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- / COP27: Why women should access finance to respond to climate challenges
When we talk about climate change, we rarely talk about how it is more dangerous to women than men. In fact, the domino effect of gender inequality places women in a more susceptible way of climate change’s dreadful effect.
Since women occupy over 50% of the world’s population, it is important to allocate finance to them to be able to respond to climate change challenges.
Climate change enhances gender inequality, reduces women’s ability to be financially independent, and has a terrible impact on women’s social and political rights in general. Gender roles in a developing country’s societal norms mostly puts men in charge and women being supported.
Women are already disproportionately affected with the way we live. In countries across Africa, men migrate from their household, and responsibility shifts to women to feed the family. It’s necessary to support women in accessing finance looking at their nature and potential for us to be able to support the initiatives.
UNDP/Giacomo Pirozzi
In the southern part of earth, women are still expected to do domestic chores; such as cooking, travel for water sources, or farming. Climate change contributes to the hardship women go through for these tasks. To make things worse, inequalities mean women are more likely to suffer violence as a result of flooding and drought.
Women are most vulnerable due to the level of their education; hardship areas and are prone to suffering the worst impacts of climate change, like displacement due to extreme weather patterns.
Increasing frequency and the expansion of desert in the global south means its residents need to travel further for water sources. In Uganda, research found that severe droughts have caused an increase in substance abuse, which then resulted in more instances of domestic violence. “Financial pressures associated with the drought were partly the cause of an increase in alcohol and drug consumption by men as a coping mechanism, which resulted in increased violence against women,” the study reads. The droughts also force women to travel greater distances for water sources, which increases their likelihood of a violent attack from armed bandits.
“Climate change diseases such as malaria posing parasites affects people especially women, girls and children. There are many cases of malaria in the African countries and there’s need to improve the health and well-being of women.”
©IWRM AIO SIDS
Climate change challenges can be likened to environmental challenges, and more data in addition to the use of technology will help ascertain which areas need urgent intervention. There’s a need for more support and engagement to develop women’s capacity.
Panelists at the just concluded COP27 stated that, “We need to inculcate expertise in this field to solve the problem,” adding that transparency process is key, and that there’s need to understand the different levels of climate change from international to national, cutting across all levels.
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