A World Bank report on gender assessment notes that conflicts, climate change and natural disasters continue to pose challenges, especially for women, in Mozambique, Radio Moçambique reported on Friday 31 May.
The document also states that climate and natural disasters have a greater impact on the health of women and girls and points out that continuing to empower women to gain greater control over their lives may be the key to achieving gender equality.
For the World Bank’s Senior Social Development Specialist in Mozambique, Hiska Reyes, reducing risky sexual behaviour in girls and women can mitigate teenage pregnancies, including HIV/AIDS.
‘We have concluded that there are five key priority areas where multi-sectoral and targeted action is needed. The first is reducing child marriage and teenage pregnancy and keeping girls in school. The second area of focus must be increasing women’s economic opportunities and agricultural productivity. Thirdly, reducing high fertility rates, improving the sexual, reproductive and maternal health of women and girls and reducing the unequal burden of HIV/AIDS. For the fourth point, we recommend focussing attention on reducing the high rates of gender-based violence and improving the quality of and access to support services,’ she pointed out, stressing that ’finally, we need to strengthen the resilience of women and girls to climate change, natural disasters and conflicts. We recommend specific, multi-sectoral approaches.
