WUNRN
HUMANITARIAN IMPACTS OF CLIMATE
CHANGE - MIGRATION IS NOT ALWAYS A WAY TO ADAPT - GENDER
Full Article:
A food crisis in
northern
Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN
JOHANNESBURG,
28 November 2012 (IRIN) - As the impact of climate change unfolds, many have
predicted forbidding scenarios of millions of impoverished people flooding
into often affluent countries. Yet a ground-breaking study reveals a
more nuanced relationship between climate variability and migration, which
could provide insight into how events might transpire in the coming years.
The study, carried out by Care International and the UN University (UNU) in
eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, reveals that in nearly all
instances where rains have become too scarce for farming, people have migrated
- but within the national borders......
The three-year research project, Where the rain falls: climate
change, hunger and human mobility, covered over 1,300 households and 2,000
individuals in Bangladesh, India, Ghana, Guatemala, Peru, Tanzania, Thailand
and Vietnam......
Many
developing countries that expect to see their populations migrate in response
to climate change are looking for answers "about what kinds of policy and
institutional/governance/legal options they may have to manage mobility,"
said Koko Warner, the scientific director of the project at UNU.
"Essentially nothing is in place to address the needs of mobile people
(and stranded people) if they cannot reasonably return to their areas of
origin,” she continued.
The project has also found "that loss and damage today goes beyond
quantifiable, formal sector economic impacts that can be measured in terms of
physical assets or gross domestic product." These losses could pertain to
the rights of individuals to food and dignity.....
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BRIDGE - Cutting Edge Pack
Gender &
Climate Change
Responses to climate change tend to focus on scientific and economic solutions rather than addressing the vitally significant human and gender dimensions. For climate change responses to be effective thinking must move beyond these limited approaches to become people-focused, and focus on the challenges and opportunities that climate change presents in the struggle for gender equality. This cutting edge pack advocates for a transformative approach in which:
- women and men have an equal voice in decision-making on
climate change and broader governance processes;
- are given equal access to the resources necessary to
respond to the negative effects of climate change;
- both women’s and men’s needs and knowledge are taken
into account and climate change policymaking institutions and processes at
all levels are not biased towards men or women;
- the broad social constraints that limit women’s access
to strategic and practical resources no longer exist.
This
Cutting Edge Pack hopes to inspire thinking and action. The Overview Report
offering a comprehensive gendered analysis of climate change which demystifies
many of the complexities in this area and suggests recommendations for
researchers, NGOSs and donors as well as policymakers at national and
international level. The Supporting Resources Collection (SRC) provides
summaries of key texts, conceptual papers, tools, case studies and contacts of
organisations in this field, whilst a Gender and Development In Brief
newsletter contains three articles including two case studies outlining
innovative local led solutions.
Website
Link Offers Report in English, French, Spanish
GENDER
& CLIMATE CHANGE: OVERVIEW REPORT
Publisher:
Institute of Development Studies UK
Report Summary:
Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global
crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and
economic solutions. How then do we move towards more people-centred,
gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we both respond to
the different needs and concerns of women and men and challenge the gender
inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face
of climate change? This report sets out why it is vital to address the gender
dimensions of climate change. It identifies key gender impacts of climate
change and clearly maps the global and national policy architecture that
dominates climate change responses.
The report maps pathways for making climate change responses more gender aware
and – potentially – transformative, arguing that gender transformation should
be both a potential end goal and an important condition of effective climate
change responses and poverty reduction.
The report provides inspiring examples of locally relevant, gender-aware
innovations from diverse global regions and contexts.
Recommendations include:
- Take into account the multiple dimensions of gender
inequality and women’s and men’s experiences of climate change on the
ground, and invest in research to enable this.
- Move beyond simple assumptions about women’s
vulnerability to highlight women’s agency in adapting to and mitigating
climate change. This will involve integrating women’s valuable knowledge
and practical experience into policymaking processes.
- Learn from people-focused, gender-transformative
approaches at the local level and apply these lessons to national and
international policy.
- Promote a rights-based approach to climate change and
ensure that all future climate change policies and processes draw on human
rights frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
- Find alternatives to market-based approaches where
possible, but when they are used to address climate change mitigation,
ensure they benefit women equally and do not exclude or further
disadvantage women.
- Address the underlying causes of gender inequality,
tackling issues such as unequal land rights through legislative reforms
and awareness-raising, as well as through the implementation of CEDAW and
other relevant frameworks.