WUNRN
CARIBBEAN - WOMEN CAUGHT IN CLIMATE
CHANGE STORM
- Incorporating a gender focus
in public policies for confronting and adapting to the impacts of climate
change is still a pending task in the
Women,
especially at the community level, tend to head up the networks trained in
disaster evacuation and contingency plans, and play key roles in health
measures and shelters during emergencies.
But they are also among the
most vulnerable, as reflected by statistics on the victims of impacts of
extreme weather events.
In 2007, Hurricane Noel claimed
88 lives in the
The official statistics are not
broken down by gender. However, United Nations studies have documented cases of
sexual violence against women in emergency shelters, where their burden of
domestic work also becomes heavier.
In
Experts agree that climate
change will lead to more intense hurricanes and more frequent and severe
drought and flooding. This threat to people’s lives and to food security makes
it even more urgent to address risk management and adaptation to environmental
changes with a gender perspective.
But “integrating a gender
perspective in these processes requires that public policies be based on an
assessment and recognition of the inequalities between men and women and
between social classes in society,” said Lourdes Meyreles, a researcher at the
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in the
In an interview with IPS, the
expert said the factors that increase the vulnerability of women are linked to
the disadvantages they face with respect to access to resources that are basic
to climate change adaptation, such as land ownership, the possibility of
getting a loan, or participation in decision-making for the distribution of key
resources like water.
“Although it is women who
manage this essential resource, they are not necessarily present in
decision-making about it,” said Meyreles. “Addressing this inequality is a
fundamental challenge for public policy.”
She said an important
consequence of including a gender perspective in the institutional structures
involved in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation would be
that this focus would be incorporated in all aspects of policy-making on the
issue: prior assessments, design, implementation and evaluation.
“To achieve this, a change of
mentality, political will and accountability are necessary,” said the
sociologist, who admitted that no clear progress has been made in this sense in
the
Meyreles insisted that an
effective gender focus must be based on the integration of women “in the
mechanisms of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation,” which
means taking into account the specific aspects of men and women involved in
these processes.
In that sense, she added, what
is needed is an analysis of the vulnerabilities of men and women
with regard to climate change, and also of their capacities, to later
incorporate that assessment in adaptation actions. “The question of
differentiated access to natural resources and their use and conservation must
be a central ingredient.”
She said “The diagnosis of the
role of women and men in agriculture and food security, and management of the
shoreline, forests, and water, is key for the policies that guide the processes
of adaptation to have a gender perspective and to be able to create effective,
inclusive and equitable mechanisms.”
With respect to the situation
of women in the
“The fact that a large
proportion of women are heads of households and live in the poorest parts of
the country puts them in positions of greater vulnerability than many men,” she
said.
One major risk that they face
in disaster situations is “sexual and gender violence,” she pointed out.
Women also have specific
capacities in the face of disasters, such as management and leadership skills
in community networks and organisations, in-depth knowledge of the communities
where they live, and the ability to manage situations involving health-related
issues and emergencies, she said.
“A greater effort is needed for
these roles also to imply addressing strategic gender needs of women in the
context of disasters, to make it possible to talk about effective incorporation
of a gender perspective in risk management and climate change adaptation,”
Meyreles said.
Authorities in the