 |
News from GenderCC 
Preparing for COP16 GenderCC is planning for several activities in the context of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico (COP 16 & CMP 6, 29 November - 10 December 2010) aiming at raising awareness and lobbying for a stronger consideration of gender issues in the negotiation texts.
In cooperation with the Colorado State University we will host the side event "Where Do We Stand on Gender and Climate Change" which will reflect on the status quo of gender justice in the climate negotiations. The aim is to discuss and identify the next steps for action. Moreover, we will be engaged in the civil society forum (KlimaForum10) and in particular look for and encourage exchange between women's and gender organizations from Mexico and other countries. Among others we are planning an event on forests, as this is a topic of particular relevance for indigenous communities and women not only in Mexico. We will discuss REDD, carbon offsetting, palm plantations, deforestation, land grabbing etc. and the question to what extent these topics are of importance from a gender point of view.
During the COP GenderCC will hold its annual general meeting. We cordially invite our members to participate in the meeting. More information will be send to all members in time and will be posted on our website.
GENDERCC SOUTHERN AFRICA NEWLY FOUNDED Dorah Lebelo, steering group member and coordinator of GenderCC's project in South Africa, joint forces with other experts and organisations to found GenderCC Southern Africa (SA), and to introduced it as one of Southern Africa’s leading associations on Gender and Climate Change. Additionally. GenderCC Southern Africa is responsible for the implementation of our pilot project in South Africa, which has already successfully undertaken its first activities.
GenderCC-SA is working with various women’s groups which are already feeling the effects of climate change, e.g. women farmers. There is a huge need for information about climate change and how it will affect women in the communities, as well as how they can minimise its impacts and adapt to them. Therefore, GenderCC-SA is initiating capacity-building activities and empowering women to take part in the National Climate Change Response Policy making process.
In this regard, GenderCC-SA has also been working with communities and civil society organisations to develop input into the process and ensure that gender will be integrated in the national climate change response policy which is currently being developed.
Moreover, GenderCC-SA co-hosted the Women, Energy and Climate Change Conference on 5th August together with Women Energy and Climate Change Forum (WECCF) and the Gender Energy Network of South Africa (GENSA). The conference was attended by over 100 grassroots women, women from social movements, political parties, labour movement, business and environmental organisations and aimed at getting further input from civil society women on the Background Information Document on Climate Change (BIDCC). Shortly after this meeting GenderCC-SA, in collaboration with the Commission of Gender Equality (CGE) and GENSA submitted a document concerning the BIDCC to the Department of Environmental Affairs.
Finally, GenderCC-SA is actively participating in the preparation of COP17 which is going to take place (probabely) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2012. GenderCC-SA pledged to work with all civil society organisations in mobilising grassroots communities, particularly women, in the run up to COP17.
The project is supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). For more information please contact Dorah Lebelo.
Gender and the UNFCCC
ROAD TO CANCÚN The last meeting on the road to Cancún took place in Tianjin (China). Unfortunately, as in the past meetings, negotiations on the AWG-LCA document (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention) were held in drafting groups closed to observers. Moreover, Parties started again more or less from scratch, as the objective of the meeting was to prepare draft decisions for Cancún. Thus, the challenge for Women and Gender was again to ensure that existing references to women and gender were not lost. During an intervention at the opening Opening Plenary of AWG-LCA, Gotelind Alber, GenderCC, raised the issue of mitigation and low-carbon development from a gender and women’s perspective.
With the help of some supporters of women and gender among Parties and the fact that drafting groups were drawing from the existing text, gender could be maintained in the Shared Vision document, in Adaptation (Chapter II) and Economic and social consequences of response measures (Chapter VII). As for other parts of the existing LCA document, such as REDD where gender is mentioned as well, the meeting generated no new outputs.
The women and gender constituency even managed to introduce some new gender references: “gender balance” in the Composition of the Technology Executive Committee (Chapter IV), and “ensuring the full respect of human rights including the inherent rights of indigenous peoples, women, children, migrant and all vulnerable sectors” in the section “Various approaches, including opportunities for using markets, to enhance the cost effectiveness of, and to promote, mitigation actions” (Chapter VIII), both in brackets, though.
However - gender language is just not sufficient. We also need to look at the substance, whether it reflects women’s preferences, for instance in terms of technology choices, and whether it would exaggerate women’s discrimination. There are some crucial issues on which we need to do a lot of work in Cancún and before.
For more information please visit our website.
SUBMISSIONS TO THE UNFCCC SB GenderCC, its partners and colleagues from women's networks submitted their opinions and recommendations regarding civil society participation within the UNFCCC process, as well as the New Delhi and Nairobi Work Programmes.
In their submission to the Subsidiary Body for Implementation members of the Women and Gender Constituency provide their perspective on “Ways to Enhance the Engagement of Observer Organisations”. In order to improve the involvement of civil society, the constituency calls upon Parties of the UNFCCC to provide a better access to information, meetings and justice. Another important stepping stone is to increase the level of participation of civil society in the negotiations, i.e. to allow for more freedom to intervene at given moments.
The New Delhi Work Programme is an implementation tool of Art 6. of the Convention requiring all parties to communicate effects and dynamics of climate change at all levels. GenderCC and Life e.V. jointly drew up a submission ‘concerning information and views that may be relevant to the completion of the intermediate review’ (of the New Delhi Work Programme). The document identifies remaining barriers to an effective implementation of Art. 6 and hence reommends a stronger gender-sensitive focus (you can find the full text here).
GenderCC, namely Dorah Lebelo (South Africa) and Eunice Warue (Kenya), recently evaluated the Nairobi Work Programme and drafted a submission to the UNFCCC secretariat. It recommends the NWP to be continued beyond COP16, putting more emphasis at addressing participation of vulnerable groups, particularly women in communities that are affected by climate change, as well as making sure that gender is integrated during its implementation.
Moreover, GenderCC stresses that it is crucial to involve both women and men within these communities in the NWP since they have adaptation experiences which have worked for them and their communities for many decades. Therefore, adequate approaches and methodologies are required to ensure equal participation and the design of gender sensitive programmes and projects. Finally, GenderCC demands that gender experts must be involved in the implementation and monitoring of the NWP in order to ensure its positive effects on both women and men, girls and boys. You can read the submission here.
Activities of the Gender and Climate Change Community
GENDER POINTERS - PAKISTAN FLOOD 2010 Heavy rains in the last week of July 2010 caused extreme flooding in the vast network of rivers along with hill torrents which has severely affected millions of people in nearly 79 districts in Pakistan. According to the preliminary estimates by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 1,754 people died due to floods, 2702 were injured and more than 20 million people are directly affected by the floods. The infrastructure and agriculture losses run into billions of Dollars and millions of people have been made homeless.
According to some preliminary data from the field (KPK and PUNJAB), the hardest hit were the most vulnerable i.e. women, children, disabled, elderly etc. The disaster response which was to a large extent gender insensitive, has further added to their already existing vulnerabilities. It is important to note that at this stage in time there is no sex –disaggregated data, but there is a common perception that around 15 to 20 % of the affected population didn’t evacuate timely. Specifically, women sometimes found it hard to take the decision to leave their homes while their men were away at work in other cities (about one fifth of all households).
In the response phase, the displaced population can be divided into the three groups i.e. in camps, under open spaces and with host families. Only 15 % of the affected population have made it to the camps. Ten to fifteen percent are staying with host families and around 70% of the affected population remain on the road sides or stay stranded in higher altitudes.
The ones who moved to camps, were better off as far as meeting of basic needs is concerned. However, there are still problems such as low-level security (3 girls from a camp in DG Khan were kidnapped), or the lack of segregation between men and women which is especially problematic in terms of the Muslim purdah practice, e.g. in some camps there are only unisex toilets provided.
Those who were stranded in the open air on road sides or higher altitudes are/were the ones the most severely affected. They have been dealing with issues ranging from food, to water, to protection/ security. The food relief for this group is patchy, with many people relying on their livestock and stored wheat. The food consumption pattern of the households, especially for women and children was observed to be extremely poor. For drinking water collection, mainly women are responsible; they now have to try to collect in an environment which is new to them. Though no harassment seems to have occurred, females feel generally insecure, nonetheless.
This text by Maira Zahur is a shortened version. The full text can be found here. Moreover you will find additional information in the publications section of this newsletter.
WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP ON CLIMATE JUSTICE In an effort to build a network, the Mary Robinson Foundation recently brought together female climate leaders to discuss “Women's Leadership on Climate Justice: Planning for Cancun and Beyond”.
The goal of the discussion was to facilitate coordination and interaction of activities in a way that would complement and bolster existing activities, while identifying strategic issues. In a round-table discussion the participants talked about various aspects of Climate Justice such as financing, NAPAs and REDD as well as Gender and Climate Change. The meeting resulted in the formulation of several key messages which can be found in the report.
If you wish to obtain more information about this meeting and the network please visit the Mary Robinson Foundation website.
GENDER AND CLIMATE CHANGE WORKSHOP IN NIGERIA A one-day broad-based stakeholder’s workshop themed “Mainstreaming gender into climate change issues” was organised by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Women Environmental Programme (WEP) in Abuja this past July. The main objective of the workshop was to develop strategies for implementing activities that will ensure awareness of the impacts of climate change on women and children, and to chart a road map of strategies for mainstreaming gender issues into climate change programmes at all levels.
About 90 people from different organizations participated. They include major stakeholders and key sector players in climate change adaptation and sustainable development; amongst whom were officials from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the academia, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and International Development Partners.
In two sessions (opening and technical session), various speeches by the members of the Ministry and Civil Society were held. After presentations of papers analysing the Gender and Climate Change nexus in Nigeria and internationally, the participants broke out in several groups, where issues such as Gender and REDD, Adaptation and other gender and climate policy relevant topics were discussed. For a full list of topics and recommendations please download the report about the workshop on the WEP website.
News on Gender and Climate Change
Who is Who at GenderCC - Maira ZahurMaira Zahur is currently employed as a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Early Recovery expert at UNDP Pakistan. She has been active as an expert in the field of Disaster Management, DRR, Climate Change Adaptation and Gender for nine years. Her expertise ranges from community facilitation to the formulation of policy guidelines. Moreover, she is an active member of the Gender and Disaster Network.
At the moment her main task deals with Early Recovery issues around floods, involving assessments, needs analysis, project formation and advocacy and lobbying. Part of her task is also to look at gender issues. Next to that she has also become involved with a social research initiative. Over the course of her career she has not only worked with big international organizations (ACF, UNDP, UNICEF, CWS) but she also has experience of working with developmental concerns at the grass-root levels.
At GenderCC, Maira works also mainly on DRR and Climate Change Adaptation issues. She first made contact with the network at COP 14 in Poznan in 2008 and has been an active contributor, as well as Steering Group member ever since.
Besides her work Maira also enjoys travelling and music. She is particularly interested in Pakistan’s sufi, rock, classical and jazz music.
Publications- FAO - Farmers in a Changing Climate: Does Gender Matter? (October 2010): Men and women farmers in six villages in rural India provided concrete evidence of how gender roles and gender-differentiated access to resources shaped their perceptions and experiences of climate variability, as well as their coping strategies and related institutional support.
- UNIFEM - Pakistan Floods 2010: Rapid Gender Needs Assessment (September 2010): The assessment report chronologically maps gender-related concerns from the onset of floods to current relief camps, identifying gaps in information and flagging issues for upcoming stages of early recovery.
- UNDP - Gender, Climate Change and Community-Based Adaptation (July 2010). The Guidebook presents a wealth of experiences and examples taken from the UNDP-GEF Community-Based Adaptation Programme that are being piloted throughout the world. Likewise, the Guidebook presents beneficial lessons drawn from the GEF Small Grants Programme’s many years of ongoing work in over 122 countries
- OXFAM GB - Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Climate Change Adaptation: A Learning Companion (2010). The Learning Companions are a set of articles which provide accessible and practical guidance to Oxfam staff wishing to integrate DRR and Climate Change Adaptation approaches into programming.
- ARROW - In Search of Climate Justice: Refuting Dubious Linkages, Affirming Rights (2009): This ARROW bulletin brings together different perspectives on the climate change and population debate, especially those that present an alternate, feminist and gender-sensitive view to the climate change challenge.
- CRMI - Enhancing Gender Visibility in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change in the Caribbean (2009). The main objective of this publication is to make visible the inherent gender issues in the experience, management and adaptation to risk in the Caribbean region. There are also several country case studies on the same website
Calendar of Events - 21 and 22 October 2010, Seoul, South Korea. A Global Women Capital Forum: Green Growth, Quality of Life and Innovator will be organized by the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI). More information will be provided in the next issue of GenderCC's newslwtter.
- 16 November 2010, Bonn, Germany. Post-Kyoto - the gender perspective in development cooperation, this meeting, organised by genanet and GenderCC, will focus on thequestion how the gender perspective in development cooperation can be strengthened.
- 18-19 November 2010, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. The meeting Indigenous Women, Climate Change and REDD+, organised by Tebtebba aims to enhance the awareness, skills, knowledge and effective participation of indigenous women on REDD Plus and to further increase their capacities to design, implement, monitor and evaluate REDD Plus at the local, national and global levels.
- 25 – 26 November 2010, Linköping, Sweden. Conference on Gender, Sustainability & Climate Change. The Gender, Sustainability and Climate Change symposium “Equality, Growth and Sustainability – Do they mix?” will discuss current positions and seek to develop knowledge about the gendered processes and motivations regarding societal climate change adaptation and mitigation, with a special focus on first world settings. The session aims at scholars as well as a practitioners and policy makers.
- 25 – 26 November 2010, Uppsala, Sweden. Conference on Nature, Poverty and Power: Assessing Challenges to Sustainable Development. One of the parallel sessions will be on “The politics of climate change, gender and development”.
- 29 November - 10 December 2010, Cancún, Mexico. United Nations Climate Change Conference - Conference of the Parties (COP 16) & Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).
|
|
