vulnerability to disasters is often highlighted, their role and contributions to building disaster resilience has often been overlooked and not adequately recognized.’’

He added: “Women are largely marginalized in the development of Disaster Risk Management policies and in decision-making processes and their voices usually go unheard.”

The NEMA DG, according to Tv360, insisted that gender equality in Disaster Risk Management does not merely mean addressing women’s humanitarian issues but the concerns of ‎men and women and the root causes of the imbalance.

“Most often than not, Gender equality is wrongly perceived as ‘women’s equality’ and therefore the issues do not receive adequate acceptance and significant engagement from a wide range of stakeholders from the development and humanitarian communities.

“This misconception further marginalizes and isolates the issue of gender and disaster from the mainstream,” the NEMA boss stated.

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