Fair, sustainable and effective – Gender equality as a basis for climate and biodiversity policy

Addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis requires an integrated approach with gender equality at its core. Otherwise a fair, sustainable and effective climate and biodiversity policy is impossible. Together with ActionAid Netherlands, Both ENDS, CARE Netherlands, Milieudefensie, Simavi and WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform we therefore wrote a joint paper with concrete policy recommendations and specific examples of the work of local partners from the Global South that show what does and does not work when it comes to climate and biodiversity related actions.

In the paper, we make three recommendations:

• Give priority in Dutch policies and programs to women’s meaningful participation in political decision-making – from the local level to international climate negotiations.
• Make funding more accessible to local (women’s) organizations, and ensure that all climate and biodiversity funding promotes gender equality.
• Ensure that different policy initiatives are mutually reinforcing, rather than counteracting or undermining each other. Also, funding should become more accessible to local (women’s) organizations, and all climate and biodiversity funding should promote gender equality.
• Ensure that different policy initiatives reinforce each other, and do not counteract or undermine each other. Therefore, prioritize universal human rights, including women’s rights and environmental and climate commitments.

For more on the relationship between gender, climate and biodiversity and our recommendations, view the paper. For a shorter version, view the executive summary.

Donors

WECF’s contribution to this paper was funded by the EU from the WomenPower2030 project. Its contents are the sole responsibility of WECF and its collaborating partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.