GenderCC Newsletter

Content

News from GenderCC

NwU

Project JuGend 

COPGendered

Dialogues

GenderCC @UNFCCC

JuGend at COP28

Who is Who at GenderCC

Farewell 

Our new colleagues

Publications

Food, Oil, and Climate in sub-Saharan Africa (Patricia Glazebrook)

A novel approach to work towards gender-responsive urban climate policy (Gotelind Alber)

How India’s abrupt coal mine closure can take a leaf from Germany’s just transition (Flavia Lopes and Shuchita Jha)

Gender Just Climate Solutions 2023 – 8^th edition (WECF)

New UN report: Along with gender, where people live is a key factor in determining levels of poverty and inequality in Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Calendar of Events

14 – 15 May 2024, Montréal (Quebec) Canada: The Healthy World Conference: Dialogues on Health, Gender & Climate Resilience (CanWaCH)

3 – 13 June 2024, Bonn, Germany: Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI): The 60th sessions of the UNFCCC

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NwU

In December 2023, the NwU! team participated in COP28 which was hosted in Dubai, UAE from the 30^th November to 12^th December, 2023. Together with ETC Group, LIFE e.V., Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and the Indigenous Education Network of Turtle Island, GenderCC co-hosted a side event titled "Article 6 on the ground - Real solutions instead of dangerous distractions". The recording of the side event can be found on YouTube, via this link. Shortly after COP ended, the team met online to share post-COP28 reflections and thoughts, as well as participate in similar meetings organized by the WGC. In addition, GenderCC and LIFE e.V. released a jointed statement on COP28 which can be accessed here. 

Project JuGend

The Youth Climate Check Poster

Our Youth Climate Check is now also available as a poster, both in German and English! The YCC has undergone an exciting transformation and is now presented in a new, colorful version on our exclusive poster. This poster is not only eye-catching, but also offers a fresh and visually appealing presentation of our proven method. With clear graphics and concise information, it's a handy resource for you, folded up in A4 or unfolded as a poster in A1 format.

COPGendered

This project aims to create tools, knowledge and methodologies for learners to upskills themselves. In the past months, the COPGendered consortium has been writing the briefing paper, which includes five thematic sub-chapters on gender equality and climate justice: “Gender & climate change; mobility/sustainable transport; extractivism and global resistance against socioecological exploitation; energy, as well as - 'LGBTIQ+ Intersectionality”. The briefing paper will be translated into seven different languages at a later stage (English, German, Bulgarian, Danish, Spanish, French and Swedish).  The briefing paper will be the basis of the e-learning tool that GenderCC is leading and will become accessible to the public for free. The COPGendered Team is planning on meeting in Bulgaria in June 2024.

DIALOGUES

The EU-funded research project DIALOGUES on the role of citizens’ initiatives in the energy transition will be concluded by the end of April 2024. The project gained valuable insights into preconditions for, and approaches to, inclusive approaches to citizens' engagement, both in the private sphere as well as collective action such as in local energy communities and cooperatives. GenderCC is contributing to a number of policy papers addressing decision-makers at various levels, preparing guidelines and recommendations on how to devise gender-sensitive surveys on energy, and co-hosting a workshop with other researchers on gender approaches in energy related research.

JuGend at COP28

GenderCC had the opportunity to display the JuGend project at a Side Event in Dubai. We are still flying high after our magical event at COP28 in Dubai: "Boosting Youth Participation in Climate Policy". Alongside great young activists like Fateh from Pakistan, Alicia from South Africa, Nele from Germany and Renmark from the Philippines, we held an exciting side event and used the stage to introduce the Youth Climate Check.

The aim of our contribution was to show the potential of intersectionality. We need to include all aspects of life and all people to bring about real change. Our check helps to ensure that no one is forgotten when it comes to climate justice.

You can watch the recording of the event now and be inspired by the energy and ideas! Watch the recording here, and click here if you want to jump directly to the Youth Climate check. The event was held in English.

Insights on the Commission on the Status of Women, CSW68 – Shaila Shahid

The sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 11 to 22 March 2024. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world are invited to participate and contribute to the session.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of June 21, 1946. In 1996, ECOSOC in resolution 1996/6 expanded the Commission’s mandate and decided that it should take a leading role in monitoring and reviewing progress and problems in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and in mainstreaming a gender perspective in UN activities.

During the Commission’s annual two-week session, representatives of UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities gather at UN headquarters in New York. They discuss progress and gaps in the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the key global policy document on gender equality, and the 23rd special session of the General Assembly held in 2000 (Beijing+5), as well as emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women supports all aspects of the Commission’s work and also facilitates the participation of civil society representatives.

Themes of CSW68:

• Priority theme: Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective

• Review theme: Social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls

CSW and Climate Change

In 2022, the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) convened Member States and key stakeholders from around the world to consider the priority theme of “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programes”. This marked the first time CSW placed primary focus on gender and climate change linkages and represented a key opportunity to build on the information and progress made on these linkages in climate change decision-making spaces over the last several decades.

This year, a group of GenderCC member representatives are planning to join the CSW68.

Insight on the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) – Birte Rodenberg

The Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) periodically reviews the extent to which state parties fulfill their due diligence obligations to protect women’s human rights. In last year’s review, GenderCC successfully took the advantage of CEDAW as an advocacy platform and has submitted an alternative report to the secretariat of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), by lending more weight to Germany’s extraterritorial due diligence obligations as an industrialized country with high greenhouse gas emissions.

At its 85th session in May 2023, the CEDAW committee expressed concern for the first time “about the increased use of coal-fired electricity, despite the government pledge to phase out use of coal by 2030” and called on the country to significantly ramp up gender equality measures in its climate change response, because Germany’s climate and energy policies constitutes discrimination against women and vulnerable groups. Based on proofs and testimonies from civil society representatives from the Global South supporting that the human rights of women protected under CEDAW are threatened in the environmental sector, the CEDAW Committee called on the German government to accelerate its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and use of fossil fuels.

It is undisputed for us that the successes of environmental and women’s human rights are the result of decades of feminist NGOs’ advocacy work, and they were achieved through tough negotiations under the umbrella of the UNFCCC. However, because of the progressing climate crisis and the growing social inequality between the genders, we as civil society actors should take advantage of additional platforms and opportunities to urge our governments and all UN member states to fulfil their due diligence obligations more quickly and rigorously – both in the climate and environmental sectors and in terms of ensuring equal opportunities and the protection of women’s human rights. Thus, all member organisations could use the next review of their or another country’s government to hold them accountable.

To ensure that all NGOs can effectively participate in and utilise the CEDAW process, the International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) provides information on upcoming CEDAW reviews and training or finance opportunities for strengthening NGOs’ capacity and advocacy work on CEDAW (https://cedaw.iwraw-ap.org/). It is worth it. At least in the case of the German Federal Government, the CEDAW Committee of the United Nations made it clear that it attaches high importance to protecting women and girls who are disproportionately affected by climate change.

On Germany’s reporting status: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Countries.aspx?CountryCode=DEU&Lang=EN

https://www.boell.de/en/2023/12/13/cedaw-committee-german-climate-policy-not-gender-just

Strengthening women's capacity to promote resilient agriculture: training in the production of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides in Togo (West Africa) – NGO AVES

The NGO AVES (Association des Volontaires pour l'Environnement Sain) has always supported rural and farming communities in implementing socio-economic programmes to reduce poverty. Aware of the climatic constraints facing these communities, especially women, as vulnerable as they are, they have difficulty surviving on a daily basis. One of the problems is the lack of financial resources for the supply of agricultural inputs. Faced with this situation, the NGO AVES is supporting them in the transition to resilient agriculture through research and development programes promoting agroecology. With this in mind, one of the agricultural cooperatives, comprising more than thirty women, is being trained in the manufacture of bio-inputs, specifically bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides.

The objectives of this capacity-building for women are diverse and varied in that they are to:

•  Make women farmers self-sufficient in agricultural inputs,
• Substitute organic and biological inputs for chemical agricultural products that generate greenhouse gas emissions,
• Strengthening agro-biological resilience techniques in women's agricultural cooperatives,
• Restore degraded soils through the use of organic fertilizers in agricultural production areas,
• Facilitate the supply of organic agricultural inputs manufactured locally using local resources,
• Produce healthy, environmentally friendly food for better nutritional health.

The initiative will have a socio-economic and environmental impact. The aim is to make women self-sufficient in agricultural activities in order to combat economic insecurity, while positioning the production and sale of organic agricultural inputs in the local value chain. In other words, the aim is also to restore infertile soils to better position ourselves in the green economy through resilient agriculture to better combat climate change. On the socio-environmental front, our programes for women provide a niche for women's self-promotion in the fight against climate change. Women are developing alternative income-generating activities.

8th edition of the Gender Just Climate Solutions 2023 – Women & Gender Constituency (WECF)

In this year's edition of the publication Gender Just Climate Solutions by the Women and Gender Constituency, of which GenderCC is a member, initiatives that have been honored with the Gender Just Climate Award are presented in three categories: Technical Solutions, Non-Technical Solutions and Transformational Solutions. Out of the 973 entries, the winning initiatives in their respective categories are examples of sustainable projects that are working towards meaningful change. In particular, the Youth Climate Check mentioned earlier in the newsletter was awarded in the "Non-technical solutions" category, underlining the importance of intersectionality in climate policy.

Read more here.

New UN report: Along with gender, where people live is a key factor in determining levels of poverty and inequality in Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

This press release from the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) centers on the Asia-Pacific region, highlights a recent report published by ESCAP. The report emphasizes that gender and geographical location continue to be significant determinants of poverty and inequality in this area. This underscores the critical need to address disparities and the adverse effects experienced by marginalized groups such as women, girls, rural communities, and urban poor individuals who face disadvantages in terms of access to education and employment opportunities.

Here a link to the report.  

- 14 – 15 May 2024, Montréal (Quebec) Canada: The Healthy World Conference: Dialogues on Health, Gender & Climate Resilience (CanWaCH)

- 3 – 13 June 2024, Bonn, Germany: Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI): The 60th sessions of the UNFCCC