‘What’s gender got to do with climate change?’ - A lot more than you might think

In most countries throughout the world and at all levels of government, women are not equally represented in decision-making processes. This lack of representation severely reduces the contributions women can make in the planning, mitigating and implementation of climate-related policies and measures. 
Unless significant progress is made in the inclusion of women in the framing and execution of these strategies, both in government and on the ground, the chances of achieving successful solutions will be slim. 

 
Source: Global Support Programme (GSP)



Women’s valuable skills and knowledge of resource management and sustainable practices at local community level, as well as in the great majority of households, are often taken for granted. But these same skills and know-how are desperately needed at all levels in the face of climate change.
Communicating the need to address the socio-economic vulnerabilities of women and the need to include and make use of the capacities of women in all climate-related decision-making is thus a vital task. 

In Macedonia, efforts to highlight the connections between gender and climate change first began only five years ago now - and these efforts had to start almost from scratch.
The starting point for these efforts was the collection and communication of data to raise awareness among policy-makers to bring about change.
Working with the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, UNDP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) set about this task by first translating technical climate change reports into climate-friendly tools to initiate transformational change in sectoral policies.
The data collected show a substantial gender gap in earnings and productivity, affecting women’s ability to make choices, invest resources and influence decisions, leaving them most exposed and powerless in the face of climate change threats and social inclusion.
For example:
•    Women make up only 39.6% of the formal labour force and contribute a substantial amount of unpaid family labour.
•    Women in rural areas face challenges in accessing all levels of policy and decision-making, constituting 30% or less of all employees in municipal administrations.
•    In agriculture, women comprise 40% of workers in farming enterprises but are much more commonly engaged in unpaid agricultural activity, with tasks such as planting bringing them more directly into contact with the effects of climate change, including threats to water resources.
•    Women’s responsibilities for cooking and cleaning make them more vulnerable to water-borne diseases and the pollution of water sources, while natural disasters further increase the work burdens on women and girls, who are commonly most responsible for providing care, water and food for households.

HOW CAN WE MAINSTREAM GENDER IN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES AND ACTION?     

Strategy entry-points for taking action on gender and climate change have been identified, including:

•    Working with governments, NGOs, communities and the private sector to integrate gender considerations and expand women’s participation in the development and implementation of climate-related policies.

•    Mainstreaming gender in disaster and risk reduction policies in key sectors such as water, agriculture, health and education.

•    Analysing sex-disaggregated data and climate risk from a gender perspective.

•    Engaging women as key stakeholders in all phases of climate change strategies.