“If we took away barriers to women’s leadership, we would solve the climate change problem a lot faster” - Mary Robinson, 7th President of Ireland. This quote highlights the need for women as leaders on critical issues that impact climate change. In a world where gender sensitivity promotes equality and recognizes the fluidity of gender roles, women must be singled out and supported as champions of climate change based on the unequal impact climate events have on them.
International Women’s Day 2022 acknowledges the thematic approach of “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. This theme follows on from the COP 26 in Glasgow in November 2021, where it was identified that women and girls, particularly those facing intersecting inequalities, are poised, to bring their talents and leadership to bear on executing strategies for climate change at all levels. This view is consistent with findings of a Gender Analysis in Trinidad and Tobago which identified gaps in policy, decision-making power, and resource allocation where women’s involvement in climate change is concerned. The analysis confirmed what we suspected that the country has weak mandate provisions for gender-responsive approaches in the national strategic planning and policy frameworks for climate change. It further stated that “women and gender-focused NGOs are not included in institutional mechanisms for planning and monitoring of climate change mitigation activities”.
We at the UNDP in Trinidad and Tobago, to close these gaps have identified several projects to accelerate the inclusion and participation of women. There is an intentional bias to have women included as community advocates and leaders, who are upskilled within project frameworks.
Gender markers are featured in project plans as substantial key performance indicators to ensure that roadblocks to women’s leadership are addressed and in the best cases nullified.
Capacity building through training at the organizational and community level is also a key feature of project implementation for sustainability of UNDP projects. Through its Energy, Environment and Disaster Management portfolio, in two projects funded by the European Union (EU), women and girls are engaged: the GCCA+ project on renewable energy which involves solar panel installations in remote communities and the Community Flood Early Warning System Project which will see installations of early warning systems in flood prone areas.
I am confident that the development work of the UNDP will promote the positioning of women to mitigate climate change and we stand ready to continue to support Government and other key stakeholders to completely close the gap and eliminate the bias!
Sharifa Ali-Abdullah
Assistant Resident Representative
United Nations Development
Programme