Climate Week: Calls to Strengthen Climate Action by Promoting Gender Equality Intensify



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Experts from countries participating in the African Climate Week argued that practical solutions depend on women's participation in all aspects of the climate change debate.

In his presentation to the Consultation Workshop in Africa on the sidelines of the ACWSalina Sanou, of the Pan African Alliance for Climate Justice (PACJA), said it was necessary to continue to support organizations led by indigenous women in order to empower them as role models.

She added that bad-disaggregated data is a good way to identify and correct gaps in tracking progress in the climate change discussion.

"Women and men experience climate change differently, while gender inequalities persist in the world. Recognizing the important contributions of women as policy makers, stakeholders and experts from all sectors and at all levels can lead to effective long-term solutions to climate change. Indigenous women are an important part of the REDD + process and discussion of climate change and can not be ignored. "

Climate change is the most complex challenge of our time, requiring a concerted, proactive and comprehensive response.

Gender inequality can significantly limit the resilience and adaptive capacity of women, families and communities. It can also limit climate change mitigation options.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase the yields of their farms by 20 to 30%, which would increase total agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent.

Evidence shows that empowering women and promoting gender equality can produce results in all sectors and lead to more environmentally sound decision-making at the household and national levels.

In all societies, women are often responsible for collecting and producing food, collecting water and supplying fuel for heating and cooking. With climate change, these tasks are becoming more difficult. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have a greater impact on the poor and the most vulnerable.

Gender climate week

Although women are disproportionately affected by climate change, they play a crucial role in adapting to climate change and mitigating its effects. Women have the knowledge and understanding of what is needed to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to offer practical solutions. But they remain a largely untapped resource.

Ms. Salina stated that releasing women's knowledge and skills was an important opportunity to develop effective solutions to climate change for the benefit of all.

"Restricted land rights, lack of access to financial resources, training and technology, and limited access to policy-making spheres often prevent them from playing their full role in the fight against climate change and other environmental challenges. "

Betty Maitoyo is a specialist of the kind with the indigenous organization, the Mainyoto Peoples Integrated Development Organization (MPIDO) who co-organized the meeting with PACJA.

She notes that the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), for example, should go beyond symbolic measures and ensure the mainstreaming of the gender dimension in all its activities (funding and representation).

Countries, she said, should involve women, civil society organizations and indigenous peoples in the development of local and national plans and in their monitoring and implementation.

"A budget should be included in the existing program to raise awareness to end gender stereotypes and support the women and women leaders of the project."

In 2015, women represented on average 38% of national delegations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Gender climate week

According to the IUCN-GGCA archives of Roots for Future, the same year, women's participation in the boards of directors of the climate finance mechanisms was not impressive.

Women accounted for 25% of the Global Environment Facility, 15% of the Green Climate Fund, 26% of the Climate Investment Fund, 11% of the Climate Development Facility and 35% of the Adaptation Fund.

It is a trend that women's groups and other civil society organizations present at the meeting have expressed as terribly inadequate.

For Ms. Maitoyo, climate change financing should be accessible to both men and women and designed to generate mutual benefits, not to exacerbate patterns of inequality.

In the meantime, global negotiations have increasingly reflected the growing understanding of gender considerations in climate decision making over the last eight years.

For example, women represented for 29% of men, 71% of the National Focal Point of the Global Environment Facility for Rio deliberations.

The United Nations climate change negotiations, without texts and discussions on gender issues until 2008, more recently reflected an increased understanding of the links between gender equality and the response to gender equality. climatic changes.

This has become necessary because women have been the most affected by climate change, the impact and the effect being much greater than those affecting men.

The impacts and responses to climate change are not gender neutral; thus, climate finance mechanisms and resource allocations to address these differentiated impacts need to be gender sensitive.

During his presentation, Hayford Duodu from the Local Government Grantmaking Mechanism (DGM-GHANA) project added that women's direct participation in climate change decision-making is very critical.

In his view, the indigenous knowledge of Aboriginal women, because they are directly affected by the effects of climate change, can not be ignored and must be exploited.

"Their value in indigenous knowledge is critical to designing, implementing and financing climate solutions in an efficient and equitable way."

A gender-responsive climate finance architecture can play a fundamental role in the establishment of a comprehensive climate change framework and a complementary path to sustainable development that supports an inclusive economy. equal and resilient for women and men.

It is therefore important to ensure equal space and resources for women and men to participate in climate change decision-making and action at all levels.

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