COP18 (27/11/2012) – Ajum Assad Amin, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat of the National Disaster Management Authority in Pakistan, says that 9 out of 10 disasters happening in Pakistan are due to climate change, and that the country has been adversely affected by recurring floods, typhoons, cyclones and other disasters in the last 40 years.

She explains why Pakistani women are the first responders to these disasters, and describes how they need training and recognition of the role they play to be able to adapt better to climate change.

She describes the establishment of gender and child cells across national and provincial authorities in Pakistan to perform outreach activities, advocacy training and capacity building among women. These are consultative bodies, drawing on a range of stakeholder perspectives, and there has been increased focus in equipping women on a local level with the skills needed to more effectively combat these natural disasters.