• Sat. Nov 2nd, 2024

JCED, CADECOM mobilize women to be climate change mitigation champions

In March 2023 when Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit 11 districts in Southern Malawi, women paid the highest price because of their role of primary caregivers and providers of food for their families.

This underscores the pivotal role women play in managing the aftermath of climate emergencies. And as the United Nations (UN) acknowledges, women and girls are holding the sharpest end of the knife during and after the occurrence of the disasters.

Surprisingly, duty-bearers rarely consult them when designing disaster risk management (DRM) plans. This is largely because, historically, these programmes have promoted greater involvement of men than women.

Esmie Nyirenda, 42, says this trend is still evident in Kampaliro Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kaluluma in Kasungu and many other communities across the country.

Nyirenda blamed this on the power imbalance between men and women.

“In most rural communities, women dedicate around six hours to agricultural activities and spend the next six hours doing domestic work each day. On the other hand, men spend about five hours to farming and barely one hour doing domestic tasks,” she narrated.

Nyirenda said this prevents most women from participating in DRM training and/or decision-making in their communities.

With financial support from Trocaire Malawi, the Jesuit Centre for Ecology and Development (JCED) and the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM/Caritas Malawi) have started empowering women with knowledge and skills that will enable them lobby for their integration when communities are recovering, reconstructing, preparing, and building resilience against natural disasters.

Speaking at the end of a three-day training for the Catholic Women Associations (CWAs), which took place at Msamba Catholic Centre in Lilongwe recently, JCED Executive Director Reuben Chifundo Nazombe, said his organization believes that women can and do play a critical role in DRM.

“We strongly believe that when women do, they improve resilience for the whole community. And that’s why we want women and girls to be at the discussion table when strategies are being developed to mitigate against disasters so that when emergencies happen, we understand how they can be supported,” said Nazombe. “Women should have the opportunity to present their side of the story, bring solutions, and be incorporated into responses. This has to be central to climate change policy at all levels.”

In her remarks, the National Coordinator for CADECOM/Caritas Malawi, Chimwemwe Sakunda-Ndhlovu, warned that extreme weather events will become more frequent and severe in Malawi, a situation that will also increase disaster risks.

Sakunda-Ndhlovu added that climate change is likely to worsen social and economic inequalities particularly affecting women, children and the poor.

“And the fact that women are both the ‘villain and the hero’ in the climate change equation because they are both destroyers of the environment, so they must also take responsibility to restore it,” she said.

CWA Board Member Lucy Vokhiwa said while the Catholic women do recognize their role in disaster risk management and in building the resilience of their communities, this role is still subject to structural inequalities that place greater pressure on their productive and reproductive roles in the household.

Vokhiwa said a conscious approach to programming DRM activities is crucial so that women and marginalized groups are included in spaces that affect their lives, as well as ensuring there is not an additional burden of workload on women or reinforcement of gender stereotypes.

She therefore commended JCED and Caritas Malawi for coming up with a project, which will help in highlighting women as champions in DRM.

“Eventually, this will provide an entry point to wider socio-economic change, and begin conversations on gender norms and social inequalities that drive disaster vulnerability,” narrated Vokhiwa.

She, however, expressed disappointment with the decision by the High Court to grant an order to 11 manufacturers stopping the Malawi Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) from enforcing a ban on single-use thin plastics.

She said the association is intending to join the case as friends of the court in pushing for the enforcement of the ban on thin plastics in Malawi, warning that any delays to stop use of thin plastics will negatively impact the country.

“We are all aware that thin plastics, or plastics in general, are one of the main factors that are contributing to the degradation of the air. So as CWA, and all the Catholic women, are some of the biggest users of plastics. Thus, we have to stop join a campaign against the use of plastics and get alternatives,” she said, further challenging CWA members to heed the call by Pope Francis in his letter, Laudato Si, which emphasizes the need for the church to take a greater role in protecting and caring for the environment.

In his remarks, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Secretary General (SG) Father Valeriano Mtseka challenged women to assume a greater role in mitigating effects of climate change instead of being victims of harsh climatic conditions.

Mtseka said with the occurrence of natural disasters rising annually, there is a need for collaboration in mitigating their impacts.

“And it’s pleasing to know that CWA has taken up this role. We expect that through their action, they will be able to influence other people so that they also come to understand that each one of us has a responsibility to restore the environment, and to make sure that we curb the climatic conditions that bring a lot of chaos on our side,” he said.

Mtseka disclosed that the Catholic Church in Malawi will work closely with the association in mitigating the impacts of climate change.

He said the church will, among others, help the association in raising resources for the implementation of the intervention.

“In terms of raising some funds, we could, in this case, ask each parish to have one Sunday for collection, to make sure that we support these efforts. And I’m sure that little by little, we will be able to come to that. And now that we are in the system of creation this year, we can do something little next year. We’ll continue from there, and we make sure that each one is responsible, to make sure that nature is brought back to each situation,” he said.

JCED and CADECOM/Caritas Malawi said they expect the trained women to lead a campaign in their respective communities about the need to restore the environment by planting more trees and caring for them.

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