ZAMORANO, through the Department of Environment and Development, and the Food World Programme (WFP) offered a workshop on Risk Management and Adaptation to Variability and Climate Change with Gender and Nutritional Food Security Focus addressed to members of the government, local organizations or municipalities and technicians that work on agricultural extension in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Each workshop consists of 8 days of classroom seminars and 12 weeks of online learning. The participants are trained to share their knowledge in their communities.
The program consists of three workshops
The workshop is part of a program that includes three types of courses for three different target audiences. The next course will be for smallholder farmers’ lots or producers that want their productive systems to be more resilient to climate change. The third one is a diplomaed for professionals that work in government and non-governmental organizations.
The program approaches food security with the participants pondering on several factors (river watershed degradation, variability, climate change and others) that make the productive systems fragile. ZAMORANO´s contribution is providing the technical bases for the participants to have a better understanding on the external climate factors that can affect the productive systems. Aspects such as the management of hydrographic watersheds can strengthen the resilience in their communities.
The focus on gender is a transversal topic in each element of the program. When addressing the issues, equality is encouraged, so that men and women can reduce their vulnerability over the adverse effects of the variability and climate change.
How a woman is vulnerable to climate change?
Usually, on the rural productive systems, women have less access to resources that sustain production. The land is normally under men´s hands, which limits the women in their access to credit and education, and ultimately makes them more vulnerable than men.
The program covers risk management against disasters, with an emphasis on hydro climatic disasters (droughts or floods). Studies show that women are affected more by the roles they play within the family context and tend to be slower to recover from an extreme event.
Organizations represented at the workshop
Manuel A. Gómez
Work area: Choluteca, Honduras
Position: Technical Field Assistant
Representative of the Asociación de Desarrollo Triunfeño (ADETRIUN)
“ADETRIUN from El Triunfo, tackles the climate change subject with international organizations such as WFP and offers credit to purchase agricultural materials o for a community development project,” said Manuel.
Angel G. Mejia
Work Areas: Choluteca and El Paraíso
Position: Technical Liaison for Project “Response to the El Niño Phenomenon in the Dry Corridor of Central America”
Representative of the Instituto de Conservación Forestal (ICF)
“I work at the project for the declaration of seven micro-watersheds as a forest protection zone to protect their hydric resource. I hope to include everything I learned in this course in our plan of action,” Angel explained.
Ricardo Castro
Work Areas: Choluteca and El Paraíso
Representative of the Asociación de Comités Ecológicos del Sur de Honduras (ASES)
“Our activities on the field are focused on the protection of natural resources, soil conservation, producers on agro forestry practices, amongst others. This course will strengthen our technical capacity to help our communities,” stated Ricardo.
ZAMORANO thanks the WFP, for trusting our university to carry out this program.
See gallety: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmjMWJNf
