Gender%20and%20Climate%20Change

1
Gender and Climate Change
Why Womens Perspectives Matter January 2009
2
Outline

• What is Climate Change
• Why Gender and Climate Change
• Impacts of Climate Change on Gender
• Women are essential to climate solutions
• What is WEDO doing

3
Source IPCC, 2007
4
Figure 3.1
Source IPCC, 2007
5
Source Center for Research on the Epidemiology
of Disasters (CRED)
6
Climate change is not gender neutral
Woman coping with flooded homestead Source WEDO/
ActionAid Bangladesh, Gender, Climate Change and
Human Security, 2008
WEDO 2008
7

• Gender inequalities remain pervasive in
• most of the world

• Of the 1.3 billion people living in the deepest
  levels poverty worldwide, the majority are women
  (70)
• Women work 2/3rds of the worlds hours
• Women produce 1/2 the worlds food in rural
  areas, women produce 60-80 of staple crops
• And yet, women earn only 10 of the worlds
  income and own less than 2 of property

8
Climate change worsens gender inequities

• Feminization of poverty and gendered divisions of
  labor?
• clear differences in how climate change impacts
  women and men, and their respective capacities
  for coping
• Existing conditions and existing discrimination
  determine who is most impacted by natural
  disasters

9
The Impacts of Climate Change on Women
WEDO 2008
10
Climate Change Exacerbates the Cycle of Poverty
WEDO 2008
11
Womens Adaptive Capacity

• Women have been adapting to swift environmental
  changes for decades.
• Climate change introduces a new constraint on
  their capacity to adapt

WEDO 2008
12
Why Women are Essential
Womens coping ability is often a measure of
their communitys capacity to adapt.

• Women were the first to find potable water during
  a prolonged drought in Micronesia
• Wangari Maathai successfully implemented the
  Greenbelt Movement, now one of the leading
  worldwide climate change projects

13
Why Women are Essential contd

• When women are leaders they can address the
  specific needs of the women and their families.

Kunderpara Village, BangladeshSahena Begum If
women are aware then families can be saved from
many losses. and the women themselves are saved
from a lot of suffering.
Oxfam 2008 Sisters on the Planet video
14
Why Women are Essential contd

• When financing programs for climate
• change adaptation have specific parameters
• for women, women are able to lead their
• communities in increased adaptive capacity

WEDO 2008
15
Why Women are Essential contd

• Women who are active in policy advocacy
• can influence effective, gender-responsive
• legislation in their local governments.

Khawla Al Sheikh explains that her role in
alleviating the scarcity of water is important
because only a woman can sell to a woman and
she believes that thats why her initiative has
been successful.
http//jordan.usaid.gov/features_disp.cfm?id72ty
pesuccess
16
Gender climate change The global policy
framework
Source Kushal Gangopadhyay, 1999, West Bengal,
India UNCCD
17
Gender Climate Change

• Every major global agreement now includes a
  gender component
• United Nations charter (1945)
• Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
  Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1979)
• Convention on Biodiversity (1992)
• Chapter 24 of Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992)
• World Conference on Human Rights (1993)
• International Conference on Population and
  Development (1994)
• Convention to Combat Desertification (1994)
• World Summit for Social Development (1995)
• Beijing Platform for Action (1995)
• Millennium Declaration (2000)
• Johannesburg Plan of Action (2002)
• Hyogo Framework for Action (2005)

18
Gender Climate Change

• Except one
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
  Change (UNFCCC)
• Kyoto Protocol

19
Gender climate change
Seeking a rights-based, gender-sensitive approach
to climate change decision-making, financing and
implementation of activities challenging
market-based solutions and mobilizing women as
leaders
Woman gathering firewood in drought stricken
area, Ethiopia. Source UN/ E . Debebe
20
WEDOs Gender and Climate Change Initiative

• WEDOs Gender and Climate Change Initiative
  advocates for the inclusion of gender through
  these projects and campaigns
• National Advocacy Project
• Women in Governance for Climate Change
• Case studies on Gender and Adaptation Financing
• Women Demand U.S. Action on Climate Change
  campaign

21
National Advocacy Project

• Partnering with womens organizations,
• environmental and/or development organizations,
• and government representatives in developing
• countries WEDO and our partners seek to
• incorporate gender into climate change policies,
• particularly adaptation plans and implementation
  of
• activities

22
National Advocacy Project

• Phase I countries Ghana, Senegal, Nepal,
  Trinidad-and-Tobago, and Suriname
• Activities of this project
• Conduct country case studies with partners
• Develop Action Plans for each country

23
Women in Governance for Climate Change

• WEDO is identifying women leaders and asking them
  to make a commitment to gender and climate change
  in their own work.
• Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and
  Governance
• WEDO and several others partnered on a conference
  for women leaders on Gender in Climate Change and
  Disaster Risk Reduction
• Manila Declaration for Global Action on Gender in
  Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction

24
(No Transcript)
25
Gender and Adaptation Financing

• WEDO is challenging the dominant approach to
• climate change adaptation and mitigation that
• prioritizes market-based solutions over policies
• that will protect the most vulnerable.
• At this years UNFCCC Conference on Parties WEDO
  presented a report on Gender and Adaptation
  Financing.

26
(No Transcript)
27
Women Demand U.S. Action on Climate Change
Campaign

• Recognizing the influence the United
• States has on international climate change
• negotiations WEDO launched this
• campaign to mobilize U.S. women to
• advocate for U.S. legislation on climate
• change domestically and U.S. participation
• in climate change negotiations
• internationally

28
Women Demand U.S. Action on Climate Change
Campaign

• Activities of this project
• Provide partners and activists with gender and
  climate change educational and advocacy tools
• Engage women activists in climate change advocacy
  activities
• Connect partners to global gender and climate
  change advocacy efforts through From Katrina to
  Copenhagen events

29
Bringing Women to Global Climate Change
Negotiations

• WEDO is also a founding member of the Global
  Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA)
• The GGCA was formed in December 2007 after the
  Bali talks with IUCN, UNDP, and UNEP to ensure
  that climate change policies, decision-making,
  and initiatives at the global, regional, and
  national levels are gender responsive
• As a member of the GGCA WEDO will bring lessons
  learned from our national projects to the global
  arena to influence global climate change policy
  and decision-making

30
Thank You!!!
For More Information Please Contact WEDO wedo_at_w
edo.org 212-973-0325 You can also
visit our website http//www.wedo.org