Climate Change & Women

As the majority of the world’s poor, women are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change as it exacerbates poverty and threatens to set back development efforts by decades. Women’s social roles as food providers for their families, managers of household resources and chief caregivers after natural disasters uniquely position them as both victims of climate change and powerful agents of change. Sectors central to climate change mitigation such as agriculture, food security and water management are predominately female. All climate change policymaking, implementation and government accountability must be gender-responsive and include the input of women most directly affected by these efforts.

2010 NCRW Member Center Award Winners in Research, Advocacy, and Diversity

Attachment:

NCRW Member Center Awards 2010

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Will the World Listen to Women?

Teaser:

At the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, female leaders argue that reproductive health links to everything from poverty to food security to climate change and beyond.

Editorial:

From Inter Press Service:

What does birth control have anything to do with reducing global emissions?

Everything, women around the world would say, because they know how closely linked reproductive health is to issues ranging from poverty and food security to climate change and beyond. This message was precisely what female leaders brought to the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, but not many were listening, least of all the Vatican.

“The only way to respond to increasing human numbers and dwindling resources is through the empowerment of women,” said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway and former director-general of the World Health Organisation.

“It is through giving women access to education, knowledge, to paid income, independence and of course access to reproductive health services, reproductive rights, access to family planning,” she elaborated, adding that no other way existed to change the current “pattern of human consumption”.

Female leaders have long been trying to tell the world that sustainable development is not just about deforestation, climate change and carbon emissions. Equally as important to sustainable development are gender equality and human rights, which include sexual and reproductive rights.

But the reality is that globally, 215 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using effective methods of contraception. More than two and five pregnancies are unplanned, and approximately 287,000 girls and women die each year from pregnancy-related causes. The world has a ways to go to ensure that women have access to full reproductive rights and health.

[...]

Source:

Inter Press Service

URL:

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/will-the-world-listen-to-women/

Date:

June 25, 2012

Affiliate:

Celebrating Momentum and Milestones: A WEDO History of Women’s Organizing Toward a Healthy and Peaceful Planet

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 11:47pm

What if we, as women, use this opportunity of the UN Conference on Environment and Development to be the change we want to see in the world?” This was the question women activists posed to themselves in the early 1990s, according to WEDO founding member Thais Corral of Brazil. “This was the starting point of WEDO: a group of friends, a group of women activists occupying a range of strategic positions around the world, trying to figure out how to innovate, how to collaborate – how to be the change we want to see.”

URL:

http://www.wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/WEDO_Celebrating-MomentumandMilestones.pdf

Member Organization:

Women's Environment and Development Organization

CSW56 Learning Circle: Gender and Climate Change

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 10:39am

Nearly 150 participants joined in the Learning Circles on Gender and Climate co-hosted by the GGCA and NGO CSW NY.

URL:

http://www.gender-climate.org/Content/Docs/Publications/learning_circle_report.pdf

Gender equality and climate change: Main findings

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 10:37am

Climate change is a multiplier of environmental changes and has major impacts on the lives of women and men. These impacts and consequences are not gender-neutral. Women and men have different needs, priorities and possibilities of mitigating the effect of the impact and adapting to climate change. Therefore policies on climate change and actions taken can be more effective and enhance equality if they take into account gender aspects.

URL:

http://www.eige.europa.eu/content/document/gender-equality-and-climate-change-main-findings

Women at the frontline of climate change - Gender risks and hopes

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 10:52am

Women are often in the frontline in respect to the impacts of a changing climate. Globally the world is seeing increasingly frequent droughts and floods which are having economic but also profound social consequences. The women and people of Asia are currently at greatest risk with over 100 million people affected in this region annually.

URL:

http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/women-and-climate-change/

Guide to World Water Day

Teaser:

Women's Environment & Development Organization's guide to water and gender.

Editorial:

From WEDO:

Water for Life
Water vital natural resource and a human right, and the right and access to clean, safe water is intrinsically linked to gender equality. From the miles & hours women and girls spend collecting water– the implications this has on their health, education and economic opportunity– to the threat of climate change on water resources affecting all aspects of women’s and men’s lives, it is clear that water is a human rights and women’s rights issue.

We must use World Water Day to call attention to this precious resource and ask ourselves some important questions: What if you didn’t have access to safe water for your family? What could you do with 6 hours a day? What actions are we taking to make water accessible to all?

On World Water Day, WEDO reminds you to protect this vital natural resource and work towards a world which promotes and protects the human right to water.

Get the Facts
(2011) WEDO on “Women and the Right to Water“- UN Human Rights Council
(2011) WEDO Recognizes World Water Day 2011
(2009) Climate Change Connections
(2006) Women’s Caucus Declaration: 4th World Water Forum
(2005) Women’s Major Group Statement on Access to Basic Water Services
(2003) Diverting the Flow
(2003) Untapped Connections
(1998) Women Transform the Mainstream

[...]

Source:

Women's Environment & Development Organization

URL:

http://www.wedo.org/news/guide-to-world-water-day

Date:

March 22, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Forests and Gender

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 10:43am

WEDO is proud to present a new publication in partnership with IUCN, which takes a fresh look at some of the aforementioned issues facing gender and forests, and considers how gender is being addressed both on the ground and in policy discussions on climate change.

The publication includes case studies from around the world, demonstrating the wealth of learning and experience that is resulting from increased awareness and integration of gender issues within forestry work. It also examines current issues and progress at the international and global levels, and forecasts future challenges and developments. Click here to download a copy.

URL:

http://www.wedo.org/library/new-publication-forests-and-gender

Member Organization:

Women's Environment and Development Organization

NEW Brochure: “Empower Women, Impact Climate”

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 2:17am

If climate change policies are going to be effective, women have to be at the negotiating table. Established in 2009 by WEDO, the Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the support of the Government of Finland, the Women Delegates Fund (WDF) supports the participation and leadership of women at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.

URL:

http://www.wedo.org/library/new-brochure-%E2%80%9Cempower-women-impact-climate%E2%80%9D

Member Organization:

Women's Environment and Development Organization

CLIMATE CHANGE: More than just a word game

Teaser:

While poor countries are jostling to ensure the lives of their people are protected in a deal on the changing climate being negotiated in Durban, various NGOs, agencies and research institutes are lobbying to get a word into the negotiating text. They include groups who are keen on the words “nutrition security”, and others who want to ensure that “women and children" feature in the text each time the word “vulnerable” appears.

Editorial:

From the article:

“It is not opportunistic. We are pushing for the empowerment of women and the recognition of the words ‘nutrition security’ - by that we are addressing so many issues at the same time,” said Cristina Tirado, director of the Centre for Public Health and Climate Change at the US-based Public Health Institute.

“Protection and promotion of nutrition and health are essential components of climate-resilient and sustainable development,” she added. ”Women serve as agents of change. Through their unique roles in the family and child care, agricultural labour, food and nutrition security, health and disaster risk reduction, they can be instrumental in addressing climate change, health and nutrition in an integrated way.”

,,,

Source:

IRIN

URL:

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94375

Date:

December 5, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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