Gender and Climate Change: Mapping the Linkages

This 27-page report, prepared for the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID), offers insights gleaned from existing resources integrating a gender-sensitive perspective into climate change research and responses. The authors: outline key linkages between climate change and gender inequality, identify gaps in the existing body of work on gender and the environment, review best practices on adaptation and mitigation, and offer recommendations regarding priority areas for future research. They conclude that there is an urgent need to identify obstacles to women's participation in decision-making, and find ways to address these constraints through supporting grassroots awareness-raising, confidence-building, and advocacy and leadership training programmes.

The paper is divided into three parts. The first part examines some of the differential impacts of climate change on men and women, as well as highlighting implications for gender in/equality. The second part takes a gendered approach to climate change adaptation, drawing particularly on a recent study from ActionAid and IDS which centres around economically poor, rural women's own experiences of and responses to climate change. The final section provides insights into the complexities of climate change mitigation. It emphasises the need to include women in developing and implementing mitigation strategies, both to ensure their full participation in these processes and to ensure that such strategies are effective in addressing the "bigger picture" of climate change and its human impacts.

The kernel of this article is that a gender-sensitive response requires more than a set of disaggregated data showing that climate change has differential impacts on women and men. Rather, it requires an understanding of existing inequalities between women and men, and of the ways in which climate change can exacerbate these inequalities. Conversely, it also requires an understanding of the ways in which these inequalities can intensify the impacts of climate change for all individuals and communities. For example, men may have greater access to vital information on climate change mitigation or adaptation strategies for cultural reasons, or because women are too busy with caring and other domestic responsibilities. This lack of information and lack of opportunity to feed their own knowledge into community or national-level adaptation and mitigation strategies could jeopardise larger processes of reducing climate change and its impacts. Gender sensitivity in consultation and decision-making is also essential for effective mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change, the authors argue. They say that, "[w]ith more participative processes, these strategies and interventions can truly identify and meet the needs of those they aim to assist....Yet women are more likely than men to be absent from decision-making, whether in the household or at community, national or international levels - either because their contribution is not valued or because they do not have the time, confidence or resources to contribute."

Amongst the constraining factors for women's participation in decision-making explored here are:

• economic dependency and a lack of adequate financial resources
• illiteracy and limited access to education and the same work opportunities as men
• discriminatory cultural and social attitudes and negative stereotypes perpetuated in the family and in public life
• burden of responsibilities in the home
• intimidation, harassment, and violence
• lack of access to information

Enabling factors for women's participation in public life and decision-making include:

• an awareness of their rights and how to claim them
• access to information about laws, policies, and the institutions and structures which govern their lives
• confidence, self-esteem, and the skills to challenge and confront existing power structures
• support networks and positive role models
• an enabling environment, meaning: a political, legal, economic and cultural climate that allows women to engage in decision-making processes in a sustainable and effective way

Several concrete strategies are outlined for tilting the balance so that enabling factors prevail. In terms of practical action, the authors urge governments and donors to invest in the capacity of people, particularly women and youth, to participate meaningfully in policy-making process through supporting advocacy and leadership training to build skills and confidence. They contend that this should be done in partnership with civil society organisations (CSOs) that already have considerable expertise in this area. This theme of collaboration is also reflected in their call for researchers and practitioners work together to enhance the participation of women, girls, and boys in decision-making on climate change – sharing learning and strategies, while being sensitive to both gender and age as cross-cutting variables in people's vulnerability to and capacity to manage and respond to risk. The document features several examples of cooperative efforts such as engaging a range of actors, including journalists and politicians, to change negative attitudes and to create a context that can support training for existing and potential women leaders in local and national elections. Similarly, the authors examine the provision of training in basic health and literacy skills and human rights education to give women confidence and skills to speak out about the issues that concern them. Lobbying of decision-makers to increase women's representation at all levels of government is also cited as an important strategy.

Suggested questions for future research include:

• What are the current levels of female participation in decision-making on climate change at local, national, regional and international levels?
• What are the barriers to women being heard?
• What are the gendered impacts, coping strategies, and adaptation priorities of women and men in urban contexts?
• What best practices exist for gender-sensitive responses to climate-change related disasters, conflict, and displacement?

In conclusion, the authors contend that "There is thus an urgent need to clearly identify obstacles to women's participation in decision-making, and find ways to address these constraints through supporting grassroots awareness-raising, confidence-building and advocacy and leadership training programmes. Particular attention needs to be given to promoting girls' participation, since girls may to be doubly excluded from decision-making processes and fora on account of being both a child/youth and female. This is perhaps the single most important step towards achieving more equitable, appropriate climate change policies and programmes....In this way the profile and status of women and girls in the community can also be raised, while challenging traditional assumptions about their capabilities."