Regional and Local Activities

Latin America

The delegates Andrea Guzmán (Bolivia), Claudia Roa (Colombia) and Ana Filippini  (Uruguay) provided an analysis of the impacts of climate change on men and women in different regions of Bolivia (doc and power point presentation available) and Colombia (doc and power point presentation available). Moreover, they analysed the impacts on women caused by false solutions proposed at national level as well as by the UNFCCC.
An audio-visual that integrates the three presentations will be available shortly.

The GenderCC-delegation also cooperated with women from other Latin-American countries on a pronouncement which was published during the conference, and signed by women’s groups. This pronouncement takes a clear position on ‘Pachamama, women and community’ and can be read in Spanish here.

A gender analysis of the meeting, and the procedures around this, is made and can be found in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. A more indebt gender analysis of the outcome of the working groups is available in English.

Concluding the World People’s Conference, more than 15.000 participants submitted the “People's Agreement”, as well as conclusions from the working-groups. An analysis of the outcome shows that the integration of a gender perspective is still lacking. Only two of the 17 working groups call for increased representation and empowerment of women within the climate change work. Moreover, when women’s rights are brought up in direct terms, it is usually done from a perspective of women as a vulnerable group that needs to be taken into consideration.

For more information please contact the Latin-American Focal point of GenderCC

Pacific

Gender equality in adaptation and low carbon development

Climate change affects different regions, generations, income groups and genders differently. Developing countries, such as Bangladesh and the Pacific Region have already been highly affected. Poor people, a disproportionate amount of which are female are particularly vulnerable, and at the same time key actors. All too often, gender issues have been neglected so far in local and national climate policy-making. Women and communities have their own visions and knowledge on how to build and strengthen their resiliency to climate change. And such visions are tied to the broader realities of power relationships that are informed by class, gender, ethnicity and citizenship.

Gender CC attempts to realize such visions through a joint project with its partners, the Center for Global Change in Bangladesh (CGC), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Fiji Island. The project is to be carried out in the years 2010 to 2013.

You can download information on the overall objectives, target groups and activities here. For more information about the project in Bangladesh please go here. For more information about the project in the Pacific Island Countries please go here.

Regional Context:

The 4th IPCC report states that a sea level rise of 50cm is the most likely scenario for the 21st century. Already today many Small Island States, SIS, are affected by rising sea levels. Low lying atolls experience flooding, a situation aggravated by strong storms such as in Kiribati and Tuvalu in 2005. Buildings, water sources and cropland get damaged and destroyed. Many people’s livelihoods are permanently endangered.
On the Marshall Islands, Typhoon Suoulik (TC 21w) caused the sea level to rise above the walls of Majuro airport. Moreover, 8 billion gallons of saltwater contaminated drinking water which was stored underneath the airport.
In 2007, El Nino led to a persistent drought in the North Pacific with severe effects on water and agriculture, especially on copra production, one of the main sources of income of the inhabitants of SIS. Indigenous trees which are raw material for paving of roads are affected by the drought in Tuvalu and Kiribati.

The report goes on to show that SIS are due to their size and structure, limited resources and their low adaptative ability more vulnerable to climate change.
The Pacific region has already developed a regional ‘Framework on Action on Climate Change’ (2006-2015) and a common Framework for Action on Energy Security for the Pacific.

These agreements explicitly mention gender as a mechanism of sustainable adaptation and mitigation measures. Nonetheless, a gender dimension has so far been not integrated in climate change strategies, partially due to lacking resources among women activists and NGO’s in the region, and the department for women’s affairs of local government.

Project Partner: Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC), Fiji Island
The Economic Development Division, EDD of the SPC is currently hosting the Pacific Energy and Gender Network (PEG) with a special focus on gender mainstreaming in energy policies and project in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories. Moreover, the PEG will work closely with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and other divisions within SPC in implementing the project.

SPC’s contact person for the project, Koin Etuati, has more than five years of professional experience in the field of climate change and mitigation in the Pacific region. The Energy Programme one under the EDD will coordinate the project activities with the Human Resources Development of SPC and local partners in the participating countries, Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands and Tuvalu.

SPC will put a specific focus on a “Train the Trainers” – Program. Trainers will be able to integrate gender into national policies (climate change and energy) through workshops and hands on training on gender mainstreaming of projects at the local level with government representatives and NGOs and women's groups.
Additionally, a study on gender relations and institutional frameworks of projects and measures in the context of adaptation and low carbon development (LCD) in the participating SISs, as well as two pilot projects will be carried out, one in Kiribati, and the second the Republic of Marshall Islands.

The project is part of the Internationale Climate Initiative. The German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety is supporting the Initiative based on a decision of the German Federal Parliament.

Please contact Koin Etuati to get more information.