WOCAN shared the latest publications and programs at the marketplace booth during the 4th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum, held 1-3 October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Over 600 climate change adaptation scientists, government officials, representatives from civil society organizations, businesses and donors from more than 30 nations in the Asia and the Pacific region attended the forum which highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships and knowledge-sharing.
Nisha Onta, Knowledge Management Coordinator, also attended the panel session on ‘Gender Sensitive Adaptation’ organized by UN Women Bangladesh which focused on lesson learnt from efforts to address differences in needs, capacities, risk burdens and rights in adaptation intervention. The panelists emphasized the importance of addressing gender issues as a key for a sustainable adaptation strategy. Dilruba Haider, UN Women Bangladesh Country Office, emphasized the need and the challenges of applying the right-based approach to address climate change adaptation. Esron Mark Vano, Department of Women’s Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Community Services of Vanuatu shared the experience of gender mainstreaming in national policies and challenges of limited women participation in decision making process and limited capacity to ensure gender mainstreamed in all level of the government. Navirak Ngin, UNDP Cambodia, discussed that identifying and supporting women champions, addressing gender differential needs and emphasizing the active participation of women on decision making process is key mainstreaming gender into adaptation program such as the Cambodia Community Adaptation Programme (CCBAP). Hina Lotia, Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Pakistan, emphasized that women’s skills and life experiences are not identified as resources, and therefore they are not incorporated into disaster risk reduction or disaster management efforts. Aditi Kapoor, Alternative Futures, shared that adaptive strategy such as organic agriculture can increase drudgery for women even if it provides more income. Thus there is a need for gender analysis of various adaptive strategies. Moderator of the session Babette Resurreccion, SEI Senior Research Fellow, concluded the session by highlighted that adaptation can worsen gender equalities and it needs to be transformative in terms of changing systems, institutions, and the ways we think.
More info:http://www.asiapacificadapt.net/adaptationforum/2014/presentations