WUNRN
Do Climate Change Funds Neglect Women?
By Rebekah Curtis - April 19, 2012
People funding initiatives to
tackle climate change effects would channel money towards the worst-affected
people, right? And towards those who play key roles in mitigating the effects
of climate change?
It certainly sounds logical.
But in reality, many donors aiming to help communities to weather climate
change often overlook the needs of women. So says Mariama Williams, a senior
fellow at the Geneva-based South
Centre, an intergovernmental think tank of developing countries.
Distributing funds in the
area of climate change “has to have a gender dimension,” Williams told
delegates at a women’s rights conference in
“In most countries women are
very much impacted by climate change,” she said at the conference organised by
the Association
for Women’s rights in Development (AWID).
The figures say it all.
During extreme weather events, more women die than men, she said, citing
research by the London
School of Economics.
Women are often hardest hit
by natural disasters because the effects of climate change exacerbate
pre-existing gender discrimination, she said.
Often being chief carers of
children and the elderly, women are the last to leave home when a natural
disaster hits, she said, adding that women also often have less access to
information about natural disasters.
“Having access to good roads
and bridges that allow mobility during floods or other extreme events is a
matter of life and death to women who are also responsible for children and the
elderly,” according to South Centre. “In addition, access to public outreach
and early warning saves lives and prevents illness.”
MITIGATING
But women aren’t just the
worst hit by natural disasters– they are also often the community members who
play a major role in mitigating climate change’s effects.
“A lot of the activities that
women do in developing countries also are … cheap forms of mitigation that we
need to upscale and encourage and put more money in,” Williams says, citing
activities such as planting trees.
Indeed, the need to channel
more of climate change funding towards women is no-brainer.
In the words of South Centre:
“Women’s empowerment cannot successfully and sustainably occur without
proactive attention to resolving the challenges of climate change.”
But, first and foremost, the
fact is that climate experts and activists still face huge barriers in getting
leaders to acknowledge climate change’s gravity at all. Until the world takes
on board the urgency of the problem, communities – and especially women – will
continue to suffer from worsening effects of natural disasters.
“When we say climate change,
it’s not an esoteric thing that is to come, it is happening,” Williams said.
“Extreme weather, storms, cyclones… heat waves, floods drought – it’s here, and
it’s manifesting itself more in developing countries.”
Following are key
recommendations Williams made on more gender-balanced climate change financing:
* A need for programmes that
leverage women’s organisations to implement and manage climate change
initiatives, locally, nationally, regionally and globally.
* Proactive actions by gender
advocates to secure, at national and global levels, new and increased funding
for women’s empowerment and gender equality interventions in the climate change
arena.
* A need for gender impact
assessments in the arena of climate change and a process towards developing
gender-sensitive climate change financing indicators. Emphasis should be placed
on positive incentives for funds that finance projects and programmes that
enhance gender equality.
Photo: A woman walks in a dried field at Dala
township April 18, 2012. REUTERS/Soe