Implementing gender-responsive NDCs from the bottom-up

June 27, 2019
|In Sustainable development, Climate justice (policy work), Climate action, Agenda 2030, Women & Gender Constituency, GJCS, News, Women2030, UNFCCC
|By adminWECF

Presentations from our side event during the climate negotiations, SB50, in Bonn, in partnership with CTCN, NDC Partnership, and several members of the Women & Gender Constituency, including Gender CC, WEDO, Aksi and Century21.

Some 60 participants from member states, UN agencies and civil society joined our event on Tuesday 25 of June at the UNFCCC climate conference in Bonn. It was organised to provide input for the second phase of the Gender Action Plan, which is currently being negotiated and is predicted to be adopted at climate negotiations, COP25, in Chile in December later this year.. As the Women and Gender Constituency, we regularly get requested what steps are required to make national climate strategies gender responsive. The panellists provided good practices on methodologies, planning, implementing and assessing gender responsive national climate policies. In order to strengthen the ambition of the NDC’s and be aligned with the 1.5°C goal, it is essential to design and implement climate policies that take into account existing gender inequalities and build on the potential of women’s empowerment.

We had a diverse panel of speakers that contributed to a fruitful discussion:

Bridget Burns (WEDO) presented their upcoming research paper which will assess current NDCs on the thier gender dimensions, using a common set of methodologies and tools, like the Gender Climate Tracker Platform, the assessment of the UNDP Support Programme of 11 developing countries and the work of the NAP Global Network with 7 developing countries.

Ndivile Mokoena (Gender CC Southern Africa) presented their GAMMA methodology as a tool for integrating gender into urban climate policy.

Angeline Heinde-Reimers (Republic of the Marshall Islands) presented how their small island nation is a best practice example on leadership on gender and climate. Not only has the country set a national target to have 100% renewable energy by 2050. It has also done a gender assessment of the energy sector, and discovered that women are the users of decentralized energy systems, but that when the systems need repair, the electricians are not available and are all men. The country has now started a training programme for women electricians, and has set a target to have at least 20% of women electricians in the next decade.

Jaime Webbe (CTCN) Jaime presented the assessment of mainstreaming gender for climate resilient energy systems in 13 West African Nations. Although CTCN has a gender policy, it remains a challenge for many climate technology projects. The evidence shows that most climate technologies are not gender-neutral. Women and men need to be equal partners in finding solutions. CTCN is also using a  gender audits tool for the energy sector.

Due to the late notice of unavailability from Prof. Katim Alaoui (FMVRSA Morocco), her presentation was delivered by our Anne Barre, as they are project partners. Anne presented the advantages of cooperatives as a mean to formalise women’s economic activities around food processing and productive use of sustainable energy.

Titi Soentoro (AKSI, Asia-Pacific) presented lessons from the impact of climate finance on women’s rights and gender equality. She has found that when doing assessments, the reality of climate finance for women is often different from the planned impact. Finance is influenced by existing structures of patriarchy and militarism in many regions. She gave three recommendations for climate finance:

  • Guarantee environmental and social safeguards in any project proposal
  • Fulfilment of UNFCCC’s Gender Action Plan
  • Provide a dedicated small grant facilities for local women and indigenous peoples managed by the GCF Secretariat
  • Including women’s groups in participatory monitoring and evaluation
  • Include women’s rights in the planning and implementation of the program
  • Ownership, ensure civil society engagement

Presentations

Gender impact assessment and monitoring tool

Our gender impact assessment and monitoring tool (GIM tool) has been developed in the framework of the Women2030 programme, with the explicit objective of helping women and gender civil society organisations to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a particular focus on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. The 2030 Agenda was built on the foundation of and expands upon the Millennium Development Goals by promoting sustainable development, human rights and gender equality in the economic, social and environmental realms.

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