By Nehal and Kate, Research Interns.
Hi there! Our names are Nehal and Kate, and we are the Gender & Climate Change (Pacific) Research Interns here at ActionAid Australia. For the past seven weeks, we have been investigating the link between women’s rights and climate change, in the context of the Pacific islands by reviewing key international human rights instruments and documents relating to human rights, gender and climate change. What we have found time and again through our research, is evidence that women’s rights and climate change have an inextricable link; as access to resources becomes increasingly restricted, women are usually the first to be exposed to the effects of climate change. These effects will then magnify existing patterns of inequality, including gender inequalities, across many areas of the developing world.[1]
The Pacific is made up of 20,000 to 30,000 islands. The focus of our investigation has been on Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, which are the two study countries for ActionAid’s research project. These two nations are particularly exposed to devastating natural disasters, and our initial research revealed that the impacts of climate change have already had a damaging impact on the livelihoods of locals living in the region—especially for women. We have been getting our hands on every report and resource available to write up literature reviews on climate change and women’s rights in the Pacific. We’ve also done some further investigation into policy analysis, and have compiled a small series of matrices to better determine whether the governments of the Solomon Islands and PNG are doing all they can to fulfil their international human rights obligations. It’s important to know that they aren’t just paying lip service and are actually doing everything in their power to make sure that women have the opportunity to adapt to climate change. This is most definitely central to our research project!
Some of the preliminary findings from our literature review include the following:
- Given that women in PNG and the Solomon Islands currently face existing structural inequalities and denial of their human rights, climate change is likely to exacerbate their vulnerability to poverty, exploitation and oppression. The existence of a range of structural barriers (be they socio-cultural, economic or political in nature) have a substantial impact on women’s current ability to claim their rights in the face of climate change.
- Although both PNG and Solomon Islands are signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), gender inequality remains a severe impediment to development. According to the 2009 Human Development Report produced by the United Nations Development Programme, PNG had a Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) of 148, placing it at the lowest level for all Pacific Island Countries and just above Haiti and Sudan. The Solomon Islands performed only marginally better, with a GDI rating of 135 out of 182.[2]
- Other gender disparities include women’s excessive workloads, poor nutrition, and lack of access to safe water, poor access to health centers, high number of pregnancies and high rates of family violence.
- For both PNG and the Solomon Islands, there is a poor representation of women in the political system. Within PNG currently, the percentage of female representation in parliament is just 0.9%, while the Solomon Islands remains one of just twelve nations globally with zero females in parliament.[3]
- The primary reason behind this lack of political representation is women’s lack of access to strategic resources. These resources include but are not limited to wealth, property and finance as well as a culture of gender inequality within the political and societal systems.
- Women, as well as organisations and institutions seeking to represent women’s interests, have considerable capacity in influencing government, companies and other institutions that hold power and creating long term social change in the areas of climate change adaptation and disaster risk management. We have learnt also that organisations and governmental departments are most effective where they take a strategic approach to climate change adaptation, explicitly incorporating activities to contribute toward gender equality[4]
[1]United Nations Development Programme (2010) Human Development Report, ‘The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development.’ Accessed online 9/5/11 at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Complete_reprint.pdf
[2] United Nations Development Programme (2009) ‘Gender Related Development Index and its components.’ Accessed online 23/5/11 at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Table_J.pdf
[3] United Nations Development Fund for Women (2007) ‘Translating CEDAW into Law: CEDAW Legislative Compliance in Nine Pacific Island Countries.’ Accessed online on the 23/5/11 at: http://pacific.unifem.org/documents/Translating CEDAWIntoLaw.pdf
[4] Brody, A; Demetriades, J & Esplen, E (2008) ‘Gender and Climate Change : Mapping the Linkages – A Scoping Study on Knowledge and Gaps.’ Institute of Development Studies: Sussex, United Kingdom.
