Gender and Climate Change Anju Sharma (Head, Publications and Policy Analysis Unit, ecbi)

1. ecbi european capacity building initiative initiative européenne de renforcement des capacités Gender and Climate Change Anju Sharma (Head, Publications and Policy Analysis Unit, ecbi) for sustained capacity building in support of international climate change negotiations pour un renforcement durable des capacités en appui aux négociations internationales sur les changements climatiques

2. 70% of those who live on less than a dollar a day are women 75% of the illiterate adults in the world are women The vulnerability and capacity of a social group to adapt or change depends on their assets. Women tend to have less or limited access to assets (physical, financial, human, social and natural capital). Gender inequalities exist in the access to valuable resources such as land, health care, food, education, training, knowledge, credit, agricultural inputs, technology, and decision-making power. Climate change exacerbates the condition of women, and their ability to deal with it. An analysis of credit schemes in five African countries found that women received less than 10% of the credit awarded to male smallholders In developing countries, women produce 60-80% of the food despite lack of access to farmland, low level of technological training and knowledge, and lack of financial assistance

3. Agenda 21 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992); the World Conference on Human Rights (1993); the Beijing Platform for Action (4th World Conference on Women, 1995); the 1997 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW); the Millennium Declaration (2000); the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), 2002); the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD); and the Hyogo Framework for Action (World Conference on Disaster Reduction, 2005) The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol have no specific language related to gender. However, 187 out of the 195 UNFCCC Parties have signed CEDAW, adopted by the UNGA in 1979. An Optional Protocol to CEDAW, adopted in December 1999, establishes procedures whereby women may file complaints requesting investigation of violations of rights. The High Court of Tanzania used CEDAW provisions to overrule elements of customary law which denied women the right to inherit and sell land

4. Nepal’s NBSAP proposes the formation of separate groups for men and women to ensure active participation by women. CBD and the UNCCD are relatively more advanced in the mainstreaming of equality and equity considerations. UNCCD established an early link between the environmental situation, gender equality and social participation. However, gender and the role of women is frequently viewed as no more than rhetoric, with a vacuum in terms of concrete activities – perhaps as a result of limited capacity. CBD appointed a gender focal point in 2008, and adopted a Gender Plan of Action in 2008, for the 2008-2012 period. One of the main results will be the development of a Gender and Biodiversity Web Portal and the design and dissemination of guidelines to incorporate gender considerations into the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP).

5. GENDER AND MITIGATION Women have a key role in ensuring energy supply and security at the household level; carbon capture, fixing or sequestration through forestry/ REDD; and sustainable consumption. Because of the technical nature of the mitigation negotiations; or because women are seen mainly in the context of their ‘vulnerability’, instead of major environmental and agricultural producers in the world? They are mainly absent from international and national dialogues on mitigation. They are poorly represented in planning and decision-making processes in climate change policies, limiting their capacity to engage in political decisions. A COP decision was taken in Marrakesh (2001) on promoting women’s participation in UNFCCC meetings and the Secretariat – but the participation of women in official delegations is still limited (28%), particularly as heads of delegation (15%)

6. During the Bangladesh cyclone of 1991, early warning signals did not reach large numbers of women. The information was passed through the market places, to which many women do not have easy access. Of the 140,000 people who died, 90% were women GENDER AND ADAPTATION Both women and men are affected by climate change, but existing inequalities determine who is most impacted by natural disasters. Factors responsible for the greater vulnerability of women: environmental, physical, economic, and social which includes: political, ideological and cultural, educational, institutional and organisational. Men and women have different needs and interests in adaptation efforts. Women bring unique perspectives and knowledge essential for adaptation measures and policies. Limited attention to gender participation/ elements in the NAPAs. Need to take on gender-related lessons from the disaster risk management community.

7. Thousands of women technicians have been trained by Grameen Shakti, an NGO in Bangladesh, to install, manage and repair solar home systems. They have been instrumental in the rapid take-up of solar power systems in the country. GENDER AND TECHNOLOGY Every aspect of technological intervention including needs, information, enabling environments, capacity building and technology transfer has a gender component which will affect its final outcome. Agencies involved in climate related technologies – such as the GEF – have mostly overlooked the degree of difference in the technology needs and preferences of climate change on women and men.

8. GENDER AND CLIMATE FINANCE • Not a single woman in the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing! • Women’s access to climate finance affected by many of the elements that affect access by other vulnerable sections of society – including: • fragmentation and complexity. Greater coherence and simplification of processes will enable women to participate more effectively. • centralised decision-making with lack of adequate representation/democratic deficit. limited participation of key stakeholders in the formulation, design, implementation and monitoring of the projects and programmes financed. • bias towards mitigation and large-scale capital intensive energy projects. Fewer community-based; subsistence based; sustainable transport; integrated ecosystem management projects. • private sector and market based mechanisms. The private sector tends to ignore the impacts of its actions on women’s land-use options, incomes and livelihoods, food affordability and the related cost of living including the price of land. Women’s involvement in the carbon market is limited. • threat of rebranding development finance. Gender equality interventions in many poor developing countries have been highly dependent on aid and public finance streams A World Bank review of 121 rural water supply projects found that women’s participation was among the variables strongly associated with project effectiveness. Failure to take gender differences and inequalities into account could result in failed projects

9. The Adaptation Fund Board, at its 11th meeting, committed to take gender considerations into account in the revised Operational Policies and Guidelines.  • The Project and Programme Review Criteria ask: • Does the project / programme provide economic, social and environmental benefits, with particular reference to the most vulnerable communities, including gender considerations? • Are relevant targets and indicators disaggregated by sex? • The Template or Project/Programme Proposals requests countries to: • Describe how the project/programme provides economic, social and environmental benefits, with particular reference to the most vulnerable communities, and groups within communities, including gender considerations. • Describe the consultative process, including the list of stakeholders consulted, undertaken during project preparation, with particular reference to vulnerable groups, including gender considerations. • Instructions for Preparing a Request for Project/ Programme Funding from the Adaptation Fund instruct program countries to: • List the stakeholders consulted, including vulnerable communities, including gender considerations, and the methods of consultation. • Specify how typically marginalised groups, such as women, will be involved in and benefit from the project/programme. • Include monitoring and evaluation arrangements including budgeted M&E plan and sex disaggregated targets and indicators.

10. The Green Climate Fund has an opportunity integrate a gender perspective from the outset, with a gender policy and gender implementation plan of action to guide its policies, procedures and structures. • In addition to the elements adopted by the AF, it should ensure: • Coherence and simplicity in access, by government and non-government actors • Direct access, to promote country / stakeholder ownership – and access by sub-national groups from civil society • Mainstreaming with existing development processes and gender sensitive polices • At least 50% of the funds for adaptation • ‘Additionality’ to development finance • A redress or appeals mechanism for all stakeholders, including women • Only a supplementary role for the private sector, with safeguards in place to account for and mitigate the negative impacts of market actions on women’s access to resources such as land • Strengthened climate change communication, education, training and public awareness at all levels, taking into account gender-based differences in access to information and ensuring balanced representation of men and women • A focus on micro projects, including in agriculture and natural resource management • A focus also on mitigation activities that enhance women’s livelihoods and rights • Regular monitoring to ensure that gender objectives are being met.

11. With thanks to the Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change, produced by the Global Climate Change Alliance