Women continue to be “more vulnerable” to the impacts of disaster, but in some countries its men who are more of a concern.

That was one of the surprising perspectives to emerge from a discussion on the empowerment of women and girls, which took place at the recent Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas, in Canada.

Virginia Clerveaux, Director of the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies for the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, said that her government’s been trying to empower more men, following years of successfully encouraging women into disaster preparedness.

Matthew Wells caught up with her after the session, along with Jacinda Fairholm, Regional Adviser in Disaster Risk Reduction for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), based in Panama.

Duration: 4’53”