The Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) has urged stakeholders in Mangochi to invest in capacity building on gender equality and climate change to advance on gender-responsiveness when addressing effects of climate change in the district.
Speaking at the opening of a five-day training workshop on Monday, Dean of faculty for Natural Resources at LUANAR, Daniel Skana, said climate change affects various groups of people differently, where women, children, and other minority groups are more vulnerable.
In our assessment, we observed that impact of climate change is different on men, women and youths. For example, in Malawi, whenever there ares floods, it is women that get more affected, as they travel long distances to collect food as well as firewood.
We however discovered that when interventions are going on the ground to deal with the impact, they are just general interventions as they normally do not deal with the different impact and effects of these disasters on these vulnerable groups, he said.
Skana added that capacity building on gender and climate change is very important for duty bearers to customize solutions that are suitable to the most vulnerable groups.
There is need for stakeholders to invest more on capacity building in order to strengthen the most vulnerable groups so that the society becomes more resilient to the impact, he said.
In her remarks, Professor at University of Iceland, Dr. Irma Erlingsdottir, said that University of Iceland established partnerships with different universities across Africa, including LUANAR to address gaps on gender inequality and climate change.
She said that Iceland has been sponsoring LUANAR on gender equality studies and training programmes since 2013.
LUANAR organised the stakeholders training workshop in Mangochi with financial support from the University of Iceland.