About this research
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Climate change impacts are felt globally but not equally with especially women being most vulnerable. The climate change and related policies in Nepal have not enabled to balance the odds.
This research received external funding from:
The review delved into the issue of how climate change and related policy documents in Nepal have addressed the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change. Out of the 24-climate change related policies reviewed, 5 were found to be gender-blind, 15 were found to be gender-neutral, 3 were found to be gender-specific, and only 1 was found to be gender-transformative. This shows a clear lack of gender-transformative policy development.
Gender-specific policies that have been formulated thus far have failed to address barriers such as lack of access to information and decision-making authority, and bureaucratic administrative procedures that have discouraged women participation. We recommend gender-transformative policy development as it has been made clear that unless prevalent structural inequalities are addressed, the vulnerable cannot adapt to climate change impacts.
We have reviewed policy documents with a thematic area of focus on climate change, and national documents related to climate change on the environment, forestry and watershed, agriculture, and disaster. Through a gendered lens, the policies are evaluated as gender-blind or gender-aware. For this, we searched for the documents with the terms – “gender”, “women”, “men”, “climate change” or its derivatives. We then analysed the context in which these words were used: whether or not the policies separate the roles of different actors or seek to address gender-specific needs which enabled the classification of the policies into two broad categories – gender blind and gender aware. Within gender aware the documents were further classified into gender-neutral – policy targeting “men”, “women” or their derivatives, gender-specific – policy addressing the specific needs of different actors or gender-transformative – policy that transform social structures.
The review focuses on four sectors only which are environment, forestry and watershed, agriculture, and disaster. However, there are many other sectors impacted by climate change.
| Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Gender-specific needs | It refers to the particular needs of males and females that are unique to their gender groups. Since women have been the traditionally overlooked or disadvantaged groups, gender-specific needs tend to highlight the needs of women. |
| Gender-blind policies | Policies that do not differentiate the roles of male and female actors |
| Gender-transformative policies | Policies that promote gender equality by effecting a change in gender roles |
Anu Rai, Deep Prakash Ayadi, Bibek Shrestha & Aashish Mishra (2021). ‘On the realities of gender inclusion in climate change policies in Nepal’,Policy Design and Practice, 4(4), pp.501-516
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