SEVENTH SHARING & LEARNING SEMINAR Gender and Adaptation

to Climate Change

26 August 2011, 08.30-13.00 hrs Siam City Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

SYNTHESIS REPORT

The seventh bi-monthly Sharing and Learning seminar of the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia (Adaptation Knowledge Platform) and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) was organised in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), CARE International and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the impacts and causes of gender-related differences in vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change. The seminar brought together participants from government and intergovernmental agencies, NGOs, academia, the private sector and UN agencies working on adaptation to climate change.

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OpENING REMARkSDaisuke Sano, Director of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Regional Center and AnnaMaria Olthorp, Head of the Development Cooperation Section at the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Embassy of Sweden, presented opening remarks.

Olthorp highlighted that vulnerable women and men are hardest hit by natural disasters, referring to a London School of Economics (LSE) analysis of 140 natural disasters around the world. The LSE study showed that where men and women enjoyed the same rights, casualties were evenly distributed; where they did not, more women than men died. She noted that for Sweden, gender equality is a goal in itself and a prerequisite for democracy, citing a scoping study by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) which showed that failure to include women in adaptation at the local, national and regional level contributes to gender inequality and undermines the effectiveness of actions responding to climate change

On gender-differentiated attitudes, she presented that women and men were shown to perceive climate change differently; women have a higher perception of risk and are more likely to accept behavioural change. Fewer women than men believe that science and technology will solve problems without adopting changes in lifestyle, and women are less likely to believe that government actions are adequate.

She expressed hope that the meeting would be a starting point from which the platform could identify further areas in need of action related to the topic, calling on participants to avoid the trap of speaking only about women, affirming that, “It’s about women and men, boys and girls, equally”.

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KEYNOTE AddRESS CLIMATE CHANGE ANd GENdER

Aban Marker Kabraji, Asia Regional Director and Senior Advisor on Regionalization, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), presented an environment and biodiversity perspective, observing that gender-responsive climate change and adaptation is

“one of the most marginalised debates”, as most discourse focuses on technology and hardware, and emphasising her use of the word

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“vulnerability” in the sense of resource degradation. She reminded participants of the view of the NGO coalition, the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, that “the climate change drama will largely be played out in Asia” in the form of monsoons, climate unpredictability, sea-level rise, and tropical storms, noting that women will be disproportionately affected, with implications for food security, water, and household energy needs.

She recommended that disasters should be a focus of attention, due to the gender impacts of extreme weather events and disasters that are likely to recur. She added that people’s resilience to disasters will decrease in proportion to ecosystem resilience, and that urban centres are becoming especially vulnerable.

Kabraji emphasised that climate change impacts will increase scarcity of food sources and reduce crop yields, noting that 70 percent of the world’s farmers are women, while in Asia women are responsible for 65 percent of food security, for example, contributing much labour for rice cultivation and collecting products of the natural environment such as shellfish.

She highlighted the contribution of changing weather patterns to deforestation, which increases the burden on women and girls in duties such as firewood collection as tree lines recede. She proposed that women’s knowledge of local biodiversity should afford them a central role in adaptation efforts involving biodiversity.

She observed that efforts to mainstream gender equity into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) negotiations have so far been unsuccessful; this remains the only one of the three conventions from the 1992 Rio conference that does not include mention of gender. She suggested that further research into gender-specific climate change could be conducted, noting that there is “far too much separation” between the social aspects and natural resources aspects of climate change, and emphasising the need to target the root causes of gender inequality in every aspect of sustainable development initiatives.

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Gender-related differences in vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change: impacts and causes

This session began with the screening of a short video from India, “Climate Change: Listening to the voices of rural women”, available on the website of UK charity Find Your Feet, www.fyf.org.uk, presenting experiences of farmers in Uttar Pradesh with late rains, falling water tables, and halving of crop yields. Some women were migrating to seek work, and many people were falling ill with cerebral malaria and cholera, resulting in less time for the women carers to work in their fields. Nevertheless, women farmers were adapting by taking out loans to diversify their activities through the buying of livestock, practising multi-cropping and starting to irrigate their fields.

Deepa Bharathi, Regional Programme Manager – Migration Programme, UN Women East and Southeast Asia Regional Office, Thailand, presented some gendered aspects of climate change impacts. She emphasised that women should not be viewed as

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victims and vulnerable people; they are rendered so because of inequalities. Nevertheless, a gender-neutral approach does not work, because climate change impacts are differently distributed. For example, in some countries patrilineal customs, land ownership, property rights and the labour-intensive and time-intensive nature of women’s work meant that climate change impacts on are disproportionately felt by women.

In a series of examples, Bharathi illustrated that women are primarily responsible for accessing water for livestock, subsistence farming, and home-based enterprises. Climate change-induced water scarcity imposes additional time burdens on women specifically, as well as susceptibility to waterborne diseases caused by lack of sanitation facilities. She emphasised that where women do not have access to land ownership and titles, they may be disproportionately affected by water scarcity. Furthermore, when men migrate, women assume traditional male responsibilities without having the accompanying rights, especially in the areas of land and property. She observed that the declining productivity of agricultural land is also leading to women’s migration into low-paid, uninsured sectors such as domestic work and factory work, adding that salary remittances by migrants may be used to buy substitutes for goods previously harvested from the local environment. She highlighted the need to study the impacts of rural migration on urban centres and the implications for the coping mechanisms of such centres.

She also called for equal access to credit, extension services and information technology, emphasising that women should be involved in the development of appropriate technologies for mitigation and adaptation, while multi-stakeholder processes should include women’s groups and civil society organisations (CSOs).

In closing, she highlighted the existing legal mandates for linking gender and climate change responses: (i) Resolution 2005/31 of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council on “Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United

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Nations system” and the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women; (ii) the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); and (iii) commitments on sustainable development made at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, including the Agenda 21 plan of action, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention to Combat Desertification.

Bernadette Resurreccion, Associate Professor, Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development, AIT, highlighted that climate change exacerbates the impacts of pre-existing conditions such as economic and livelihood systems, access to infrastructure, governance, social and political institutions. Factors such as gender, class, and ethnicity, all determine who will be most vulnerable.

She presented a case that adaptation strategies are also gender-differentiated. For example, while men out-migrate, women remain on the farm, adopting a range of strategies in order to adjust to impacts, moderate harm and exploit benefits. She put forward a series of research questions relevant to bringing a gender perspective to climate change adaptation (see text box) drawn from a recent gap analysis undertaken for DFID and the International Development Research Centre in Canada.

Bringing a gender perspective to climate change adaptation1. Migration as an adaptation strategy Who are migrating? Are there specific social protection

measures for female and male migrants? Is migration gender-specific and are women in need of specific social protections?

2. Social security mechanisms for adaptation Do such mechanisms exist? If not, can they be created? Who has

access to such mechanisms – for example, access to credit or insurance schemes covering disasters or crop failures?

3. Livelihood security

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Whose livelihoods are most disadvantaged? Are there trade-offs between mitigation efforts such as agro-fuel cultivation, and adaptation strategies such as the cultivation of women’s food crops to boost household food security?

4. Factors that lead to resilience to health-related impacts Are public services responding to increased vector diseases?

Or is care being increasingly passed on to women due to weak health services?

5. Governance of adaptation What are the priorities for programming? What are the scales of

influence and who are excluded? Whose voices matter?6. Adaptation technologies Who can adopt these technologies? Who has knowledge for

their use and adoption? Who benefits?

In concluding, she emphasised the need to assess the outcomes of adaptation strategies being adopted, to consider whether both women and men are better off – or if new chains of social vulnerability are being created.

Question and answer session

A CSO representative from a women’s group asked if UN Women had a position on the use of the term “vulnerability”, given its negative i m p l i c a t i o n s . B h a r a t h i responded that UN Women is increasingly moving against its use; however unequal structures must first change, before we can say that women are not vulnerable.

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She welcomed debate and suggested that the term “marginalised” may come to take its place.

Resurreccion commented that the term “vulnerability” was inherited from the climate change lexicon; furthermore there are social vulnerabilities as represented in the low status of certain people groups such as migrants. In response to an objection by a CSO representative that, “to continually position women as victims is not doing them any favours”, she observed that the women’s movement over the years have used the term in different ways, affirming support for women’s agency in the change process, and noting that vulnerability could nevertheless be a constraint in adapting to climate change.

An International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) staff person raised the question of what policies can best support farmers in both adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Gender-responsive climate change adaptation practice: Good examples and lessons observed

Bruce Ravesloot, Senior Adaptation Advisor Asia, CARE International Asia, discussed climate change adaptation in terms of CARE International’s community-based adaptation framework, which includes four inter-related components: promotion of climate-resilient livelihood strategies, including capacity building for planning and improved risk management; DRR; capacity strengthening of civil society and government institutions for better support of local adaptation efforts; and advocacy and social mobilisation to address the underlying causes of vulnerability, such as gender-based inequality and poor governance. He described CARE’s “twin-track” approach to working on gender issues through mainstreaming gender considerations across all programmes, as well as developing targeted programmes and strategies for gender equality and women’s empowerment. He affirmed CARE’s focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment as goals in their own

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right, while also acknowledging the benefits of gender integration to effective and efficient programming.

Ravesloot cited examples of CARE’s work in gender and climate change in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tajikistan and Thailand, describing how these programmes had facilitated social transformation and women’s empowerment. One example from Bangladesh highlighted CARE’s work in strengthening livelihood resilience to climate change impacts, in which there was a strong focus on the economic empowerment of women, resulting not only in economic benefits for households, but also in positive changes in women’s roles and men’s behaviour towards women. Another project in Indonesia examined gender roles in agro-forestry systems; as a result, men were encouraged to become involved in activities that were traditionally the responsibilities of women, such as child care and fetching water and fuel. He also showed a video example of a Christian Aid project that can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwJ5szC7Xu4

Some lessons observed from CARE’s work on gender in adaptation to climate change

Carry out a differential vulnerability analysis including gender considerations as a starting point.

Identify appropriate entry points for a comprehensive, rights-based approach. Find a way to engage with short-term, direct needs before expecting people to invest in long-term structural change.

Avoid over-burdening women, and manage the risks of their involvement in the project. While striving for gender equality, we need to acknowledge that this takes time, during which both men and women still hold traditional roles and responsibilities that are essential in supporting household wellbeing. It is also important to acknowledge that many initiatives work with the same women, i.e. those who are natural leaders. We need to constantly remind ourselves to expand our efforts beyond these few individuals.

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Don’t forget about the men. Men’s voices carry far - if you don’t include them in the right way, those voices can do a lot of damage.

Engage staff in gender and empowerment initiatives. Within development organizations, substantial investment should be made in strengthening staff capacity in gender equality and women’s empowerment, including those who may be recruited from the local communities in which they work.

Progress in one area of gender empowerment is usually insufficient for a woman to fully realize her rights and aspirations, which need to be addressed through a long-term, holistic approach. Securing funding for such long-term programmes instead of short-term projects remains a challenge.

Further information is is available on www.careclimatechange.org

Jonathan Shott, Project Manager and Disaster Management Consultant, Sustainable Development Foundation, spoke about “Integrating Gender Issues: Lessons from the Tsunami”, on behalf of the previously scheduled speaker, Duangsuda Mueaugwong of the Office of Women’s Affairs and Family Development.

He presented that in the tsunami aftermath, women suffered more from a lack of privacy and cooking facilities as camps and temporary shelters did not always have separate gender-segregated washing and toilet facilities, or include cooking facilities. Furthermore, the criteria for eligibility to housing discriminated against the very poor, as those unable to provide proof of ownership were not eligible for such relief. He presented case examples of women whose circumstances were significantly worse after the tsunami, as well as some practical steps to ensure women’s needs are met and women’s rights are respected and protected during disasters. He recommended to: identify the specific needs of women, such as menstrual supplies; provide men and women with equal access to compensation and rehabilitation;

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eliminate the “head of household concept”; ensure women have access to information on relief and rehabilitation; and ensure children’s access to education.

Shott highlighted two manuals produced by the Sustainable Development Foundation: Women in Times of Disaster, which provides policy recommendations for integrating a gender perspective into policymaking and practice, supported by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC); and a Thai-language field manual on disaster management, produced in cooperation with the Thai government. Both are available on the organisation website, http://www.sdfthai.org

Question and answer session

A participant from Nepal commented that projects to empower women often focused on those who stand out and are more vocal, and that care should be taken to empower “women as a whole, and not only one”.

A participant from the Central Himalayan Association, India, remarked that women in communities often have more patience to adopt new practices that require time and patience, such as preparing organic compost, whereas men prefer short-cut methods such as using more pesticide. He recommended building on this specific strength of women.

A staff person from UNDP Cambodia called on participants not to overlook the issue of women’s illiteracy as it affects programme

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implementation, highlighting that UNDP’s investment in their Tonle Sap conservation programme has increased women’s participation in the programme.

Gender-responsive climate change adaptation policies and policy processes: challenges at national, regional and international levels

Sylvia Ordonee, Executive Director, Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), Philippines presented on “Climate Change and Legislation: A Philippine Experience”, describing their decades-long experience of working with women parliamentarians and women in government and politics.

She highlighted that since 2008, rather than trying to bring more women into politics, the focus has been on increasing their knowledge of those already involved, beginning with the topic of climate change. She described the keen interest of many organisations in introducing gender as an issue in climate change; their continuing efforts on the sidelines of the international negotiating meetings; and CAPWIP’s downloadable manual on this subject. She also highlighted the work of Philippine Senator Loren Legarda in introducing two important laws on climate change in the Philippines: the Climate Change Act of 2009 which provided for the mainstreaming of climate change into government policy and created the Climate Change Commission within the Prime Minister’s Office; and the Philippines Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 which mandates a nationwide approach through to the barangay level, and created the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council tasked with crafting and implementing DRR policies and coordinating relief and recovery operations.

Lucy Wanjiru, Programme specialist, Gender Team, UNDP headquarters, New York, outlined existing mandates for gender equality, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination

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of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the 2005 Hyogo Framework for Action on DRR; and various frameworks for implementing sustainable development, including Agenda 21 from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. She noted that women’s caucuses have been lobbying for inclusion of gender as an issue in the UNFCCC since 2008, highlighting the work of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance and Women for Climate Justice in promoting certain key principles, including the fair representation and participation of women in the negotiating processes. She remarked that concern about gender and climate change tends to focus on issues of access, noting also that while the term “vulnerability” should be used with caution, it is sometimes specified as a criterion for receiving funding, including from the Adaptation Fund. She highlighted UNDP’s strategy of providing knowledge products and involving women environment ministers at a high level. She also drew attention to the work of the Women Delegates’ Fund, supported by Finland, implemented by the Women’s Environment & Development Organization and administered by UNDP. It was initially recognised that in 2006-2007, women made up only 12 percent of delegates to the UNFCCC. She noted that through the efforts of the fund, women’s participation in 2010 rose to a high of 34 per cent, increasing both in visibility as well as positions of leadership. She highligh ted that at the 16th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP16) in Cancun, eight gender references were made across seven different sections of negotiated text, acknowledging, among other points: the particular vulnerability of women to climate change; the positive effect of gender equality and inclusion of women on the effectiveness of climate action; and the need for a gender approach to adaptation. Meanwhile, at the regional level, Pacific women have been visible through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) groups.

She noted that remaining challenges include: the absorption capacity of governments, with particular application to the Pacific, where there are no regional advisors on the gender aspects of

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climate change; lack of recognition for gender entry points by CSOs to the negotiations; the need for gender-disaggregated data and information; and capacity development in advocacy skills and awareness, coordination, communication, networking, financial resources, institutions and technology. She advised that UNDP’s climate change adaptation policy frameworks provide guidance on how to scope and design an adaptation project, and are available online through the Adaptation Learning Mechanism, http://www.adaptationlearning.net/

Question and answer session

A participant from IFAD noted that farmers’ workshops at the national level tend to be male-dominated, due to capacity issues, and expressed a wish to see more participation of women farmers in discussion and negotiations at the regional level, including in forums of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Wanjiru highlighted the support from certain governments, including Finland, for women to attend the international climate negotiations. She affirmed that ongoing capacity building is crucial; women should not only be brought into the policy making arena, but should also have their skills built so that they can rise within the system.

A participant from India proposed that a mechanism for sharing experiences of gender and adaptation in the field could be established.

perspectives of participants

Sophoan Phean, Regional Policy Advisor, Oxfam America East Asia Regional Office, Cambodia, introduced the breakout session with two discussion questions:

What are potential traps and pitfalls in efforts to integrate concerns with gender in climate change adaptation initiatives?

What are some specific, highly innovative ways, through which adaptation related activities could help transform gender relations in development?

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In preliminary remarks on the Cambodian experience of gender in adaptation to climate change, she suggested that current difficulties in the Cambodian situation include: an absence of political understanding of the importance of gender mainstreaming; lack of women’s representation; lack of gender-disaggregated data; lack of knowledge about how to introduce gender sensitivity, and issues of capacity. Participants reported back from their discussions with the following points:

While meetings at the international level do welcome women farmers, at the national level there is usually neither the political space nor funds for this. One participant commented, “The indicator shows ‘empowerment’, but when you go to the grassroots there is nothing.”

We need case studies to sensitise both educated people as well as those at the grassroots level of the importance of a gender perspective in adaptation.

“Experts” on gender do not only come from academia, but also from civil society organisations and farmer-leaders.

Camaraderie and cultural understanding of gender concepts in each others’ countries can be built through informal means such as shared experiences of diverse food and customs at meetings and conferences.

In considering how to elicit the participation of women and focus on their needs in adaptation to climate change, generic gender guidelines could be used across sectors such as natural resource management, DRR and adaptation in general, rather than developing specific guidelines for each sector.

Tracking of household-level spending in times of extreme weather events can give clues about how to prepare for the future, including through savings, seed banks, reserved food stocks, etc.

Encourage women in their role as educators to promote awareness of gender and adaptation to climate change. An innovative educational process in this field should start in kindergartens and become an integral part of life-long

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education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) could provide some useful guidelines for educators in all forms of teaching and learning, making these available for translation into national and local languages.

Synthesis

Ulamila Wragg, Women Delegates Fund, the Cook Islands provided a summary of speakers’ main points, highlighting that further in-depth studies on migration, health and related issues were needed, and that gender analysis of women and men’s engagement in political processes and implementation of adaptation strategies should be carried out. She expressed a hope that those in the Pacific may be able to draw on the pool of gender expertise in Asia, and that local experiences and lessons from the grassroots level will be taken up in policy making at the national and international levels.

AcronymsAIT Asian Institute of technology

CAPWIP Center for Asia-Pacific Women in PoliticsCSO Civil Society Organisation

DFID Department for International DevelopmentDRR Disaster Risk ReductionIGES Institue for Global Environmental StartegiesIFAD International Fund for Agricultural Developement

LSE Londond School of EconomicsUNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNFCC United Nations Framework Convention on CLimate Change

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Further ReadingJoint agencies (2011) Governing Climate Funds: What will work for

women?, Research Paper, published by Gender Action, Oxfam, and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, http://www.genderaction.org/publications/11/climate-funds-for-women.pdf

Joint agencies (2011) Disaster Management Field Manual: Gender Perspectives (in Thai language), published by the Office of Women’s Affairs and Family Development, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Royal Thai Government, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Ministry of Interior, Royal Thai Government, and the Sustainable Development Foundation. (To request a hard or soft copy contact: Jonathan Shott, Project Manager and Disaster Management Consultant, Sustainable Development Foundation, jonathan.shott@talk21.com)

Terry, G. (2009) No climate justice without gender justice: an overview of the issues, Gender & Development, 17:1, 5-18, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552070802696839

Brody, A. et al (2008) Gender and climate change: mapping the linkages, A scoping study on knowledge and gaps, DRAFT, BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies: United Kingdom, http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/Climate_Change_DFID_draft.pdf

Prasertcharoensuk. R. et al (2008) Women in Times of Disaster: The integration of gender issues and gender perspectives in disaster management (Thailand study – The Case of the Indian Ocean Tsunami) http://publications.apec.org/publication-detail.php?pub_id=337

Gomez, S. (2006) Guidelines for Gender-Sensitive Disaster Management: Practical steps to ensure women’s needs are met and women’s human rights are respected and protected during disasters, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development: Thailand, http://www.apwld.org/archive/pb_gendersensitive.htm

Prasertcharoensuk, R. and Sirisook, D. (2006) Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Thailand, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development: Thailand, http://www.apwld.org/archive/pb_tsunami_thailand.htm

AIT-UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the PacificOutreach Building, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang

Pathumthani 12120, ThailandTel: 662 524 5386/5384

Email: info@climateadapt.asiaWebsite: http://www.climateadapt.asia

October 2011Photo credits

Cover & Inside: AIT-UNEP RRC.APBack: SEI/Roengchai Krongmuang