WUNRN
CLIMATE JUSTICE & WOMEN’S RIGHTS: A GUIDE TO SUPPORTING GRASSROOTS
WOMEN’S ACTION
Direct Link to Full 65-Page 2015 Report:
Millions of Dollars for Climate Financing, but Very Little Designated for Women
Oxfam
research found that in Sri Lanka, where over 33,000 people died or went missing
during the 2004 Asian tsunami, two-thirds were women. Credit: Amantha
Perera/IPS
BALI,
Indonesia, Apr 2 2015 (IPS) - The statistics tell the story:
in some parts of the world, four times as many women as men die during floods;
in some instances women are 14 times more likely to die during natural
disasters than men.
A
study by Oxfam in 2006 found that four times as many women as men perished in
the deadly 2004 Asian tsunami. In Sri Lanka, where over 33,000 died or went
missing, two thirds were women, Oxfam research found.
According
to a World Bank assessment, two-thirds of the close to 150,000 people killed in
Myanmar in 2008 due to Cyclone Nargis were women.
The
aftermath of environmental disasters, too, is particularly hard on women as
they struggle to deal with sanitation, privacy and childcare concerns. Women
displaced by climate-related events are also more vulnerable to violence and
abuse – a fact that was documented by Plan International during the 2010
drought in Ethiopia when women and girls walking long hours in search of water
were subject to sexual attacks.
In
post-disaster situations, the burden of feeding the family often falls to
women, and many are forced to become breadwinners when men migrate out of
disaster zones in search of work.
The
pattern repeats itself in environmental crises around the world, every day.
A
report
published last month by the Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), the International
Network of Women’s Funds (INWF) and the Alliance of Funds found that “women
throughout the world are particularly vulnerable to the threats posed by a
changing climate” – yet they are the least likely to receive proper funding to
recover from, adapt to or protect against the dangers of disasters.
Produced
after the August 2014 Summit on Women and Climate held in the Indonesian island
province of Bali, which brought together over 100 grassroots activists and
experts, the report revealed that “only 0.01 percent of all worldwide grant
dollars support projects that address both climate change and women’s rights.”
Experts
say this represents a critical funding gap, at a time when the international
community is stepping up its efforts to deal with a global climate threat that
is becoming more urgent every year; research by the non-profit
Germanwatch found that between 1994 and 2013, “More than 530,000 people died as
a direct result of approximately 15,000 extreme weather events, and losses
during [the same time period] amounted to nearly 2.2 trillion dollars.”
Connecting funders with grassroots communities
The
recent GGF report, ‘Climate Justice and Women’s Rights’, concluded, “Most
funders lack adequate programmes or systems to support grassroots women and
their climate change solutions. Men receive far greater resources for
climate-related initiatives because [donors] tend to wage larger-scale, more
public efforts, whereas women’s advocacy is typically locally based and less
visible […].”
The
problem is not a lack of funds; experts say the real issue is ignorance or
unwillingness on the part of donors or supporting organisations to funnel
limited financial resources into the most effective projects and initiatives.
“The
new report is a guide to funders on how to identify and prioritise projects so
that women can get out of this dangerous situation,” GGF Executive Director and
CEO Terry Odendahl told IPS.
In a bid
to connect funders directly with women on the ground working within their own
communities, the Bali summit last year brought together activists with
organisations that distribute some 3,000 grants annually in 125 countries to
the tune of 45 million dollars.
The
goal of the summit – carried forward in the report – was to enable the
experiences and ideas of grassroots women’s groups to shape donor agendas.
Among
the many priorities on the table is the need to increase women’s participation
in policymaking at local, national and international levels; address the most
urgent climate-related threats on rural women’s lives and livelihoods; and
recognise the inherent ability of women – particularly indigenous women and
those engaged in agricultural labour – to curb greenhouse gas emissions and
protect environmentally sensitive areas.
Aleta
Baun, an activist from the Indonesian island of West Timor who won the 2013 Goldman
Environmental Prize for her efforts to organise local villagers in
peaceful ‘weaving’ protests at marble mining sites in protected forest areas on
Mutis Mountain, told IPS, “Women have to practically scream for their voices to
be heard right now.”
Her
tireless activism over many decades has won her recognition but also exposed
her to danger. She recalled an incident over 10 years ago when she received
death threats but had no support network – neither local nor international – to
turn to for help.
The
same holds true in India, where research by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that although rural women spend, on
average, 30 percent of their day searching for water, very few resources
exist to support them, or study the impact of this grueling task on their
families and health.
Experts
like Odendahl contend that funders need to get out of the silo mentality and
concentrate on the overall impact of climate change, environmental degradation,
commercial exploitation of resources and even dangers faced by women activists
as parts of one big puzzle.
Protecting women activists
Tools
like the recently released report can be used to bridge the gap and connect
actors and organisations that have hitherto operated alone.
INWF
Executive Director Emilienne De Leon Aulina told IPS, “It is a slow process. We
have now began the work; what we need to do is to keep building awareness among
decision makers and results will follow.”
One
such example is a potential project between the Urgent Action Fund and the Indonesian
Samadhana Institute on mapping the impact of threats faced by female
environmental activists, which have witnessed a disturbing rise in the past
decade.
A
study
by Global Witness entitled ‘Deadly Environment’, which analyses attacks on land
rights defenders and environmental activists, found that between 2002 and 2013
at least 903 citizens engaged in environmental protection work were killed – a
number comparable to the death toll of journalists during that same period.
Because
women environmental activists tend to focus on local and community-based
issues, the dangers they face go largely undocumented.
For
a person like Baun, who has faced multiple death threats and at least one
threat of a gang rape, both awareness and funding have been slow in coming.
“I
have been facing these issues for over 15 years, and it is only now that people
have started to take note. But at least it is happening – it is much better
than the silence.”
Edited by Kanya D’Almeida