NDMA Headquarters, January 27th, 2023 – The Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs has completed a two-day capacity building training on gender mainstreaming for the management and staff of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA).
On January 19th, 2023, the President of Sierra Leone, His Excellency Brig. Rtd. Dr Julius Maada Bio signed into law the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE Act 2022) which increases the minimum quota of elective and appointive public officer positions for women to 30%.
The Gender Act of 2022 aims at mainstreaming the gender requirements across all sectoral policies and legal frameworks; gender-responsive budgeting, and gender units in every planning directorate within MDAs, and creates a multi-sectoral Gender Steering Committee to oversee the implementation of the GEWE Act.
The training focused on topics ranging from the concept and importance of gender in disaster management to critical issues such as the sensitivity of gender mainstreaming in disaster response, identification & addressing of gender gaps, gender and sex needs of disaster victims, and the establishment of gender unit within the NDMA.
The NDMA Director General, Lt. Gen. Rtd. Brima B. Sesay said gender mainstreaming within the NDMA will not only promote gender inclusion, representation and participation, but will also enable disaster managers and humanitarian responders to meet the gender needs of every victim within the disaster management circle.
“This training will capacitate the staff of NDMA in applying gender posture within every aspect of the disaster management circle, especially in communications, risk reduction and relief & response activities.” He added.
The NDMA Deputy Director General, Mr John V. Rogers, disclosed that the whole gender mainstreaming idea will enhance equality and equity, preventing exclusion and inclusion errors in disaster management.
“A common error in providing humanitarian assistance to disaster victims is the exclusion & inclusion error. This can happen when an assessment fails to capture any of the details relating to the gender, sex and disability of the affected victims.” He explained.
The two lead facilitators, Madam Anita E. Momoh of the Ministry of Gender & Children’s Affairs and Madam Mariama J. Koiyai of UN Women were able to deliver their pieces training with lots of scenarios, group works, and mentoring sessions.
The two facilitators expressed their gratitude to the management and staff of the NDMA for the commitment exhibited throughout the training. They encouraged the NDMA to ensure gender parity is always considered in the administration of the Agency.
The NDMA Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, who happens to be NDMA’s Gender Focal Person, Madam Agnes Farma thanked the facilitators on behalf of the Agency and assured the facilitators of NDMA’s resolved to maintain gender equity at all times.
