|
GenderCC Newsletter
|
Dear readers,
With Marrakech fresh in our minds, this newsletter focuses on the highlights and outcomes of the recent COP22 as well as gender-related events during the conference.
This edition also features news from the gender and climate change community, such as a new “gender climate tracker” app, a book review on masculinities and disaster, information on coming projects, and of course updates from our current project on gender and urban climate policy.
At the GenderCC Secretariat, we look back on an eventful 2016 and hope that our network will continue to grow and flourish in the year to come. If you would like to contribute your ideas and suggestions, or provide reports on your current activities and upcoming events please get in touch at secretariat(at)gendercc.net. Furthermore, please consider making a donation in order to support our work towards gender-responsive climate policies and a feminist future.
We wish you all the best for the rest of 2016 and the coming year.
Enjoy this issue!
Warm regards,
the GenderCC Secretariat team
|
| |
News from GenderCC
- GenderCC annual members’ meeting
- Update from the project Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative (GUCCI)
- New project: The contribution of gender justice to successful climate politics
Gender @ UNFCCC
- Joint statement on the outcomes of COP22
- GenderCC activities at COP22
- Activities by the Women and Gender Constituency at COP22
- Actions at COP22
Activities of the Gender and Climate Change Community
- GGCA Innovations Forum
- The Gender Climate Tracker App
News on Gender and Climate Change
- Women’s equality will not come after the environmental revolution
- Meet the brave women who built the Standing Rock movement
- Women’s land rights key to enact gender-responsive climate change action
- Indigenous women in Peru combat climate change
Who is Who at GenderCC
- At the GenderCC Secretariat
- Meet our members
Publications
Calendar of Events
Imprint
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
|
|
|
GenderCC annual members’ meeting
GenderCC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on November 13, 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco. The AGM brings together GenderCC members from all over the world in order to report back on the activities of the GenderCC International Secretariat and the wider network, as well as to decide on activities in the upcoming year.
The current GenderCC board was re-elected and thus Dorah Marema (South Africa), Patricia Glazebrook (USA), Gotelind Alber (Germany) and Ulrike Röhr (Germany) will continue their valuable work as board members for another two year period. You can learn more about the board members here.
The GenderCC network currently encompasses 84 members – 17 non-governmental organisations and 67 individuals. After re-structuring in early 2016, we are happy to say that the network has been steadily growing. Find out more about how to become a member here.
Currently, a new Steering Committee is being formed that will resume its work in the beginning of next year. One of its major tasks will be the development of a new strategy for GenderCC as well as enhancing exchange and cooperation between our members.
|
Update from the project Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative (GUCCI)
After almost one year after the kickoff meeting in Paris, our project partners in Indonesia, India and South Africa have begun conducting activities related to urban climate policy at the national and local level. GenderCC Southern Africa and Aksi! and Solidaritas Perempuan in Indonesia have finalised status-quo reports on climate policies and activities in their pilot cities. In addition, initial interviews could be conducted with city officials using the Gender Assessment and Monitoring of Mitigation and Adaptation (GAMMA) methodology that was specifically developed by GenderCC in the course of the GUCCI project.
In the last week of November, all project partners gathered in Berlin for an international project meeting. The meeting was very fruitful and all partners are looking forward to continuing the collaboration in the coming months. The international meeting provided the first opportunity to get together with all project partners and share experiences from the implementation of the project. The meeting also focused on upcoming activities and participants further developed plans to assess the policies of the pilot cities from a gender perspective, with the goal of developing recommendations and concrete actions on the ground.
Learn more about the project and current activities here.
|
|
New project: The contribution of gender justice to successful climate politics
GenderCC has recently started a new research project in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute on and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) on “The contribution of gender justice to successful climate politics: impact assessment, interdependencies with other social categories, methodological issues and options for shaping climate policy”. It is funded in the framework of the Environmental Research Plan of the German Environmental Ministry and the German Environment Agency and will run for two years.
The research project examines the added value of a gender perspective for climate protection and adaptation and develops recommendations for taking action. It involves three work packages:
1) A systematic review of the literature on gender and climate change with a focus on industrialised countries, and an analysis of the relevant international agreements and mechanisms and their strategies to address gender issues, as well as their implications for gender-responsive national climate policy. A methodology for a gender review of national mitigation and adaptation programmes will be developed and applied to the German action programmes.
2) The instrument of gender impact assessment will be further developed and adjusted, primarily (but not exclusively) for the German institutional context.
3) An analysis will be conducted on the benefits of integrating gender dimensions into climate policies and measures and on the question of how climate policies can facilitate gender justice. As the basis for future work the project will give recommendations on how to close information gaps and improve data collection, and, finally, policy recommendations for integrating gender inot the German climate change politics will be developed.
|
|
|
|
COP22 took place in Marrakech from 7th to 18th November 2016. Its focus was the translation of the Paris Agreement into rules and procedures to ensure its timely implementation. Other important issues included raising ambition for the pre-2020 mitigation targets, climate finance and the continuation of the Lima Work Program on Gender. Interestingly, while the next COP will take place in Bonn in November 2017, it will be under the presidency of Fiji, setting a new precedent for the UNFCCC negotiations!
|
Joint statement on the outcomes of COP22
GenderCC and LIFE e.V. have published a joint statement on the achievements of COP22 and expectations for the future negotiations. Although COP22 had been labelled the “COP of Action”, we have a much more critical view on the follow-up to the Paris Agreement. The overall pace of progress achieved in Marrakech was slow with Parties struggling to come to meaningful actions on pre-2020 emission reduction targets, finance for loss and damage and convincing contributions to the US$100 billion roadmap for climate adaptation. Continue reading the full statement
|
|
GenderCC activities at COP22
GenderCC was represented by a delegation of nine people at COP22 in Marrakech, in addition to members who are accredited through their own organisations. Those present were able to support each other and exchange knowledge relating to the UNFCCC process and other relevant areas. Ndivile Mokoena from GenderCC Southern Africa summarised her experience at COP22 as follows: “This particular COP was a milestone for me after the last COP I attended was 3 years ago. It made a lot of sense to me, even though the negotiations are sometimes difficult to follow. I feel this particular COP was an impetus for climate action. There were a lot of actions from civil society and I hope their messages were heard by those responsible for implementation and will help to speed up the process. On the other hand, business advertisements were omnipresent and prominent. I was especially outraged about the nuclear energy companies advertising within the conference centre.”
GenderCC hosted two side events during COP22. The first took place within the civil society space and was hosted together with our partners from the Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative. The event, titled "Is your city's climate policy gender proof?”, featured initial experiences from the project and highlighted gender aspects in urban policies and measures. A panel consisting of several representatives from environmental and development NGOs discussed opportunities for cooperating towards achieving a better integration of gender issues in urban policies and activities. It became clear that while the relevance of gender is not questioned, resources are often lacking when gender is not identified as the main focus of activities. The second side event focusing on “Tools to Translate, Track and Transform: A dialogue on the transformative implementation of gender-responsive climate solutions” took place during Gender Day and was organised together with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), WEDO, selected Parties and international organisations. The discussion with national representatives highlighted that the implementation of gender responsive climate policies, NDCs or NAPs is challenging for all countries and that additional support is needed.
During the second week of COP22, GenderCC hosted an exhibition booth which provided a valuable opportunity to meet with both delegates and observers and to exchange knowledge and ideas.
|
Activities by the Women and Gender Constituency at COP22
The Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) met every morning to discuss advocacy strategies and share information about meetings and tasks. Prior to COP22 all member organisations jointly developed some key demands for the current negotiations within the UNFCCC process. Crucial aspects included pushing for gender-just climate solutions, sufficient funding for the extension of the Lima Work Program on Gender and for the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to be more ambitious in order to meet the target of a maximum 1.5°C temperature increase.
Several interventions were held on behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency during plenaries and meetings. In her statement, Nanna Birk from GenderCC’s member organisation LIFE made clear that Parties’ commitments are not adequate for staying below the temperature goal set in Paris and called for an immediate raise of ambition. She also demanded that women’s rights and gender equality must be an integral part of both mitigation and adaptation actions when implementing the agreement. Furthermore, Kalyani Raj from GenderCC’s member organisation All India Women’s Conference spoke at the farewell ceremony for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon who will leave office at the end of this year. She thanked the UN Secretary-General for being a strong force behind significant policy changes. She pointed out that in recent years a number of crucial gender decisions under the UNFCCC have been approved and thanked the UN Secretary-General for his support concerning these issues. All interventions are available on the Constituency’s website.
The Green Zone was the space to get in contact with Moroccan civil society groups in parallel to the official negotiations. The Women and Gender Constituency exhibition space and the various side events organised by its members allowed for further exchange between those interested in gender issues and related climate justice issues.
|
During the two weeks of COP22, several actions organised by the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) took place within and around the COP venue.
The first called for “Investment in Climate Justice, not in War” and criticised the high global military expenditures that could instead go a long way in tackling climate change and achieving climate justice. The action was covered by media and a report can be found in Asia Sentinel, featuring interviews with WGC members.
Together with youth representatives and indigenous people’s rights organisations, the WGC carried out another action asking “Why do we need moustaches to be heard?”. Activists demanded the full and equal participation of women in decision-making on all levels and for climate policies to be gender-responsive. Photos from the action are available here.
On Sunday Nov 13, the WGC led a feminist block at the Climate March in Marrakech. Take a look at some photos here.
|
|
Activities of the Gender and Climate Change Community
|
During COP22 the Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA) hosted an Innovation Forum which brought together grassroots leaders and gender experts from GGCA's diverse network, alongside students, researchers, practitioners and decision-makers. The aim of the Forum was to reflect on milestones in achieving gender-responsive climate policy, learn valuable skills and share best practices for implementation and real climate action.
GenderCC board member Gotelind Alber spoke in the opening plenary, "Gender on the Agenda: Where We Are, Where We Are Going", emphasising the need to examine gender inequalities in industrial countries. Together with the WEDO, GenderCC also co-hosted a skill-share workshop on approaches, methodologies and tools to integrate gender into urban climate policy.
The IISD Reporting Services compiled a video on the GGCA Innovation Forum with interviews on gender and climate change which features some of GenderCC’s members. The video as well as a written report and photos are available here.
|
The Gender Climate Tracker App
The Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland and the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA), and with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland has launched a new innovative tool: The Gender Climate Tracker App.
The app compiles policies, mandates, research, decisions and actions related to gender and climate change and aims to highlight key gender entry points and to facilitate implementation. It seeks to empower civil society, governments and citizens to hold their governments accountable to their gender commitments. Find more information and download the app here.
|
|
|
Women’s equality will not come after the environmental revolution
Climate change and inequality are two sides of the same coin, Majandra Rodriguez Acha writes in Open Democracy. Upholding the false binary between climate and social inequality means upholding the social conditions that marginalise certain voices and perspectives. Around the world there are women, feminists, social justice and environmental justice advocates who acknowledge and engage in necessary intersections between environmental and social struggle. Read more...
|
Meet the brave women who built the Standing Rock Movement
It’s not an exaggeration or flattery or romanticism to say that women built the Standing Rock movement, and will sustain it through whatever fight is yet to come. Women have comprised the majority of the “water protectors” and have led numerous demonstrations at the site, standing toe-to-toe against police and private security. Read more...
|
Women’s land rights key to enact gender-responsive climate change action
Securing women’s right to land can offer great benefits for socio-economic development as well as for reducing climate change. Since the Paris Agreement does not address women’s land rights, cross-movement initiatives should take the political lead to harness land rights in order to strengthen connections between women’s rights and general climate change solutions, according to an article in National Geographic. Read more...
|
Indigenous women in Peru combat climate change
To combat the impacts of climate change, indigenous women of Laramate in Peru have turned to ancestral farming techniques with support from UN Women's Fund for Gender Equality. In addition to healthier crops and improved incomes for the community, the programme has enhanced indigenous women's participation in public spaces and decision-making. Read more...
|
|
|
At the GenderCC Secretariat
Angelica Wågström, intern
Angelica is about to finish her Master’s degree in Human Ecology at Lund University in Sweden. With a background in environmental science and current studies focusing on social aspects of environmental problems, she enjoys working within the interdisciplinary area of climate change. She believes that climate justice needs gender equality to be achieved, as well as intersectional awareness and solidarity between social movements. She is doing an internship with GenderCC for a period of three and a half months to get a deeper understanding of how the gender and climate justice community works in practice. She can be reached at angelica.wagstrom(at)gmail.com.
|
GenderCC is a vibrant network of organisations, experts and activists from various parts of the world and thematic backgrounds. In the past weeks we’ve featured one of our members every Monday on our Facebook page and asked them why they engage in the issues of gender equality and climate change. A collection of members’ quotes together with their portraits can be found here.
|
|
|
Book review: Men, Masculinities and Disaster by Elaine Enarson and Bob Pease
GenderCC intern Angelica Wågström has reviewed a new publication on the topic of masculinities and disaster: My disaster is not the same as your disaster, even if it has the same name. Our different positions in a pre-disaster society not only affect our level of vulnerability, but also who of us will benefit from the disaster relief and who will be able to go back to employment post-disaster. For most of our readers these are not news, but what Men, Masculinities and Disaster achieves is showing this with concrete empirical research as well as discursive analyses of men and masculinities in eleven countries in different parts of the world.
Most stories share a message of the harm that patriarchy brings not only to women, but to men and people of all genders. However, masculinity is in fact not only about gender; some of the authors draw intersections between masculinities and other social constructs such as race, age and ability, and argue for an intersectional lens on disaster research. For those active in the field of climate change, I believe this book can inspire us to widen the gaze from so called “vulnerable women” to also look further into the role of masculinities, men and intersecting social constructs that decide our position in a changing environment. Read the full review.
GGCA (2016): Gender and Climate Change – A Closer Look at Existing Evidence
This publication provides the most up-to-date assessment of the current evidence base illustrating how vulnerability to climate change and climate adaptation decisions vary by gender. In addition fact sheets provide data and resources for specific regions. Read more...
UNDP (2016): Gender Equality in National Climate Action – Planning for Gender-Responsive Nationally Determined Contributions
This report provides an analysis of the degree to which the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted as of April 2016 have recognised and/or integrated gender equality. It also presents a framework for integrating gender equality into Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) planning and implementation. Read more...
Fraune, Cornelia (2016): The politics of speeches, votes, and deliberations – Gendered legislating and energy policy-making in Germany and the United States
Empirical evidence reveals a gender difference in both energy technology preferences and environmental concern. This paper contributes to this research by analysing the legislative behaviour of female and male legislators in energy policy-making in Germany and the United States for both roll call votes and legislative debates. The study gives hints that gender differences in energy policy-making exist, as revealed by legislators’ energy policy preferences. Read more...
|
|
|
25 January 2017: Deadline for submissions to the UNFCCC Secretariat on views on the matters to be addressed at the in-session workshop to develop possible elements of the gender action plan. More
1-3 February 2017, New Delhi, India: Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation in Asia
The symposium aims to showcase experiences from research, field projects and best practice in climate change adaptation in Asian countries, which may be replicated in other countries in the continent. It is co-hosted by GenderCC member Sejuti Basu from the organisation Pragya India. More
13-24 March 2017, New York, USA: 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The CSW61 will focus on the priority theme, “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work” and will address women’s economic empowerment in the context of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). CSW61 will furthermore address challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls and the empowerment of indigenous women as well as progress and gaps in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and other issues related to gender equality and the empowerment of women. More
27-29 March 2017, Hanover, Germany: Conference on Politics of Reproduction
The international conference "Politiken der Reproduktion - Politics of Reproduction" investigates key issues within the field of Women’s and Gender Studies – in particular questions of production and reproduction of gender and social gender relations. Six interdisciplinary panels explore diverse aspects of re_production with reference to social gender_relations in their contested and contradictory nature: biographies, care, configurations of humans und machines, spaces, world views and knowledge and institutions. More
|
|