BRIDGE Cutting Edge Packs
Gender and Climate Change
Responses to climate change tend to focus on scientific and economic solutions rather than addressing the vitally significant human and gender dimensions. For climate change responses to be effective thinking must move beyond these limited approaches to become people-focused, and focus on the challenges and opportunities that climate change presents in the struggle for gender equality. This cutting edge pack advocates for a transformative approach in which:
- women and men have an equal voice in decision-making on climate change and broader governance processes;
- are given equal access to the resources necessary to respond to the negative effects of climate change;
- both women’s and men’s needs and knowledge are taken into account and climate change policymaking institutions and processes at all levels are not biased towards men or women;
- the broad social constraints that limit women’s access to strategic and practical resources no longer exist.
This Cutting Edge Pack hopes to inspire thinking and action. The Overview Report offering a comprehensive gendered analysis of climate change which demystifies many of the complexities in this area and suggests recommendations for researchers, NGOSs and donors as well as policymakers at national and international level. The Supporting Resources Collection (SRC) provides summaries of key texts, conceptual papers, tools, case studies and contacts of organisations in this field, whilst a Gender and Development In Brief newsletter contains three articles including two case studies outlining innovative local led solutions.
Gender and Development In Brief ‘Gender and Climate Change’ – edition 22
Summary:
Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions. How then do we move towards more
people-centred, gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we respond to the different needs and concerns of women and men, and also challenge the gender inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of climate change? This In Brief sets out why it is vital to address the gender dimensions of climate change. It maps pathways for making climate change responses more gender aware and – potentially – transformative and suggests promoting a rights based approach to climate change. This is to ensure that climate change policies and processes draw on human rights frameworks as well as finding alternatives to market-based approaches. When market-based approaches are used to address climate change mitigation they should benefit women equally and not exclude or further disadvantage them. Another recommendation suggests learning from people focused gender – transformative approaches at the local level and apply these lessons to national and international policy. In this respect, the In Brief includes inspiring examples of local, gender-aware innovations in Colombia and India. The case studies have been produced collaboratively through participatory workshops, semi-structured interviews and site visits with FUNDAEXPRESIÓN in Colombia and the Community Awareness Centre (CAC) in India. FUNDAEXPRESIÓN plays a key role in promoting strong local networks to create resilience to climate change and CAC engages women and men in developing relevant solutions that empower women.
