The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) through the Regional Association I (RA I) Africa organized a one-day online meeting on Gender Policy Framework on 08 March 2021 (International Women’s Day) to assess progress made to date in the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Africa, in order to address gender equality..
At the end of the one-day workshop, the group identified challenges and gaps which still existed together with some best practices which can be used in the development of implementation plan or roadmap in RA 1.
The workshop agreed to further;
- Maintain and progressively expand a network of female experts in weather, climate, water and environmental sciences engaged in the work of RAI and WMO; - Encourage NMHSs to mainstream Gender Equality Policy and Action Plans in their operations plan and increase the proportion of appropriately skilled women in decision-making positions as well as a nomination for the award of scholarships and fellowships;
- Encourage the girl child to specialize in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) from an early age;
- Develop and deliver disaggregated gender-sensitive weather, water and climate services to foster resilience building, particularly in key sectors that include agriculture and food security, water resources, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and public health;
- Nominate Gender focal points and maintain a network of Gender focal points to compile regular statistics on gender balance to beshared with the Regional Coordinator;
- Ensure inter-regional cooperation and sharing of best practices on Gender issues in NMHSs;
- Promote the use of gender-neutral language in the documentation and oral presentations to ensure the fair perception of both women and men;
- Promote access of women to decision-making at various levels and institutional departments (horizontal and vertical);
- Ensure the participation of NMHSs Gender Focal Persons to National and Regional gender programs and initiatives:
- Devise strategies to improve the equal participation of women in the work of RA I bodies, including leadership positions and a rotational basis could be considered to attain this objective:
- Facilitate and promote the organization of regional and sub-regional gender equality conferences, forums and events on the gender-specific dimensions of weather, hydrological, climate and environmental services;