New Report: Gender in Climate Change in Bangladesh: The Role of Institutions in Reducing Gender Gaps in Adaptation

Are women more vulnerable to climate change then men?  If so, what are the factors which contribute to these increases and what can be done to help increase the resiliency of both women and men to the negative impacts of climate change? For answers to these questions and more, please visit Genderinag.org to find a recent report by the World Bank’s Nilufar Ahmad titled “Gender in Climate Change in Bangladesh: The Role of Institutions in Reducing Gender Gaps in Adaptation” and to hear a recent presentation by the author to the Washington-based GRADE Group.

Publication: Gender issue in climate change discourse: theory versus reality

Authors: Baten,Mohammad; Khan,Niaz
Produced by: Bangladesh Online Research Network; BDResearch.org.bd (2010)

Even though gender has become one of the themes of analysis in development policy discourse, it has received little emphasis in climate change policies. By reviewing literature related to climate change and gender, this paper finds that women are more vulnerable to climate disasters than men through their socially constructed roles and responsibilities, and their relatively poorer and more economically vulnerable position, especially in the developing world. In Bangladesh, gender inequalities with respect to enjoyment of human rights, political and economic status, land ownership, housing conditions, exposure to violence, education and health (in particular reproductive and sexual health) make women more vulnerable before, during and after climate change-induced disasters. The paper argues that enhancement of institutional capacity to mainstream gender in global and national climate change and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policies and operations through the development of gender policies, gender awareness, internal and external gender capacity and expertise, and the development and application of relevant mechanisms and tools should be prioritized for a pro-poor development in the realm of climate contingencies.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=58988

Funding: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is searching for scientists who are interested in conducting research on gender issues related to the climate change, agriculture, and food security nexus. CCAFS will award women scientists enrolled in a PhD program or interested in a post doctoral opportunity, and who are citizens of and affiliated with an institution in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Bangladesh, India, or Nepal to a research grant of $35,000. Proposals must:

1.      Demonstrate and contribute to understanding the linkages between climate change and gender more specifically, while developing policy-relevant findings on climate change, agriculture, and food security more generally.

2.      Build research capacity of women scientists in partner institutions and increase their representation in agricultural research.

Proposals must be submitted by May 1, 2011.  The full call for proposals may be downloaded at http://ccafs.cgiar.org/sites/default/files/docs/call_for_competitive_small_grants_proposals.pdf and the application form is available at http://ccafs.cgiar.org/sites/default/files/docs/application_form_for_the_competitive_small_grants_proposals_0.pdf.

PUBLICATION: Women at the Center of Climate-friendly Approaches to Agriculture and Water Use

In a new paper, Shiney Varghese of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) examines proven agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience to climate change through a case study of the Tamilnadu Women’s Collective in India. The collective, a federation of village-level women’s groups with over 150,000 members—the majority of which belong to the lowest caste—follow three principles for food security: 1.) empowerment of women; 2.) democratic local governance; and 3.) multifunctional agriculture.

Download the paper (pdf).

Resource: Gender and Climate Change Website and Toolkit Multilingual

GenderCC has started to provide information on its website also in Spanish and in German.
Step by step, the website will be translated; and we add French sections in the future. You can identify those parts which are already translated by navigating to the respective language pages via the top right flag bar. In addition, there are specific pages in some languages where, for example, information relevant only for Germany is provided in German only.

http://www.gendercc.net

 

Also, GenderCC’s popular publication ‘gender into climate policy – toolkit for climate experts and decision-makers’ is now available in Spanish, French and German and can be downloaded here.

 

Publication: Climate change and gender: economic empowerment of women through climate mitigation and adaptation?

The discourse on climate change does not pay adequate attention towomen, either at the local project level or in international negotiations.Women are unable to voice their specific requirements even though theimpact of climate change affects women and men differently. In severalrural areas of the more…

Publication: Farmers in a changing climate–does gender matter?

This report presents the findings of research undertaken in six villages in two drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, Mahbubnagar and Anantapur. The study, carried out by an international team led by FAO, used gender, institutional, and climate analyses to document the trends in more…

CALL FOR PAPERS: Gender and Climate Change 2011

Gender and Climate Change is an international conference that will seek to bring together the latest research in key areas of gender and climate change, to highlight impacts of climate change on women, and to draw together a body of knowledge for input into the 2011 United Nations Framework Convention (COP 17) and the Earth Summit 2012.

The complex couplings between human and natural systems that must be understood to respond to climate change, demands a robustly multi- and interdisciplinary approach to research. Furthermore, attention to the differential gendered impacts and opportunities of climate change requires a deeply intersectional approach in which the relevance of factors such as class and race are considered alongside gender. For this reason, the theme of this conference, recognizes the importance of engaging experts from multiple disciplines and engaging local and indigenous knowledges to address critical gender and climate change issues. Strong partnerships among researchers, policy-makers, and community stakeholders are essential for identifying and implementing promising, sustainable solutions that are relevant to the people who are most affected.

More information.

Deadline: November 30, 2010

News: U.N. Climate Body Urged to Take Lead in Gender Focus

Megan Iacobini de Fazio
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 – Two weeks before the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review summit at the United Nations, concerns are being raised that gender equality is still largely divorced from efforts to address climate change, even though women have a critical role to play in solving – and are often most affected by – the problem.
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Resource: Gender, Climate Change and Community-Based Adaptation

Collaboration between the Gender Team at UNDP and the UNDP-GEF CBA Programme Team. This publication is a guidebook for designing and implementing gender-sensitive Community-based adaptation programmes and projects. It seeks to ensure that  forthcoming CBA projects contribute to the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment by integrating a gendered perspective into CBA programming and project design. The guide book provides simple tools and practical advice on how to take a gender-sensitive approach to planning and implementing adaptation projects and programmes, it will be a useful reference for development practitioners and, or policymakers working in this field.

The guidebook can be found in the UNDP publications page http://www.undp.org/women/publications.shtml  hyper-link  Gender, Climate Change and Community-based Adaptation. We welcome you to read, use and share this resource widely with your colleagues and networks.