Women within the region, often unknowingly, play a critical role in the maintenance of food security and disaster mitigation within their communities.
This view comes from Dr Balfour Spence, a Disaster Risk Management specialist with the Brandon University in Canada, as he spoke during the International Day for Disaster Reduction Symposium hosted by the Disaster Risk Reduction Centre, University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus, via livestream.
With the topic being ‘Recognising the contribution of women to disaster risk management in the Caribbean’, Dr Spence suggested that for far too long, the contribution of women to integral areas of disaster management has gone unrecognized.
“The contribution of women to the real and potential sustainability of Caribbean agriculture, and by extension food security of the region, is for the most part under recognized. Secondly, their contribution to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation has been under acknowledged as well. In other words, these factors which play such a critical role in building and developing the resilient capacity of the region, [are] very under acknowledged and appreciated,” he said.
According to Dr Spence, with the food import bill rising drastically within a number of Caribbean countries over the last several decades, home-grown farming, such as the use of kitchen gardens or planting crops in small plots of land within rural communities, has been predominantly utilized by female farmers.
“In spite of their under representation in agriculture, women’s contribution to the food value chain is unquestionable. Women are the owners and stewards of the backyard gardens which exist in the Caribbean region.
“These backyard gardens are actually the incubators for farming systems. This is where they are born and plant their first grain of crops. This is where farmers learn to be farmers, and they learn this from their mothers.
“It is these mothers who tend to the backyard gardens and take care of the children. Children like to get involved in what their mothers are doing, hence, it’s an important training ground.”
He continued: “Women are also the primary marketers of agriculture produce. So as a result, they are the generators of the market intelligence used to guide the production process. They are the main employers in agro processing, and as such, are the main contributors to the food chain.”
It is because of these underlying factors surrounding the agriculture sector in the region that Dr Spence believes that the role women can play in disaster risk management cannot be understated.
“Women are the executors of disaster risk reduction and climate change extension intervention because of their skill in community networking.
They are able to pass on the requisite information and knowledge to enhance our disaster risk reduction. Of course, they are important in rural poverty alleviation which reduces disaster vulnerability because of their ownership of small and micro enterprises,” he noted. (SB)