Tackling Climate Change through the Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls
“Rural women’s needs must be at the core of our efforts to scale up climate action in the agricultural sectors and beyond,” stressed Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the UN, at the High-Level Event on Tackling Climate Change through the Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls, that took place on 12 March in New York in the margins of the 62nd Session of the Commission of the Status of Women.
Organized by Canada, the Kingdom of Tonga and FAO, the event aimed to provide a comprehensive set of innovative approaches, as well as good practices and policy guidance around unlocking rural women’s potential in agriculture, food security and nutrition in the context of climate change.
Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and LaFrancophonie of Canada, delivered the opening remarks, informing the participants of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy of promoting a gender-responsive environment and climate action to support government planning and initiatives in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Polotu Paunga, Head of the Division of Women's Affairs of the Kingdom of Tonga and Leituala Kuiniselani Toelupe Tago–Elisara, Director of the Social Development Programme of the Pacific Community, shared perspectives from Small Island Developing States.
Fleur Newman, Lead Gender Officer of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), shared the Gender Action Plan which aims to mainstream gender perspectives in all mandated areas of the Convention’s implementation.
Mucavi informed that in parallel with community-level interventions, FAO provides policy guidance to countries and regional economic communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to integrate gender into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). For example, the NAP-Ag programme in Uganda, Zambia, Uruguay, Vietnam is mainstreaming gender in agriculture censuses and climate vulnerability assessments and national and sectoral planning and budgeting processes.
Saratou Malam Goni, Director of the Leadership and Women’s Empowerment Programme of CARE Niger, provided an intervention on ways to upscale gender-responsive Climate-Smart Agriculture. She informed that Care-funded projects such as Mata Masu Dubara aims to meet the practical needs of women by strengthening their income generating activities.
Jens Frølich Holte, State Secretary of International Development of Norway, reiterated Norway’s commitment to promoting gender equality in Climate Changes dialogues in the international arena.
Participants agreed that, while climate change exacerbates existing gender inequalities in agriculture, we can also tap into women’s vast potential if their vital roles in adaptation and mitigation are fully recognized and they are provided with an equal access to productive assets, markets, climate information services, technology and training.
H.E. Olai Uludong, Palau Ambassador to the United Nation, delivered the closing remarks, underscoring the need for cultural change in the recognition of women’s potential in addressing climate change.