Posted on 31 May 2023
Last Friday, the Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme was launched in the Solomon Islands as a collaboration between the Solomon Islands Government, Australia Aid and UN Women. The WRD Programme is currently being implemented across the Pacific region and aims to “adopt gender-responsive decision-making and governance systems” and “enable targeted action to build the resilience of women and girls.”
Dr Alependava, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs, says that "due to inequalities, women and girls experience higher loss of livelihood during disasters and a longer recovery time.” The Solomon Islands is particularly vulnerable to floods, earthquakes and cyclones, and women and girls are disproportionality impacted by these natural disasters.
The programme will focus on the most at risk areas, including Malaita and the Central Province, and will prioritise improving early warning systems for these disasters. “Policy, planning and action should be prioritised to ensure that support systems are strengthened to reduce the risk and boost resilience,” says Dr Alepandava.