The current global crisispresents a unique opportunity to put climate resilience at the center of the conversation around what is important, andhow to build a better future for all.The solutions tobuild resilience to crisesare linked to the preservation of our earth’s resources, and the stewardship of these.
In July and August 2020, WOCAN produced a podcast series – “10 Solutions for a Feminist Climate- resilient Recovery – featuring ten international thought-leaders who shared their views on how to reimagine and reshape our future from a feminist approach. These 10 podcasts, listed below, present concrete and bold solutions and call for urgent actions.
#1: Compensation for Women’s Social and Environmental Contributions
#2: Measuring impacts for increased transparency and results
# 3: Institutional transformation and culture change
#4: Recognizing and supporting women’s organizations
#5: Capacity development to cope with and adapt to change
#6: Investments with social and environmental impacts
#9: Sustainable and inclusive food systems
#10: Women’s increased access to climate investments
Highlighted solutions
Apply climate and gender lenses simultaneously, to programs and investments that affect women
The FairClimateFund demonstrates how to develop climate projects using an integrated approach through the provision of not only cookstoves, but also trainings for women on climate resilience and biodiversity through their Climate Academy and access to micro-credit (Podcast#6)
The Food Council of Lima, Peru, links food systems and gender equality by providing a platform for actors within the food system – a majority of whom are women- to develop a new vision around food that connects nutrition, healthy environments, agro-ecological products and women’s empowerment (Podcast #9).
The Costa Rican government is using incentive mechanisms to promote nature-based solutions and gender equality at the household level. As part of their gender and REDD strategy, they are developing a gender equality certification for those households that promote gender equality (Podcast #7).
There are also opportunities to foster women’s empowerment and climate action by taking a cross-sectoral approach and combining multiple measures such as social protection and economic stimulus packages with positive discrimination in favor of women to support local production, and sustainable and inclusive food systems (Podcast #9).
2. Compensate women’s social and environmental contributions
WOCAN’s W+ Standard provides a way toenable women to be compensated financially for their contributions to climate adaptation and mitigation. The W+ Standard’s benefit-sharing mechanism directs money to women at the local level to be used as they see best fit; similarly the FairClimateFund enables households to benefit from the sale of carbon credits (Podcast #1-#6).
Other mechanisms are needed to make the carbon market more gender-responsive and to create investment vehicles that enable money from large climate funds to reach women’s organizations at the local level. Women must be provided a seat at the table and have decision making authority during the preparation of national budgets for climate initiatives to ensure that specific funds are allocated to them. (Podcasts #6 and #10)
3. Transparency in impact measurement
Climate projects should use standards that support transparency in evaluating claims of women’s empowerment, such as the W+ Standard and other certification systems (Podcast #2).
Impact investors must be more transparent about their social and environmental impacts and how they are measured, and take a longer investment horizon, favoring impact over short-term returns (Podcast#6).
4. Promote feminist leadership
Feminist leadership amongst both women and men leaders is modeled on processes of consultation, communication and cooperation, mixed with traits of compassion. The promotion of this type of feminist leadership, coupled with increased numbers of women in leadership positions assures higher levels of women’s meaningful participation in positions where they can influence change. An inspiring example is the Hawaii Feminist Recovery Plan for COVID 19 created by the State Council for Women. Other approaches can include applying quotas where needed, and supporting mentoring and exposure to role models to bring more women and more diverse voices to the table- including those of youth and ethnic minority groups- to craft a sustainable and inclusive future (Podcast #8).
5. Support women’s organizations to build social, economic and climate resilience
Directing more resources to women’s organizations at local, national and global levels is critical to enhance their capacities to preserve the environment and tackle climate change while improving the well-being of families and communities. This includes support to strengthening their organizational capacities and leadership at the local level to build self-reliance and resilience, as well as support for regional and global women’s organizations to act as intermediaries (Podcast #4).
6. Invest more in building ‘soft skills’ and social connections
Investing more in education and capacity development, and in the ‘soft skills’ (e.g. abilities to communicate effectively, to manage change, and self-awareness), will lead to more effective outcomes. Two approaches that have proven successful are WOCAN’s use of participatory approaches that connect women across different levels and sectors (Women’s Leadership Circles), and the practice of including men in leadership training and consultation, which has resulted in new relationships that change mindsets and create alliances (Podcast #5).
7. Promote inclusion for institutional transformation and culture change
Organizations engaging in climate resilience must be inclusive of the groups that are affected by their programs, as clients and beneficiaries to assure their interests are addressed and to increase effectiveness and reduce risks. These may be categorized by gender, ethnicity, sectors or other identities. Teams may need to build their capacities to remove silos, transcend traditional borders of different disciplines and work in an integrated and connected way. Diversity policies and incorporation of these into monitoring and evaluation systems related to climate projects will be needed to ensure policies are translated into concrete actions and progress is measured (Podcast #3).
To know more, listen to the 10 solutions for a feminist climate-resilient post recovery (https://www.wocan.org/resource-keywords/podcast)
WOCAN would like to thank all the speakers for their time, insights and inspiration: Jeannette Gurung (WOCAN Executive Director), Cathy Lee (Lee International Managing Director), Barun Gurung (Anthropologist), Eve Crowley (FAO Representative in Chile), Lorena Aguilar (Former Global Senior Gender Advisor IUCN), Evelyn Batamuliza (Executive Committee Member of the Adaptation Benefit Mechanisms Initiative of AfDB), Neera Van der Geest (FairClimateFund CEO), Dibya Gurung (Specialist in gender, rural development and NRM), Amanda Ellis (ASU Director Global Partnerships for the Global Futures Laboratory), and Colletah Chitsike (Senior trainer in gender and community development). A special thank you to Maria and Eva Lee for the production.