WMO's Executive Council has given enthusiastic backing to a reinvigorated gender action plan to mainstream gender equality throughout the WMO community. This is a pre-requisite to enhancing the reach and effectiveness of meteorological, hydrological, and climate services globally.
WMO has made advances in recent years: Celeste Saulo is its first female Secretary-General and there are growing numbers of women who head National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. But women remain under-represented at senior levels of the WMO Secretariat, its constituent bodies and in science and technology in general.
Extreme weather and climate events have a disproportionate impact on women and children, and women don't have enough access to tools and knowledge to help them adapt - or a big enough role in decisions to build community resilience.
"Elevating women in leadership roles is a cause I hold dear. I am dedicated to empowering women in diverse roles, and to supporting our greater involvement in shaping weather and climate policy," said Dr. Cécile Siewe, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Meteorological Service of Canada and the new Executive Council Gender Focal Point - a new role which will be key to advance gender inclusion efforts at the highest level of WMO governance.
The WMO Gender Action Plan
Dr. Siewe outlined the strategic direction provided by the WMO Gender Action Plan, which was updated during the World Meteorological Congress in 2023.
It provides a comprehensive roadmap for mainstreaming gender equality across WMO and is structured around three core pillars:
- Strategic Planning: Integrating gender considerations into organizational goals, collecting and analyzing gender-disaggregated data, and regularly reporting on progress;
- Governance: Promoting diverse and inclusive leadership, with a target of 40% female representation in WMO governance bodies, and encouraging women's nominations for leadership roles;
- Capacity Development: Delivering gender equality training, creating leadership pathways for women, and supporting female students and early-career professionals.
There is a need for more progress: Of the 37 EC members, 27 (73%) are male and only 19 (27%) are female. On the different bodies which report to EC, the ratio is 64% to 36% men to women.
"Streamlining gender in everything we do is the only way to end up with better statistics than the ones we are showing today. It takes time and persistence," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
She said that WMO studies showing the impact sf climate and extreme events on women were not reflected in official EC documents.
"We need to mainstream those ideas into what we do, into every single decision to make sure that we are inclusive of all the different situations we have," she said.
Regional commitment, national examples
Presidents of WMO's different Regional Associations spoke up in favour of the gender action plan and to elevating more women to the management groups.
Other delegates stressed the need to encourage girls to take up science in education and to affirm them in their training and meteorological careers.
"In the case of West Africa and Africa in general, women need role models. Because when women have role models, it encourages them to aspire to be like those figures," said Dr Mariam TIDIGA, the first woman to be head of the national meteorological and hydrological service in Burkina Faso - after 15 men.
"I started in the aviation sector, and then moved into science, into WMO, and now into leadership," she said, calling on more sustained national measures to ensure that women can be appointed to top positions.
Upcoming activities
As EC Gender Focal Point, Dr. Siewe will support the implementation and evolution of the Gender Action Plan in collaboration with the WMO Secretariat Gender Focal Point Coordinator.
Key upcoming activities include:
Establishing an online Community of Practice to facilitate the sharing of lessons learned, data, best practices, and resources among Gender Focal Points from all six WMO Regions;
Supporting the development of a mentoring programme to connect early-career women professionals with experienced mentors, encouraging both women and men to participate;
Expanding outreach efforts to inspire youth, especially girls, to pursue careers in meteorology, hydrology, and climatology, while highlighting the contributions and achievements of women in these fields.
"We know that we are not starting from scratch. There are already a lot of activities happening in parts of the organization, in different countries, and NMHSs. Our goal would be to leverage that, ensuring that there is coordination, and see how we can learn from each other," said Dr. Siewe.
More on WMO's work on Gender Equality .
