Transcript No Slide Title

Integrating Gender issues into Climate
Change Adaptation: National and
Regional policy making and planning
ECOWAS Regional Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change
in West Africa, Cotonou, Benin 18 -22 October 2008
Dr. Janet Kabeberi-Macharia
Senior Adviser on Gender, UNEP
Introduction
The IPCC in 2001 noted that
“ Climate change impacts will be differently
distributed among different regions,
generations, age, classes, income groups
occupations and genders”.
Gender and Climate Change:UNEP
2008
Developing countries bear the brunt of
climate change impacts:
• development is constrained, increasing poverty
levels and delays in achievement of MDGs
• living conditions and livelihoods are harmed,
increasing inequities in health, access to water, food
sources of energy.
• increasing human costs particularly for the poor who
are heavily dependent on the environment for
survival.
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CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND
VULNERABILITIES IN AFRICA
Vulnerability refers to
“the degree to which a system is
susceptible to, or unable to cope
with the adverse effects of climate
change”
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Vulnerability occurs
disproportionately
•Who or what are
vulnerable to the
impacts of climate
change?
•What social, physical,
and environmental
factors make them
vulnerable?
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•
Africa is one of the most vulnerable
continents to climate change; already
under pressure from climate stresses –
variable climates in many areas
•
Africa’s vulnerability is increased by
climate-dependency of major economic
sectors and by existing development
challenges
•
African women by virtue of their
reproductive and productive roles are more
vulnerable to impacts of Climate Change
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Examples
•
Water: Population at risk of
increased water stress 75-200
million people by 2020
– potential for conflicts
•
Agriculture: Production will
be compromised in many
African countries due to
loss of land, shorter growing
seasons, lower yields
– risk of increasing food
insecurity
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Human health:
•
Changing geographical distribution of
disease vectors, malnutrition, floods and
heat-waves.
•
Africa accounts for 90% of global malaria
cases and over 90% of cholera cases,
while nearly half of Africans lack adequate
access to sanitation and clean water
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Coastal zones:
• Future sea level rise may
have significant impacts
on African coastlines.
• Threaten people,
infrastructure and
coastal ecosystems
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WHY GENDER AND CLIMATE
CHANGE?
The intricate links between gender,
environment, climate change and related
disasters are complex.
• Women and men experience climate
change differently.
• Their experiences, needs, rights and the
options available to them differ according
to socio-culturally defined gender roles.
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•
The division of labour between men and
women often determines how men and
women will adapt to environmental
challenges posed by climate change
•
A distinction needs to be made in the way
both genders relate to and deal with natural
resources
•
Access to and the control over natural
resources determines the financial and
physical security of women and their
families, and ultimately their survival.
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• Climate change related disasters
conflicts radically change gender
roles
and
• Women may be forced to undertake
traditionally male roles yet existing
legal or societal norms prevent them
from fully undertaking these
roles
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Gender Issues in Adaptation
• To what extent are gender concerns fully
integrated into specific assessment tools
and methodologies to assess ecosystem
vulnerability.
•
To what extent does a focus on
community knowledge on climate change
adaptation take into consideration
women’s knowledge?
•
To what extent is women’s knowledge
harnessed to inform planning and
responses for disaster risk reduction and
climate change science?
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Cross-cutting gender issues
Poverty
• Increase in female headed households
• Illiteracy, poor infrastructure, health
inequities
• Gendered impact of poverty and how this
impacts on climate change adaptation
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• Gendered roles and responsibilities
– leading to increased dependency on
nature
– lack of access to resources
– differences in attitudes, needs,
consumption, also determined by
geographical and an socio economic
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Control and Access to resources
Climate change and disasters highlight existing
gender inequalities:
•
unequal distribution of land property rights
and access to land or resources which
constrains women’s decision making abilities
in the absence of a male owner
•
In many African societies men generally
control the access to, use and ownership of
natural resources.
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• In many societies, traditional legal systems
and customary rights prevent widowed or
single women from having formal access to
or control over land, water or other
resources.
• Without ownership or rights, women are
systematically excluded from decisionmaking. They have no voice and their
needs are not taken into account.
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Recommendations
• Development of new structures of
environmental governance to afford
opportunities for changing laws and
societal attitudes.
• Gender inclusiveness in the access to,
usage and ownership of natural
resources, resulting in greater equality in
other areas.
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Sex and gender disaggregated data
•
To enable the integration of gender
concerns into adaptation policies and
strategies
•
Provide analysis of the extent to which
power relations / power structures in the
family or community influence coping
mechanisms
•
Provide analysis of the extent to which
ownership and utilisation of natural
resources determines women’s ability to
apply their knowledge on adaptation
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• Men and women have to be
involved in developing adaptation
strategies or coping mechanisms.
• Gender sensitive communication
strategy to be integrated into
awareness campaigns
• Gender sensitive monitoring
indicators to be integrated into
overall indicators
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Sharing good
practices:
Water conservation,
water harvesting and
storage, better
management of supply
systems.
This has reduced the
burden on women and
girls in looking for water
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• Building institutional capacity on
gender mainstreaming
• Training for adaptation practitioners
on gender and climate change link
• Development of gender responsive
proactive vs reactive strategies
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Thank you
Gender and Climate Change:UNEP
2008