WUNRN
GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE
& GLOBAL HEALTH
Raman
Preet, Maria Nilsson, Barbara Schumann, Birgitta Evengård
Abstract
Background:
Population health is a primary goal of sustainable development. United Nations
international conferences like the Beijing Platform for Action have highlighted
the key role of women in ensuring sustainable development. In the context of
climate change, women are affected the most while they display knowledge and
skills to orient themselves toward climate adaptation activities within their
societies. Objective: To investigate how the gender perspective is addressed as
an issue in research and policymaking concerning climate change and global
health. Methods: A broad literature search was undertaken using the databases Pubmed
and Web of Science to explore the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘health,’ ‘gender,’
and ‘policy.’ Climate change and health-related policy documents of the World
Health Organization (WHO) and National Communications and National Adaptation
Programs of Action reports submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change of selected countries were studied. Assessment guidelines to
review these reports were developed from this study’s viewpoint. Results: The
database search results showed almost no articles when the four terms were
searched together. The WHO documents lacked a gender perspective in their
approach and future recommendations on climate policies. The reviewed UN
reports were also neutral to gender perspective except one of the studied
documents. Conclusion: Despite recognizing the differential effects of climate
change on health of women and men as a consequence of complex social contexts
and adaptive capacities, the study finds gender to be an underrepresented or
non-existing variable both in research and studied policy documents in the
field of climate change and health.