ABANTU develops programmes for gender responsiveness to climate change
Women farmers in the rural areas account for between 45 and 80 per cent of all food production in developing countries, depending on the region they come from.
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According to the UN Women, currently about two-thirds of the female labour force in developing countries and more than 90 per cent in many African countries are engaged in agricultural work.
In the context of climate change, traditional food sources become more unpredictable and scarce and women face harvest and income losses, which are often their main sources of food and income.
Because these women depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, the current change in climatic conditions across the globe tends to threaten their survival.
Effects of climate change
The detrimental effects of climate change can be felt in the short-term through natural disasters such as landslides, floods and hurricanes and in the long term through more gradual degradation of the environment.
The adverse effects of these events are already felt in many areas such as agricultural and food security, biodiversity and ecosystems, water resources, human health, human settlements and migration patterns and energy, transport and industry.
ABANTU workshop
At a workshop to develop a tool and a work plan on gender responsive climate change programmes in Ghana organised by ABANTU for Development in Accra, Dr Elaine Tweneboa Lawson, a lecturer at the Institute of Environment and Sanitation at the University of Ghana, Legon, said the National Climate Change Policy Framework for Ghana was a comprehensive document that would help the country avert the negative effects of climate change.
Explaining sections of the policy to participants, she said the document dealt with issues on adaption, social intervention and mitigation, among others.
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She added that climate change would hit women harder than men because of the existing vulnerability and gender inequalities that women faced.
According to her, women had limited adaptive capacities from factors such as social inequalities, ascribed social and economic roles and gender inequalities, among others.
Dr Lawson said building a gender-balanced society was a pre-condition for successful climate change adaptation and mitigation.
She said the National Climate Change Policy advocated policies that supported gender equality.
Policy objective
She said the policy objective of the National Climate Change document was to promote equal opportunities among men and women in all sectors of society.
It was also to increase the knowledge of women on and strengthen their capacities in mitigating climate change.
The document seeks to integrate gender equality principles in all social policies in the country, she added.
Dr Lawson, therefore, called on women’s groups to form coalitions on climate change.
According to her, the groups would also need a dedicated funding and support source which, according to her, could only materialise when they came together.
She also called on the groups to collaborate with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MEST) in their programmes and activities.
Joint principles
Speaking on ‘Testing the joint principles on adaptation’, Ms Nafisatu Yussif, a Programmes Manager of ABANTU, said the joint principles were statements from civil society organisations from acrosss the world which came together to set benchmarks for good adaptation planning in countries.
She said the principles were framed in a way that could be generally applicable acrosss a wide range of country contexts.
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She said Ghana was one of five countries being used to test the joint principles, indicating that civil society organisations working on climate change would use the framework to test how the government was working to mitigate climate change in the country.
Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh