Women, girls and marginalised communities, who are the worst affected because of climate change, must be involved in the design and implementation of climate response actions to ensure the equal sharing of benefits, as these people possess unique knowledge and experience, particularly at the local level.
Ahead of the International Women’s day on March 8, the UN Women says that the inclusion of women in decision-making processes is critical to effective climate action. It said that the participation of women in natural resource management at the local level is associated with better resource governance and conservation outcomes.
This International Women’s Day, 8 March, the UN calls the world to come together under the theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. and call for climate action for women, by women.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY
Further, the UN Women states that expanding women’s access to productive resources can increase agricultural production and food security and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. “If all women smallholders received equal access to productive resources, their farm yields would rise by 20 to 30 per cent, and 100 to 150 million people would no longer go hungry. Increasing farm yields can reduce the pressure to deforest more land, reducing additional emissions,” the UN organisation said.
Moreover, the UN Women Organisation points out that women’s leadership in the workplace, is associated with increased transparency around climate impact. Pointing out that sexual and reproductive health and rights are essential for gender equality in climate action, the UN Organisation says nations could safeguard recent gains made in environmental and biodiversity conservation, adaptation for change, and climate improvements in health, education and gender equality by strengthening health systems to meet the current demand for sexual and productive health services.
GENDER EQUALITY
Putting gender equality at the centre of climate change solutions means integrating diverse gender perspectives across holistic and enduring climate, environmental, and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes, the UN Women said.
Women’s and girl’s full and equal participation in decision-making processes is a top priority in the fight against climate change. Without gender equality today, a sustainable, more equal future remains beyond our reach,” they said.
Climate solutions must also improve and invest in gender-specific statistics and data to amplify the relationship between gender and climate, strengthen and enforce land rights, and promote women-led and women-focused sustainable solutions, particularly indigenous and grassroots nature-based solutions, resource management, and food production activities.
Pointing out that women and girls bear the burden of climate impacts, they said that these people are essential to leading and driving change in climate adaption, mitigation and solutions. “Without the inclusion of half of the world’s population, it is unlikely that solutions for a sustainable planet and a gender equal world tomorrow will be realized,” they said.
