Gender, Generations, Social Difference & Climate Change
Gender, Generations, SocialProtection & Climate Change:A thematic reviewValerie NelsonAugust 2011
AcknowledgementsThanks to Essie Apenteng who provided research assistance in identifying literature andconstructing the annotated bibliography. Thanks are also extended to Professor John Morton atNRI for his comments on an early draft and to Nicola Jones at ODI who commissioned thestudy and provided several sets of constructive comments.Overseas Development Institute111 Westminster Bridge RoadLondon SE1 7JD, UKTel: 44 (0)20 7922 0300Fax: 44 (0)20 7922 0399www.odi.org.ukDisclaimer: The views presented in this paperare those of the author(s) and do notnecessarily represent the views of ODI or ourpartners.
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic reviewContentsTables, figures & boxesAbbreviationsExecutive summary12345678ivvviIntroduction1The literature2Unpacking climate vulnerability and resilience and broader environmentalpressures5Gender and Climate Change Issues10Children and Climate Change25Older people and climate change36Social protection in the context of climate change38Conclusions45ReferencesAnnex 1: Annotated Bibliography5260iii
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic reviewTables, figures & boxesTablesTable 1: Table 1: Key characteristics of social protection, adaptation and disaster riskreductionTable 2: Promoting adaptation through social protection3941FiguresFigure 1: Figure 1: Gender and Climate Change14BoxesBox 1: 12 Point Principles for ‗Engendering REDD‘ (GCCA, IUCN, WOCAN, 2009)Box 2: Smallholder risk reduction, micro-insurance and credit in Ethiopiaiv2143
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic SPPSNPREDDSPUNFCCCUNFPAUNICEFWEDOWENWOCANAcquired immune deficiency syndromeClimate, Community and Biodiversity AllianceChildren‘s Environmental HealthThe Convention on the Rights of the ChildDepartment for International DevelopmentDisaster Risk ReductionFood and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsFundación por el Desarrollo Participativo ComunitarioGender Action Learning SystemGlobal Gender and Climate AllianceGreen House GasHuman immunodeficiency virusInter-Agency Standing CommitteeInternational Union for the Conservation of NatureMillennium Development GoalsNational Adaptation Programme of ActionNational Association of Small Farmers of MalawiNon-Governmental OrganisationOverseas Development InstitutePost-Disaster Needs AssessmentPoverty Reduction Strategy PaperProductive Safety Net ProgrammeReduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest DegradationSocial ProtectionUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUnited Nations Population FundUnited Nations Children‘s FundWomen‘s Environment and Development OrganisationThe Women‘s Environmental NetworkWomen Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Managementv
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic reviewExecutive summaryThis thematic review and annotated bibliography explores the gender and social differencedimensions of vulnerability and adaptive capacity in relation to climate change. Climate-relatedshocks and stresses are adding pressure to the already precarious livelihoods of marginalisedpeoples experiencing poverty and a range of other constraints in the global South - and willincreasingly do so with progressive climate change. This study provides an introductoryoutline of key concepts in climate change vulnerability and resilience, but situates these firmlyin a broader understanding of institutional and environmental vulnerability. A comprehensivereview of the literature has been undertaken on four key topics: gender and climate change;children and climate change; older people and climate change; and finally social protection andclimate change. This paper summarises the key insights from this literature to inform policymakers, practitioners and researchers of the current thinking in this field.Climate change poses challenges on a new scale for humanity, particularly for the populationsof lower income countries. There has been relatively limited in-depth analysis of the genderdimensions of climate change to date, partly because of the uncertainties of climate changescience and the lack of downscaled data which makes it hard to predict how the climate willchange at a very local level, and because social change processes are difficult to predict.However, the literature indicates that women are disproportionately vulnerable to climatechange, because they are more likely to be found in the poorest sections of society, havefewer resources to cope, and are more reliant on climate-sensitive resources because of thegender division of labour. They tend to have lesser access to livelihood resources and hencemore limited capacity to participate in climate change adaptation processes – although theyshould be treated as active agents rather than victims.Although, all members of poorercommunities will be affected, women and female headed households are likely to be mostaffected by increasing extreme weather events, greater climate variability and long-term shiftsin climate averages.Children and the elderly have certain unique vulnerabilities andcapabilities with respect to climate change, but these are also shaped by social determinants.So while all societies will be affected by climate change, the impacts will vary by location,exposure, and context specific social characteristics, identity, power relations and politicaleconomy.Scientific studies are continuing to understand this phenomenon and to deliver more accurateand downscaled projections. Climate mitigation, low carbon pathways and latterly adaptationresponses are being researched and piloted by the international community and nationalgovernments, as well as civil society and local communities, but these interventions and policydecisions also have gender and social difference dimensions in terms of their design processesand objectives, their implementation and their impacts.More analysis is emerging in the academic, policy and practitioner literature on gender andclimate change adaptation, although a fair amount of this literature is based on desk studiesdrawing on previous responses to climate variability. Section 4 reviews literature on genderand climate change, Section 5 covers children and climate change studies, and Section 6focuses on older people and climate change materials. All three sections examine the specificimpacts on more vulnerable groups, as well as the challenges of representation in internationaland national policy processes and in local decision-making. Generally speaking, there is alarger body of literature on gender issues in relation to climate change, compared to thematerial on the other two issues. These three bodies of work have developed separately, withvery little inter-connection, despite the fact that there are in fact closely intertwined. Thereare also some clear gaps in research such as analysis of climate change and ethnicity or caste,and the intersection between different lines of social difference. The majority of the studiesfocus on rural settings, rather than urban contexts, and adaptation has also been more centrestage than mitigation as a topic for analysis using a gender and social difference lens.vi
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic reviewCommon threads can be identified in the literature on gender and generations and climatechange, such as: the importance of moving beyond notions of these groups as passive in theface of challenges; and highlighting their ability to act as active agents of change, givenadequate support, including their representation in international and national policy processes.Many of the studies attempt to tease out the types of impacts that these groups may face on adisproportionate scale and the social and biological reasons why.Understandably, there isrelatively little in-depth field research from which to draw insights because of the nature ofclimate change science and because many climate policies and programmes are only just beingimplemented.Several studies provide detailed analysis of the international UNFCCCnegotiations process and show how gender activists are seeking to engender the climateregime. Some authors have critiqued the focus of attention in climate change and genderdebates on retrofitting climate finance market mechanisms to become more gender- orgeneration-friendly, rather than the alternative, which they argue would be the finding andenvisioning of strategies and overall development pathways that are designed with women,children, older people and social relations in mind.Section 7 reviews the literature on the role of social protection in responding to climatechange. Social protection is an important component of supporting groups that are vulnerableto shocks and stresses, to enable them to survive and to cope with such difficulties withoutasset stripping. However, until recently the role of social protection in responding to climatechange has been neglected. Emerging conceptual studies and some empirical findings proposethat while there are differences between social protection, disaster risk reduction and climatechange adaptation approaches, there are also clear overlaps and potential synergies. Greaterconvergence is important in theory and in practice.Because of existing power inequalities and social norms, the impacts of climate change will notbe felt evenly, but will be overlaid onto existing patterns of vulnerability within rural and urbanpopulations and communities – and may make patterns of inequality more pronounced. Thereare already some types of social protection that have been shown to be effective, such as cashtransfers. There are newer types of social protection, such as weather-index insurance, thatare only beginning to be implemented. The gender and social difference dimensions need tobe further analysed as these programmes are put into practice. There is also an argumentthat more transformative forms of social protection may be needed in certain locations, (suchas promotion of minority rights, anti-discrimination campaigns, social funds), to change socialrelations and confront the root causes of discrimination and inequality.To achieve socialprotection that is ‗adaptive‘ also requires integration of climate knowledge (scientific and local)into decision-making and policy/programme design. Ultimately, climate change responses canonly be equitable if they place the empowerment of women and marginalized groups and thetackling of gender and social inequality centre-stage.vii
1IntroductionThis thematic review and annotated bibliography explores the environmentalvulnerabilities faced by less affluent and powerful communities and groups, inparticular the climate-related shocks and stresses adding pressure to alreadyprecarious livelihoods. The role of social protection measures in enabling particularlyvulnerable groups to respond to these pressures is also explored. Because ofexisting power inequalities and social norms, the impacts of climate change will notbe felt evenly, but will play into existing patterns of vulnerability within rural andurban populations and communities – and are likely to make patterns of inequalitymore pronounced.Women and female-headed households are disproportionately represented in groupsexperiencing poverty, and are affected by all kinds of pressures (e.g. HIV/AIDs,regionalising and globalising markets, population increase and land fragmentation,localized environmental degradation etc.). Women and female-headed householdstend to have fewer resources to cope with and adapt to stresses of all kinds, and relyon more climate sensitive resources and livelihoods. Moreover, climate disturbancesare projected to increasingly pressurize poor rural and urban communities in manyareas of the world. It is thus critical to understand how the impacts of climatechange will be differentiated. It is also important to understand how climate policyprocesses and decision-making are rarely gender neutral. There should be efforts toavoid negative impacts of climate change responses (e.g. mitigation and adaptationpolicies, programmes, and autonomous actions) and instead find opportunities topromote women‘s empowerment and that of other marginalised or disadvantagedgroups. This thematic review explores the gender and generational dimensions ofenvironmental vulnerability and resilience and considers some of the implications forsocial protection in particular. This thematic review is based on an accompanyingannotated bibliography, which includes 121 studies on children and climate change indeveloping countries, climate change and social protection, gender and climatechange and older people and climate change.This paper gives a general oversight of the relevant literature and its strengths andweaknesses (section 2), before unpacking environmental and climatic vulnerabilityand resilience (section 3), and then identifying the specific gender dimensions ofclimate change (section 4), and age-related differences, covering children andclimate change (section 5) and older people and climate change (section 6). Theimplications of gender-differentiated and generation-differentiated impacts of climatechange are explored in relation to the opportunities presented by social and selfprotection to improve disaster risk reduction and adaptation and the changes neededto achieve ‗adaptive social protection‘. The final section (section 8) synthesizes thekey findings of this review.
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic review2The literatureInitially, the climate change field was dominated by the biophysical sciences, but inrecent years the development community and social sciences have engaged morefully in identifying the myriad development implications of a changing climate. Froma slow start, there is now increased analysis of the social, political, economic andcultural dimensions of climate change. However, it is not always easy to separate theclimatic and non-climatic factors at work, and which are creating change in aparticular place. The uncertainties of climate change projections, particularly belownational level, combine with the inherent complexities of social, environmental,economic and technological change in any given place, which are in turn influencedand driven by processes across scales. This creates a complex picture. In manysmallholder farming systems, for example, farmers are already coping with andadapting to on-going shocks and stresses, including, but not limited to, climatevariability. Therefore teasing out how the climate and gender dynamics will interactin any particular place is not that easy and particularly over longer time horizons.Climate change is expected to lead to increases in extreme events, increasingclimate variability, and longer-term shifts in means (e.g. average temperature andprecipitation). Only some climate change impacts (such as sea level rise and glacialmelt) can be attributed directly to anthropogenic climate change. In many otherareas climate change is currently experienced as an increase in extreme events andtheir intensity (although no one hurricane or flood can be attributed to climatechange) and/or increasing climate variability. In some regions of the world, localcommunities are already experienced in coping with and adapting to climatevariability, for example in drylands such as the semi-arid zones of Tanzania.According to many authors there is increasing evidence from local populations thatlevels of variability and unpredictability are increasing beyond what they arenormally used to – and in parallel with localised processes of environmental changein many areas (see Maddison, 2006; Nelson and Stathers, 2009).It is important though to note that climate variability should not be conflated withclimate change. Although farmers are widely reported to be experiencing increasingvariability and increased frequency of extreme events now, and despite the fact thatthese experiences of variability are real and important, it remains the case that theirrelationship to global processes of climate change remains problematic. Climatechanges more clearly linked to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and inparticular changes in means (of temperature and precipitation), are only beginningto be apparent, and most projections of them look two or more decades into thefuture. It is thus easier to establish relationships between gender and climatevariability, than it is between gender and climate changes which are only justbeginning to become apparent. As a result many of the studies on gender andclimate change are necessarily somewhat speculative.Moreover, these challenges relating to long-term climate change combine with themaelstrom of change processes affecting many rural and urban societies in the globalSouth and indeed around the world. In smallholder farming systems in drylandareas, for example, farmers have already developed adaptive livelihoods to cope withon-going uncertainty and climate variability, but are also faced with larger-scaletrends (e.g. HIV/AIDS pandemic, regionalising and globalising markets, population2
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic reviewgrowth in urban centres, ageing rural populations etc). Many rural households areengaging in off-farm livelihood activities, including seasonal mobility and trade, tomake a living and some are making a permanent move to urban areas. Given all ofthis, is it is not surprising that there is limited theoretical work and empiricalinformation on the differentiated impacts and processes related to climate change,exacerbated by the continuing lack of attention to gender issues in some quarters.Research and publication on gender and climate change generally started earlierthan that focusing on children and climate change, although both draw upon preexisting knowledge and studies on gender, age (e.g. children in development, olderpeople in development) and ethnographic work on caste, class, and ethnicity etc.There is not a great deal of linkage between the different sets of literature.It is widely recognised that there are other forms of social differentiation intersectingwith gender in each society, but the relative importance of these varies in differentsituations. There is very limited in-depth analysis of caste, ethnicity or class, as adifferentiator of climate change impact within the broader gender and climate changeliterature or as stand-alone studies (a notable exception being Ahmed and Fajber,2009). There is a substantial literature on indigenous peoples and climate changeimpacts (direct impacts and indirect impacts of adaptation and mitigation) (See forexample, Roy and Venema, 2002; Salick and Byg, 2007; Macchi et al., 2008). Thesestudies may shed light on how various forms of social discrimination and exclusionmay intersect with gender to shape the outcomes of changes in the climate.In contrast, the literature on gender and disasters is much larger, probably becausethe impacts of disasters are more easily visible and are observable now. Thisliterature can inform gender and climate change debates, but it is important toremember that individual hazard events cannot actually be attributed to climatechange.Some work is beginning to emerge on gender and mitigation, in particular in relationto biofuels and the impacts of new investments of different sizes (local level,participatory projects; contract farming and outgrower schemes of different sizes;large-scale corporate investments). Identifying the potential climate change impactsand gender dynamics in smallholder agriculture has been explored conceptually(Nelson, forthcoming), but there is only li
Gender, Generations, Social Protection & Climate Change: - A thematic review v Abbreviations AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome CCABA Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance CEH Children‘s Environmental Health CRC The Convention on the Rights of the Child DFID Department for International Development DRR Disaster Risk Reduction FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United .
accessible and diverse gender information. It is one of a family of knowledge services based at IDS . Other recent publications in the Cutting Edge Pack series: Gender and Care, 2009 Gender and Indicators, 2007 Gender and Sexuality, 2007 Gender and Trade, 2006 Gender and Migration, 2005 Gender and ICTs, 2004 . 6.3.1 Gender mainstreaming .
Gender and climate change – Women as agents of change. IUCN climate change briefing, December 2007 Gender, Climate Change and Human Security. Lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal. Prepared for ELIAMEP for WEDO, May 2008 Gender and Climate Change. Gender in CARE’s Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa. CARE and Climate Change, 2011 –
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Brief 1.Gender and countering transnational organized crime and trafficking Brief 2.Gender and countering corruption Brief 3.Gender and terrorism prevention Brief 4.Gender and justice Brief 5.Gender and health and livelihoods Annexes Checklists for gender mainstreaming
7 In order to effectively mainstream gender in an organisation, the staff should be able to: n Identify gender inequalities in their field of activity; n Define gender equality objectives; n Take account of gender when planning and implementing policies and programmes; n Monitor progress; n Evaluate programmes from a gender perspective. Principles of gender mainstreaming
Research has shown a consistent gender difference favouring females in all aspects of empathy, concurring with the societal stereotype that females are more empathetic. This study proposed that this consistent gender difference could be due to gendered parenting practices: studies have shown a gender bias in parenting styles also favouring females,
used for social gender. In order to understand the concept of social gender it is necessary to look at the various theories addressing gender. According to Damarlı (2006), the concept of social gender is discussed with psychoanalytic theory, social learning theory, and cognitive development and gender schema theory.
Am I my Brother’s Keeper? Acts 15:19-35 Introduction: Since the beginning of time when the first man and woman rebelled against God, mankind has been separated from God. Every person since that time has been born into that rebellion and sin. Because of sin, people are separated from God and are unable to have a right relationship with Him or each other. Ill. of evil and suffering Inside of .
