Climate change: speakers lay stress on women participation in decision-making process

Speakers at a seminar have stressed the need for ensuring participation of women in decision-making process on climate change, adaptation and mitigation strategies.
This was consensus among the speakers at a seminar titled "Climate Change and Gender: Prospects and Challenges" organised here on Monday by Sustainable Development Policy Institute attended by Nazima Shaheen (SDPI) Research Associate, Shakeel Ahmed Ramay, Coordinator, Climate Change Study Centre, (SDPI), Mome Saleem, Research Associate. Speakers at the seminar also discussed absence of gender perspective in policy framework on climate change in Pakistan.
Chairing the seminar Dr Rehana Siddiqui, Head Centre for Environmental Economics and Climate Change, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) said, "We don't have yet the authentic data on impact of climate change on gender". She highlighted the need to have empirical scientific information on the subject, its critical analysis and inclusion of gender sensitive policies in climate change framework and its firm implementation.
Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, while discussing climate change policies on gender informed that ironically there is no policy framework on climate change to address gender issue on national as well as international level. UN framework on climate change is silent about gender perspective. The only reference we found is in National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA).
The ground realities are that there is only one female member in Pakistan's two premier bodies on climate change, which are PM Task Force on Environment and Core group on climate change, he added. Ramay questioned when fifty percent of population is excluded in decision making and implementations process, how can it be effective and catering to the needs of most vulnerable segment of the society?
He highlighted the need to take all stakeholders including women on board to change the discourse on climate change by giving more resources and choices to women and most importantly the social acceptability of women's role in society. Mome Saleem said that throughout the world, there are gender-specific differences in consumption patterns, lifestyles, access to and control of resources and power, and vulnerability to climate change.
She regretted over the attitude that women are not sufficiently represented in decision-making processes on climate change, or adaptation and mitigation strategies. She stressed that women must be included, not because they are "more vulnerable," but because they have different perspectives and experiences to contribute (for example, in implementing adaptation measures).
She further highlighted gender vulnerability in different sectors like food security, (as 50-80pc food is being produced by women in developing countries: Unicef), physical and reproductive health, access to resources, water, climate change, empowerment and access to basic services.
Nazma Shaeen said that information and communication technologies (ICTs) could help the women of developing countries to better adapt to climate change induced disasters. She expressed that some of the potential areas in this context include the prevention from health risks through awareness raising and capacity building, enhancing food security through strengthening of agriculture systems, improvement of water resource management techniques and ensuring their participation in climate change negotiations.
She highlighted that ICTs are also playing a role in terms of maximising the participation of women in the designing and implementation of climate change adaptation strategies. In addition, there is need to explicitly include the type of vulnerabilities faced by women during climate change induced shocks in the policy of climate change instead of just mentioning about reduction of women vulnerabilities to climate change.