Conversation on Gender Equality, Women’s Leadership, and Food Security: Perspectives From the Caribbean

ParlAmericas Podcast

This episode was recorded during the 7th Gathering of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Network on Climate Change and the 15th Gathering of the Parliamentary Network on Gender Equality, A Food Secure Future: Building People and Planet-centred Strategies, held in September 2023, in Mexico City, Mexico.

In the session, moderated by Member of Parliament Tamika Davis (Jamaica), the panellist, Nadia Manning-Thomas, Planning and Coordination Specialist and Thematic Lead on Climate Change, Disaster Risk Resilience and Humanitarian Action at UN Women Multi-Country Office-Caribbean in Barbados, focused on the main challenges women face related to food security and sovereignty.

Nadia Manning-Thomas works for the UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean as a Planning and Coordination Specialist for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and as a specialist on Climate Change, Disaster Risk Resilience and Humanitarian Action across the MCO’s 22 English and Dutch speaking countries of the Caribbean. Nadia has a BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Grinnell College (USA) and an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Reading (UK). A national of Barbados, Nadia has over 25 years of experience spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean with a career focused on researching and implementing development pathways; with a particular focus on well-coordinated and collaborative human-centered development, agriculture and food systems, climate resilience and adaptation, and knowledge sharing and capacity development.

UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women in the region, supporting governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls as well as making women’s equal participation in all aspects of life a reality.