The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) collaborated with the Union of Pacific French Speaking Women (UFFO) to organise UFFO’s annual regional workshop from 14 to 17 July 2014 at the University of California, Berkeley’s Gump Research Station in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. Over 40 non-governmental organisations from New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna are members of UFFO.
This regional workshop aimed at developing women’s capacity to advocate for gender responsive sustainable development and climate change adaptation policies and strategies. The participants had the opportunity to learn from scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and also from gender specialists from SPC and members of UFFO who conducted case studies on environmental impacts of man-made practices and climate change. Throughout the workshop, the participants discussed how gender inequality reinforces not only women’s vulnerability to climate change, but also the vulnerability of their families and the whole community.
Taking into consideration the impact of climate change on health, food security, cultural heritage, and well-being, UFFO called on governments, political, customary and religious institutions, civil society, development partners and donors to:
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acknowledge the growing issues faced by communities in the Pacific that make them more vulnerable to environmental changes, including climate change;
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take all necessary measures to prevent and reduce their vulnerability;
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apply gender analysis for improving the identification of Pacific people’s needs in terms of adaptation to climate change and its differentiated impact on women and men;
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produce and make accessible sex disaggregated data on the impacts of climate change, including impacts of disasters;
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acknowledge and eliminate the social determinant of vulnerability, including gender inequality, that affect adaptive capacity of women and their community;
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engage communities, particularly in the outer islands, in the identification and implementation of adaptation strategies; and
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take into account, in all initiatives implemented by the public and private sectors, the three pillars of sustainable development: economic growth, social development and the protection of the environment.