Goals: The ultimate aim of the programme is to contribute to climate change policy and practice where the knowledge of both women and men is valued and women are actively involved in decision-making; gender analyses are more nuanced; existing commitments to gender equality and women’s rights are respected; and increased dialogue takes place between different agencies working on gender and climate change.

Rationale: Climate change is a major concern for development policy and practice. Yet too often climate change responses do not consider the different impacts of climate change for women and men, fail to take into account women’s specific knowledge and expertise and tend to regard women only as victims of climate change. Furthermore, despite increasing work on gender and climate change, there have been few attempts to tackle the issues collaboratively, in ways that maximise resources and knowledge. This Cutting Edge programme on gender and climate change aims to address these gaps. The programme will help to achieve these shifts by facilitating the active exchange of diverse knowledge and perspectives on these issues; building partnerships, particularly with Southern organisations and actors; and developing excellent new resources on gender and climate change for an audience of policymakers and practitioners.

Main activities:

• The centrepiece of the programme will be the collaborative development, writing, production and wide dissemination of a much-needed BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack on Gender and Climate Change in English, French and Spanish. Dependent on whether we raise additional funding, tailored policy briefings will build on the emerging key issues.
• Creating an environment for the development, exchange and evolution of ideas that will inform policy and practice on these issues. This includes facilitating e-discussions, hosting face-to-face networking and online spaces for any emerging community of practice.

Reach: During the life of the programme we will be reaching out to a wide range of people from Northern and Southern countries – both to input to the programme and to learn from it.