A Gender and Climate Change side event was held at the 12th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women in Rarotonga to launch two new toolkits designed to help incorporate a gender perspective into development projects focusing on climate change and energy in the Pacific.
At the launch on Wednesday 23 October 2013, Ana Tiara Passfield, the Director of Climate Change of the Office of the Prime Minister (Cook Islands) spoke about the importance of having practical tools to assist in implementing projects in these areas. She emphasised that in the Cook Islands, gender had been mainstreamed into a number of key policies and planning documents. The government has developed the Cook Islands National Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and its accompanying Strategic Plan of Action (2011–2016). Attendees discussed the importance of providing gender training to climate change practitioners in countries and at the regional level. The toolkits aim to facilitate gender analysis work across sectors, support gender stock takes, and encourage collection of sex-disaggregated data across climate change projects and programmes.
Ms Passfield said, ‘We, from the climate change community are here to strengthen partnerships with women’s organisations that can support us to better integrate gender in our work.’
Pacific Island communities are already dealing with climate change-related risks and challenges at the community and national level, but few of the interventions designed to support countries and communities to manage these risks actively integrate gender.
According to Peniamina Leavai from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP): ‘Many of my colleagues now understand that climate change may affect men and women differently based on their roles and responsibilities.
They do not, however, necessarily have the tools or the experience to analyse these issues in depth and reflect them in the way they undertake their work on a day to day basis. And yet knowing how to address the different needs of men and women and make use of their skills and knowledge, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of project interventions.’
Kuini Rabo from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) said, ‘In the area of energy use, women are often responsible managing the collection and use of firewood, kerosene, coconut husks, and electricity for cooking. But women are often left out of planning and decision-making on energy projects.’
At the launch, participants discussed issues that affect women and men in climate change and access to energy. Daisy Alik-Momotaro, Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Marshall Islands said, ‘Climate change is a priority issue in our small island states. While I note that it is under the “emerging issues” agenda, I reiterate the point made by Federated States of Micronesia, that this should be considered as a priority issue at this conference.’
The toolkits were launched for a four-week review period and the countries were invited to provide comments before they are finalised. These toolkits have been developed to support practitioners both with project design and with community implementation. Tools are provided to help project managers and those involved in project design undertake gender analysis at different stages in the project cycle to better inform design, implementation and tracking of results. The community-based toolkit focuses on community-level interventions and tools to enhance participation.
The toolkits have been developed through partnerships of SPC, SPREP, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The toolkits are available through the Pacific Climate Change Portal for comment (see link below), and a response form, online survey and Pacific Solution Exchange query will be available shortly to also provide opportunities for feedback during the review period.
http://www.pacificclimatechange.net/index.php/eresources/documents?task=showCategory&catid=137