For a model of environmental sustainability and just transition through climate actions that ensure the effective promotion of gender equality, human rights and the fight against all forms of gender-based violence.
"Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is key in driving a green and inclusive recovery in one of the regions of the world hardest hit by the pandemic and also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as Latin America and the Caribbean".
Specialists in the REGIONAL MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND GENDER EQUALITY – Presidency COP25 EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+, a European Union programme, has as one of its strategic lines of action the cooperation with Latin American countries to incorporate gender equality and promote inclusiveness, integrating the perspectives of vulnerable groups, indigenous peoples and local communities, in order to support the fulfilment of commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The aim is to achieve a model of environmental sustainability and just transition through climate actions that ensure the effective promotion of gender equality, human rights and the fight against all forms of gender-based violence.
Toward this end, it seeks to promote gender equality in Latin America through the integration of the gender perspective in policies, plans, national actions, and other measures related to UNFCCC processes (National Communications, NAMAs, National Adaptation Plans, Technology Needs Assessments, NDCs, etc.).
- Recognising that the effects of climate change have differentiated impacts on people according to their gender, age, ethnicity, and other socio-economic variables that influence their capacity to respond, as well as access to and control over resources and benefits from climate actions.
- Ensuring the application of gender tools and methodologies to effectively mainstream gender in the design, implementation and monitoring of climate actions.
- Supporting women and girls as agents of environmental protection through the actions and measures we promote, and we apply specific measures targeted at women and girls when the situation of the intervention warrants it.
- Prioritising indigenous, rural, and agricultural populations in situations of poverty, and those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, where women are over-represented.
- Strengthening the institutional capacities of our national counterparts to achieve gender mainstreaming in the various climate actions carried out within the Programme's area of action.
Below are a series of events related to this strategic line of the Programme, held during COP26, in which EUROCLIMA+ supported the facilitation and/or organisation.
Progress in the implementation of the inclusiveness principle of the Paris Agreement in Latin America
“It is important to involve the communities to prevent drought, this is the main base, water comes first, in the project we all work together".
Isabel Gómez, of the Pachayatiña Pachayachay project
It is well known that climate change affects all populations, but that depending on the characteristics of different population groups, the impacts of global warming may be greater. This circumstance is accentuated when one is a woman and is part of an indigenous group.
In this regard, the Paris Agreement recognises the rights of indigenous peoples, their inclusiveness and gender equality as a principle to be followed in the implementation of the proposed measures. Therefore, the EUROCLIMA+ programme is working on including this perspective, following the guidelines of the European Commission to incorporate 85% in international cooperation actions that contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment.
During the event, “Advances in the implementation of the inclusiveness principle of the Paris Agreement in Latin America” , progress and initiatives that were directly or indirectly supported through the Euroclima+ programme were shared:
Fátima Andrade, technical specialist at FIIAPP/EC+, who led the event, stated that the different impact of environmental degradation and climate change on men and women is due to the fact that the tasks of production and reproduction of life fall on women. These activities, linked to the care economy, are being affected by climate change and by the mitigation and adaptation policies that countries are implementing. This situation is especially relevant when we talk about women belonging to indigenous groups; because of the need to value their knowledge about life and their economic and social valuation.
In the first block, Milagros Sandoval, Director of Greenhouse Gases of the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, shared the methodology on which the institution has based itself to mainstream the gender perspective in the framework of the actions prioritised in its NDC. Through the National Government Plan, three simultaneous approaches have been applied: gender intersectionality, interculturality (referring to indigenous peoples) and the intergenerational. The key to this has been the prior consultation process and undoubtedly the regulation of the climate change law, which reflects this intercultural dialogue, reflecting the needs and priorities of women in it.
In the second block, Hortencia Hidalgo, coordinator of FILAC's Women's Unit, highlighted the participation of Indigenous Peoples and their traditional knowledge and technologies, which have allowed them to live in harmony with Mother Earth and resiliently face the environmental crisis for thousands of years, which is fundamental in the action for adaptation and mitigation of climate change and global warming.
For this reason, the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), with the support of the European Union (EU), the Chilean government's presidency of the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), promoted a regional dialogue to respond to the call of indigenous organisations to strengthen their influence on global climate action through the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (CLPI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and its 2020-2021Work Plan.
This effort resulted in a successful working document that will be delivered during COP26 to the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Platform of the UNFCCC by FILAC, the Government of Chile and ECLAC.
To talk about gender and the challenges of climate change in Glasgow, the Pachayatiña Pachayachay Risk Management project of EUROCLIMA+ was part of this side event, where the progress and challenges in the inclusion of women and indigenous groups in Latin America were shown, from the institutional framework and experiences.
The leader Isabel Gómez shared ancestral knowledge and practices for adaptation to climate change, showing the views and challenges of Aymara and Quechua women in drought prevention in the context of climate change.
To close the panel, Tabea Casique Coronado, leader of the Plataforma de Pueblos Indígenas para Enfrentar el Cambio Climático del Perú (PICC), gave a more local perspective. This instance, supported by FIIAPP, is the result of the agreement of indigenous organisations based in Peru to follow up on mitigation and adaptation proposals in order to preserve and value ancestral knowledge.
Casique affirmed that women have been present working in their communities, facing the pandemic situation. And while many of the states have not attended to indigenous peoples, women have been supporting their families and communities with the existing plants in the forests and it can be demonstrated that they have been conserving the knowledge and transmitting this ancestral knowledge from generation to generation, taking into account their greater contribution than men in this role.
Social inclusion of indigenous and rural communities for successful climate change policies and climate change adaptation
Inhabitants of areas vulnerable to climate variability are the ones who have to deal with its impacts, and therefore, efforts should be focused on promoting actions that strengthen their resilience, involving them in spaces for consultation and decision-making. This was summarised by Sylvain Lefebvre, head of the Urban Water and Risk Management sectors at the French Development Agency (AFD) during the discussion on The social inclusion of indigenous and rural communities for the success of climate change policies and adaptation to climate change.
"Rural communities live most of the time in the upper watersheds and are very dependent on climatic conditions for their survival, with mostly agricultural activities. They are very important actors for the protection of natural areas and resources, which must be included in public policies," he summarised.
This panel sought to promote an exchange of experiences on the fundamental importance of social inclusion, empowerment and participation of communities as a way to address climate change, highlighting three cases from the Andean region and the Central American region, in which communities have been actively involved through training, workshops, and spaces for sharing knowledge. It is in this encounter between traditional and ancestral knowledge, and scientific knowledge, where synergies and spaces for consultation with the communities are built.
"Now we don't lack water, we have learned through training to value our water and we have enough water. With the community we help each other," said Angélica Mozón, leader of the Micaela Bastidas community in Peru, where the EUROCLIMA+ Agua project, Water for Abancay is being implemented.
The objective of the meeting was to promote an exchange between experts and beneficiaries from two regions of Latin America, the Andean region and the Central American region, on the importance of social inclusion in climate change adaptation, the increase of community resilience, and participation in decision-making spaces. In this way, the panellists discussed the following projects:
Project Water for Abancay EC+ (Peru)
Rural communities contribute to intensive land use through unsustainable practices to improve precarious living conditions, and to some extent to supply neighbouring urban centres (extensive agro-pastoral practices, logging for energy, etc.). Therefore, they are doubly victims: they are left out of the economic system and, at the same time, they contribute to further degrading their own environment on which they are directly dependent. See project information.
Results: through a community monitoring system, a renewed vegetation cover that is cared for by the communities themselves allows for better infiltration, less runoff and erosion, to favour access to water resources in the dry season, improve the quality of water resources in the wet season and reduce the risk of flooding.
Project Pachayatiña Pachayachay (Bolivia – Peru)
Social inclusion from the principle of "leaving no one behind" defined in the 2030 Agenda, is for the Pachayatiña Pachayachay project a premise that incorporates gender and intercultural approaches to reduce existing gaps in processes where risk management is addressed, in both Bolivian and Peruvian highlands. By respecting socio-cultural belonging, as well as the ancestral knowledge and practices of indigenous women (Aymara and Quechua) in relation to weather and climate, gaps that limit social cohesion are reduced. Likewise, the intercultural approach builds institutional and local governance in risk management, recognising the richness of diversity (Aymara and Quechua) in uses and customs, forms of organisation and decision-making. See more information about the project.
This project aims to strengthen resilience, particularly of vulnerable populations, to man-made and natural disasters by ensuring that citizens, communities, institutions and countries can better prepare for, withstand, adapt to and recover quickly from stresses and shocks, without jeopardising long-term development prospects.
Projects Humboldt Centre (Central America - Nicaragua)
Community Climate Observation Network in Central America: A successful tool for adaptation and decision-making at the local level.
Since 2009, the Vulnerable Central America Forum, a civil society grouping, has been carrying the voice of the territories most vulnerable to climate change in the region to the COP. The group consists of more than 200 organisations including NGOs, universities, national networks and members of the Community Climate Observation Network present in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
With more than 200 reporting stations in the region, the Network develops climate monitoring work, intervenes in early warning systems and participates in community capacity building by offering support to small producers or actors in charge of ecosystem monitoring. At the local level, the ROCC contributes to better local decision-making and advocacy for climate change adaptation. The objective is to present the network, its scope and explain how it contributes to the dissemination of positions identified by communities participating in a just transition.
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded by the European Union and co-financed by the German federal government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as by the governments of France and Spain through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
The Programme's mission is to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects in 18 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, promoting mitigation, adaptation, resilience and climate investment. It is implemented according to the "Spirit of Team Europe" under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH, and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
More information:
Marina Casas, ECLAC: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Guiby Vargas, AECID: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Daniel Fernández, FIIAPP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Alexandra Cortés, Secretariat EUROCLIMA+: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.