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.
On the realities of gender inclusion in climate change policies in Nepal
(She/Her)
Kathmandu University
I am an environmental researcher who believes in the use of sound science for decision making.
Nepalese
About
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 been able to balance the odds.
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.
Key Findings
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.
How to use
Policies need to address prevalent structural inequalities and specific social barriers such as lack of access to information and decision-making authority, and bureaucratic administrative procedures that have discouraged women participation.
Women need to be recognised as the agency and not just the vulnerable population.
The collection of gender-disaggregated data in all sectors related to climate change needs to be promoted to prevent the formation of gender-blind policies.
Women should be included in the agenda-setting or policy formulation stage with the focus on improving women’s qualitative participation to influence decisions and practices while promoting their numerical representation.
Want to read the full paper? It is available open access
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
About this research
This research was independently conducted and did not receive funding from outside of the university.
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UN Sustainable Development Goals
This research contributes to the following SDGs
About this research
This research was independently conducted and did not receive funding from outside of the university.
This paper was co-authored
Deep Prakash Ayadi
Bibek Shrestha
Aashish Mishra
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What it means
Women play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. For instance, women play a key role in managing and collecting traditional biomass (Mahat 2013) which accounts for 77% of energy consumption in Nepal (GoN/MoPE 2017). Here, the lack of women’s role in climate change mitigation planning impacts the formulation of effective mitigation strategies. Likewise, women harbour knowledge and skills to take action in the processes of natural resources management, adaptation, and risk reduction (Carvajal-Escobar, Quintero-Angel, and Garcia-Vargas 2008). However, the policies also appear to be missing out on the appreciation of the knowledge and skills of women that are crucial for orienting forward the adaptation processes.
The research has highlighted the clear lack of gender transformative policies which ensures that the prevalent structural inequalities remain unaddressed which thereby contributes in the vulnerable being unable to adapt to climate change impacts.
The research would thereby be important for gender and climate change policies recommendation especially in South Asia as policies often portray women as the vulnerable and not the agency.
Methodology
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.
However, a limitation would be that the review focuses on four sectors only which are environment, forestry and watershed, agriculture, and disaster. But there are many other sectors impacted by climate change.
Glossary
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
Let your research make a social impact
Arianne Zajac prepared this research following an interview with Anu Rai.
