Addressing gender concerns in adaptation discourse
IT is widely acknowledged that the negative effects of climate change are likely to hit the poorest in the poorest countries hardest. In climate change discourse, attempts to link gender and climate change may seem rather far-fetched. There have been few publications to establish this linkage. Most of the approaches toward tackling the threats focused on scientific and technological aspects of the problem, ignoring the social issue.
Even Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses on “systems” rather than people, writes about power plants rather than consumption, ignoring the gender insights. After years of relentless efforts by women professionals and activists, it is now accepted that women are among the most vulnerable groups to the impacts of climate change. However, if the underlying reasons of women's (and men's) specific vulnerabilities are not analysed and addressed properly, the effect will remain merely rhetorical.
The Government of Bangladesh has allocated 100 million USD as climate fund for 2009-2010. The initiative is a pioneering one to face the change through enhancing people's adaptive capacity. The ministry of Environment and Forest is already in the process of scrutinizing the proposals for on ground adaptation. Government agencies as well as NGOs and CBOs have been invited to participate in this process.
The government must ensure mainstreaming of gender perspectives into national policies, action plans and other response measures on sustainable development and climate change by carrying out systematic gender analysis, collecting and utilizing sex-disaggregated data, establishing gender-sensitive indicators, criteria and benchmarks, and developing practical tools to support and monitor the programmes in a gender-sensitive way.
For every conceived adaptation measure, a gender-sensitivity analysis must be made mandatory to ensure that women's differential needs and priorities are adequately addressed along with those of the rest of the community.
To ensure this, the following steps need to be taken:
* Address the lack of gender-disaggregated data in the area of climate change. International human rights standards and principles underline the need to adequately assess and address the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change.
* Gender-specific vulnerability assessments are important in determining adaptation options. Vulnerability should be assessed through the eyes of the vulnerable themselves and here separate consultations with the women in a vulnerable community appear extremely important to decide gender-differential vulnerability and gender-sensitive adaptive responses.
* Building capacity of women to have the skill and confidence to engage with climate change debates at the local, national, regional and international levels (for example though advocacy training) in order to entrench gender in local, national and international policies and measures.
* Identify the contributions of women as agents of change in adaptation to climate change at the local level.
* Assess women's differential vulnerability within a given geo-physical, socio-economic and institutional context.
* Take steps to reduce the differential vulnerability of women.
* Increase the participation of women representing vulnerable communities or vulnerable women in assessing their vulnerability and in decision making on climate change adaptation at different levels.
* Build the capacity of women to design and implement adaptation programs beyond their household activities.
* Ensure that adaptation polices and measures are directly targeting and benefitting vulnerable women and as such, ensure that no less than 30% of the adaptation fund is earmarked for the programmes directly targeting and benefiting vulnerable women.
* Build the capacity of organisations working on “gender and adaptation issues” at the local level, particularly local government institutions where women's direct participation is ensured.
* Monitor the status of vulnerable women and respond to their changing needs and priorities.
There is an unmet need to CREATE A MECHANISM THROUGH WHICH GENDER AUDIT CAN BE REGULARLY DONE AND MONITORED. For this a high level committee, comprised of gender and climate change experts and policy makers, is suggested.
Institutional adaptation vs community based adaptation
Large-scale adaptation efforts are often beyond the capacity of local communities and hence supported by state run agencies and institutions. Institutional adaptations are often government supported public initiatives. In contrast, community based adaptation (CBA) to climate change is a community led process. In both cases, effectiveness of adaptation depends on communities' priorities and needs, knowledge, capacities, and state of empowerment of people to plan for and cope with the adverse impacts. CBA can complement institutional adaptation through enhancing household/community level resilience. While the supportive roles of CBA are acknowledged, CBA alone cannot ensure lasting resilience building efforts without appropriate institutional facilitation. It is widely acknowledged that any cut in public expenditure has a direct impact on poor and marginal among which women are the most disadvantaged group. In addition to financing, policy support towards creation of access for women to knowledge, skills and resources would be necessary to optimise benefits for them. Leadership awaits Bangladesh
Over the years, Bangladesh has drawn a considerable attention regarding her rather high vulnerability to climate change and scientific contribution to climate discourse. More recently, however, the country achieved international respect due to her leadership towards addressing climate challenges in an integrated and planned manner. The country surely led the world in a number of counts: (a) the concept of community based adaptation found its roots in Bangladesh, (b) the first ever National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) was submitted by Bangladesh to UNFCCC, and (c) it has been the first country to produce Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP). To complement such actions, the government placed resources from its own public exchequer to start financing adaptation -- the first of its kind amongst LDCs. While the entire developing world has been looking at Bangladesh for proactively dealing with the imminent crisis instead of merely submitting to eventual consequences, she has embarked upon the task to make sure that her difficult financing choices are made to ensure significant reduction in vulnerability of poor and marginalised people. How best can she build resilience? Whether the capacity of her millions of people, including women and the marginalised, would be enhanced to such a degree that the perceived risks to their livelihoods could successfully be removed? Whether adequate financing should be placed to empower women at risk with knowledge, skill and know-how? The world is eagerly watching.
Large-scale adaptation efforts are often beyond the capacity of local communities and hence supported by state run agencies and institutions. Institutional adaptations are often government supported public initiatives. In contrast, community based adaptation (CBA) to climate change is a community led process. In both cases, effectiveness of adaptation depends on communities' priorities and needs, knowledge, capacities, and state of empowerment of people to plan for and cope with the adverse impacts. CBA can complement institutional adaptation through enhancing household/community level resilience. While the supportive roles of CBA are acknowledged, CBA alone cannot ensure lasting resilience building efforts without appropriate institutional facilitation. It is widely acknowledged that any cut in public expenditure has a direct impact on poor and marginal among which women are the most disadvantaged group. In addition to financing, policy support towards creation of access for women to knowledge, skills and resources would be necessary to optimise benefits for them. Leadership awaits Bangladesh
Over the years, Bangladesh has drawn a considerable attention regarding her rather high vulnerability to climate change and scientific contribution to climate discourse. More recently, however, the country achieved international respect due to her leadership towards addressing climate challenges in an integrated and planned manner. The country surely led the world in a number of counts: (a) the concept of community based adaptation found its roots in Bangladesh, (b) the first ever National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) was submitted by Bangladesh to UNFCCC, and (c) it has been the first country to produce Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP). To complement such actions, the government placed resources from its own public exchequer to start financing adaptation -- the first of its kind amongst LDCs. While the entire developing world has been looking at Bangladesh for proactively dealing with the imminent crisis instead of merely submitting to eventual consequences, she has embarked upon the task to make sure that her difficult financing choices are made to ensure significant reduction in vulnerability of poor and marginalised people. How best can she build resilience? Whether the capacity of her millions of people, including women and the marginalised, would be enhanced to such a degree that the perceived risks to their livelihoods could successfully be removed? Whether adequate financing should be placed to empower women at risk with knowledge, skill and know-how? The world is eagerly watching.
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