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Climate action is not complete without the contribution of women – Global issues

Women make up 75% of the agricultural workforce in Kenya. Women are increasingly being impacted by climate change, and a Commonwealth report shows that without their input, climate action policies create inequality. Credit: Joyce Chimbi / IPS
  • by Joyce Chimbi (Nairobi, Kenya)
  • Joint press service

In a good season, her two acres in Molo in Kenya’s Rift Valley produce between 60 and 80 90kg bags of potatoes per acre. Due to extreme and erratic weather, Wangari told IPS that a good season is not usually guaranteed.

“We have two crops of potatoes, and we plant them before the rains start. Sometimes we plant too early and other times it’s too late because we can’t read the weather properly.”

“The rains come too early or too late. Two years after I started growing potatoes in 2018, I lost all my potatoes due to heavy rainfall,” she said.

Women make up 75% of the agricultural workforce in this East African country.

Overall, women also manage about 40% of small-scale farms. As the mainstay of food production and largely lacking in financial and technical support, women are increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change and consequent land degradation.

“We may be in the same storm, but we are certainly not in the same boat. Nowhere is this truer than for women in the face of climate change,” said Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.

A report by the Commonwealth titled Gender inclusion for climate action: An assessment of the Commonwealth’s member-state-determined contributions. (NDC), present at the recent United Nations climate summit COP26, highlighted the under-representation of women in climate policies and plans, poor access to finance, climate technology and lack of capacity for effective decision-making on unequal compounds.

Under-representation also creates barriers to women’s full contribution to climate action, strengthening circles and remaining vulnerable.

However, the report also shows that countries are increasingly acknowledging the vulnerability and inequality of women in climate action, taking concrete steps to address it.

At the heart of the review is a macro-level overview of the extent of gender integration in the NDC – the technical term for national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement – in Commonwealth member countries. . The study includes both ‘intended’ and new or revised NDCs submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 26 July 2021.

Overall, 65% of Commonwealth countries have included gender as a cross-cutting or mainstreaming priority in new or updated NDCs.

“Without women, these commitments to limit global warming would not have been achieved,” Scotland said, adding that the Commonwealth Secretariat has worked to increase its participation. gender in the respective NDCs of the 54 member countries.

Countries have also identified challenges, especially financial ones, where urgent international assistance is needed.

“The Kingdom of Eswatini recognizes gender as a cross-cutting issue with the National Development Strategy and National Development Policy calling for it,” said Duduzile Nhlengethwa-Masina, Director of the Eswatini Meteorological Service at the Ministry of Tourism and Environment. called mainstreaming gender equality. Incident.

“During the development of the NDC, we specifically engaged in gender and women’s groups. This includes having a session with Women in Parliament in October 2020 and another session on Climate Change and Gender in November 2020”

These activities have encouraged female politicians to plant trees in the country’s capital. They also initiated the idea of ​​a women’s group to increase women’s participation in climate action and ensure the group is gender sensitive.

Furthermore, Nhlengethwa-Masina told IPS that a gender assessment of the policies has been carried out and baselines and indicators have been developed for gender-sensitive mitigation and adaptation.

“The National Gender Policy was developed in 2021 and climate change has been incorporated into it, through support from Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Center,” confirmed Nhlengethwa-Masina.

Similarly, small island states like Saint Lucia recognize the crucial link between climate action, gender and women’s empowerment.

Saint Lucia’s Director of Environment and Sustainable Development, Annette Rattigan-Leo, says that “gender and women are the most prominent features of climate action strategies and interventions”.

National policies, including the NDC, the National Adaptation Plan and sector strategies, highlight the need to consider gender-related factors. At the same time, the Gender Department has drafted a National Strategy and Policy on Gender Equality to mainstream this issue in different areas.

Saint Lucia is currently working on a project to mainstream gender in disaster recovery and climate resilience while promoting women’s economic autonomy, supported by Canada and the UK.

The role of women in smart agricultural practices, including agro-processing, is now nationally accepted. Although not the main economic sector, agriculture contributes significantly to the country’s revenue.

“Notably, women have taken on business roles instead of conventional agricultural skills, in women-only farmer groups. Thus, as entrepreneurs, women can proactively influence the strategic decision-making requirements needed for the agricultural sector to become more climate resilient,” said Rattigan-Leo.

In Namibia, the head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Environmental Investment Fund, Aina-Maria Iteta, hopes to intensify ongoing efforts to emphasize gender inclusion in the Policy and Implementation Strategy. The country’s National Climate Change Book.

Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has designated a National Gender Focal Point of the UNFCCC. However, “there is still a lot of work to be done from raising awareness, developing action plans and making sure there is a budget to support those initiatives,” she told IPS.

Experts like Iteta are quick to point out that while the assessment shows significant progress towards gender representation in policies, plans and strategies, further technical and financial support is still needed.

“Overall, there is a gap in gender climate action budgeting. Gender initiatives or actions are always planned and funded on an ad hoc basis, making it difficult to ensure that gender mainstreaming in climate action is achieved,” Iteta said. “The commonwealth can facilitate access to funding for gender climate action initiatives.”

Rattigan-Leo adds that St Lucia is looking to apply “gender budgeting” to the development of the annual national budget/estimate.

“Capacity building specifically for gender strategic budgeting approaches is one area that could benefit from Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Centerexpertise of. Given the country’s existing financial constraints, especially in the face of COVID-19-related recovery efforts, it will help identify the best entry points,” she said.

Nhlengethwa-Masina also welcomes a variety of technical assistance tailored to the specific needs of the relevant agencies and women’s groups in Eswatini.

For local farmers like Wangari, help cannot come anytime soon as they continue to struggle to survive and provide for their families on the front lines of climate change.

Scotland’s Secretary-General concluded: “If we do not tackle climate change urgently and successfully, it will be those who are on the wrong side of inequality, especially women, who will be burdened. the most difficult”.

“Therefore, climate action would not be complete without the contribution of women.”


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© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service

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