Gender and Social Inclusion
Women and girls are subject to a disproportionate amount of risk from climate-related natural disasters. Risks during and following natural disasters are often higher for women and girls due to social norms, breakdowns in law and order, and disrupted livelihoods. Human trafficking booms when women and girls are desperate to find solutions to economic hardships, and sexual assault in relief camps is a significant problem. Reduction in reliable water sources hits women and girls—often responsible for collecting water for families—especially hard.
As women and girls often bear the brunt of risks and vulnerabilities brought on by droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, they are also at the front lines of adaptation and well-positioned as important and necessary stakeholders in effective adaptation to climate change. Gender-responsive programming can empower women, reduce gender inequality, and improve adaptation, mitigation, and resilience results. In Nicaragua, women conserve and restore depleted mangroves while increasing their income by sustainably harvesting, preparing, and selling black cockles. Throughout the world, women are helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching from traditional, high-emissions cooking methods to using clean cookstoves. Some are also expanding their livelihoods and helping to scale up mitigation efforts by selling improved cookstoves, promoting renewable energy through their work as utility sector professionals, and more. The opportunities to address gender equality are countless. Livelihood resilience programs can ensure that women are prepared for climate change by diversifying sources of income. Agricultural and governance programs expanding formal land tenure can ensure that women’s ability to inherit and own land—and therefore invest in the resilience and sustainability of their lands—is not restricted. And health programs addressing changing infectious disease patterns resulting from climate shifts can take into account the special needs of pregnant women and children
Features
AGENT - Advancing Gender in the Environment
AGENT is a ten-year program launched by USAID in 2014 and implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The purpose of the partnership is to increase the effectiveness of USAID’s environment programming through the robust integration of gender considerations, improving gender equality and women’s empowerment outcomes in a broad range of environmental sectors.
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Gender-based Violence and Environment Linkages: The Violence of Inequality
This publication establishes a knowledge base for understanding and accelerating action to address gender-based violence and environmental linkages and aims to engage actors working in environmental and sustainable development, gender equality, and gender-based violence policymaking and programming spheres.
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Gender in Fisheries - A Sea of Opportunities
Designed for USAID and its network of partners working on gender issues, women’s empowerment, biodiversity, food security, and fisheries in particular, this document summarizes research on the key issues, data, and linkages between gender and wild-caught fisheries.
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