Gender and Development

Climate

Global chal­lenges re­quire joint strategies

Climate change knows no gender – it impacts us all. Particularly affected are those whose livelihoods depend on natural resources and who are least able to respond to disasters such as hurricanes, floods or droughts.

Women and girls are disproportionately affected because of intersectional power structures. Moreover, global movements, against both the causes and the effects of climate change, are dominated at the political level by male perspectives, thereby exacerbating inequalities and preventing women from contributing their knowledge.

  • Policy making and project planning should take into account the needs and user behaviour of women and girls. It is therefore important to involve women in decision-making processes while also collecting and analysing gender-specific needs in studies and data.
  • Dabei geht es einerseits darum, die besonderen negativen Effekte des Klimawandels auf Frauen und Mädchen zu reduzieren.
  • One aim here is to reduce the specific negative effects of climate change on women and girls. To sustainably break the cycle of multi-discrimination, focus is also on actively promoting women as decision-makers and knowledge holders in efforts to overcome the global climate crisis.
  • Ensuring that gender equality and female empowerment is respected, promoted and addressed is vital in implementing the climate convention and the Paris Agreement.

Info: But women are also important knowledge holders and decision-makers, and are capable of making vital contributions to overcoming the climate crisis. Only by utilising knowledge and potential of women as change agents will we have a chance of overcoming the climate crisis.

Mi­gra­tion and dis­place­ment

Also highly gendered are migration and displacement due to climate change. Men and women are affected differently by the impact of climate change, and their different social positioning influences their migration opportunities and decision-making. According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement, 16.1 million people were displaced by extreme weather events in 2018 alone, significantly more than the 10.8 million people displaced by conflict during the same period. With determined and gender-responsive climate policies, a significant increase in these numbers can be prevented.  x

Footnotes

  1. Source: IDMC (2019) Global Report on Internal Displacement 2019