Professionals in the health sector have been asked to promote women's participation in risk communication to reduce inequalities and discriminatory practices for improved public health interventions.

Dr.  Dacosta Aboagye, who chairs the Risk Communication and Community Engagement of ECOWAS, believes ensuring gender equality in communicating risk will properly position the West African states for pandemics and health risk management.

He was speaking at a regional workshop on gender mainstreaming in risk communication and community engagement, organised with the financial support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the collaboration of GIZ through the Regional Pandemic Prevention Programme in ECOWAS.

A study into the integration of gender into RCCE plans and tools in the management of COVID-19 in nine ECOWAS member states showed gender was not being prioritized in the area.

For this reason, the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) intends to take up the challenge through its ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC) to ensure gender equality in infectious disease preparedness and response plans.

At the three day deliberations, the stakeholders shared gender mainstreaming initiatives and challenges at regional and national levels.

Representative of the Director General of WAHO, Dr. Babacar Fall, emphasized how gender mainstreaming can improve the management of infectious diseases.

“This justifies the holding of this regional workshop, which should provide our ECOWAS region with a roadmap that is both ambitious and realistic for the effective integration of the gender aspect into the RCCE," he said.

On behalf of GIZ-RPPP, Ms Massa Mamey observed gender has long been misunderstood, but is now considered a cross-cutting skill, which is crucial in the fight against epidemics and pandemics.

The event made recommendations that aimed at filling gender gaps in risk communication in the sub-region.