Call for attaching priority to rehabilitation of vulnerable segments during natural calamities
PESHAWAR
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in collaboration with Islamic Relief Pakistan and Network of Disaster Management Practitioners (NDMP) has organized a one-day consultation workshop on “Gender and safeguarding in response and early recovery phases of the flood emergency 2022” at PDMA HQ Peshawar.
Representatives from Districts, Social Welfare Department KP, Social work Department, Academia, UN, Non-government organizations, Gender Studies Department, University of Peshawar, NHN and other humanitarian partners participated in this consultation workshop.
The purpose of organizing this consultation workshop was to discuss and share experiences of gender issues encountered during the response and early recovery process of flood 2022.
Speaking on the occasion PDMA Director Disaster Risk Management (DRM), Muhammad Amin said as we all are aware that our province is exposed to various natural disasters which lead to deaths, fatal injuries, trauma, damage to property and environmental degradation. Among these hazards, flood is a frequently recurring phenomenon, The recent floods of 2022 is the example where beside the riverine floods, the flash floods caused considerable damages to lives and properties thus badly affecting the economy and ecosystem at least once in every five years.
Although flood can damage every walk of life however its impact can widely be seen to the comparatively vulnerable segment of the societies that include children, women, persons with disabilities, elderly people, transgender and other marginalized groups.
Among them the women and adolescent girls are more vulnerable that suffer from the disasters due to a number of contributing factors, Therefore, there is a need to learn from previous disasters and to strengthen their capacities to proactively participate and ensure that they are not victims during an emergency situation.
Gender integration in policies, plans, and strategies is important to align priority groups as per needs to allocate resources and make strategic framework for the vulnerable groups including women, children, persons with disabilities.
