Building climate resilient societies through empowerment of women

Participants at the UN Women Multi-Country Office Workshop.
Photo courtesy of UN Women Africa

The South Africa Multi-Country Office (MCO) of UN Women recently hosted a workshop on ‘Building climate resilient societies: Strategies towards a gender responsive climate change agenda’, 18-20 May, 2016. The purpose of the work is to strengthen women’s voices to advocate for gender sensitive climate agreements, national adaptation plans and regional frameworks as well as furthering the outcomes of the International Climate Change process by collectively advancing the gender and climate agenda with partners in civil society and government.

Cath Traynor, from Natural Justice’s Climate Change Programme participated in the workshop which included members from civil society, the media and small holder women farmers from South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana. The first day focused on setting the scene and Ms Anne Githuku-Shongwe, UN Women Representative shared that the UN team was meeting to discuss the current El Niño phenomena and climate change, and indeed days later the UN General-Secretary, Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of 2 Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate. Ms. Githuku-Shongwe shared the UN Women focus areas in the region which include renewable energy, livelihood issues including HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and women’s political representation, and the need for gender-responsive budgeting. Ms, Ayanda Mvimbi, Programme Specialist UN Women South Africa MCO, then introduced an overview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the role of women as change agents, she summarised pivotal gains for women as well as key issues such as adequate representation of women and gender in different strategic frameworks relating to climate change, gender mainstreaming, and key opportunities for engagement.

Participants finalizing the declaration

During the workshop rural women then shared the impact of climate change and their agency, and commission groups discussed key questions and emerging themes. Rural women smallholders shared challenges regards access to land and resources and energy, that the burden of the loss of livelihoods through climate change is falling on women, their concern that several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have declared national drought emergencies, that rural women are excluded from decision-making processes, and that the issue of climate change on rural women smallholders requires urgent attention. A ‘declaration by rural women, smallholder farmers organisations and supporting civil society and media in the southern Africa region’ was produced, which highlighted women’s concerns, urged Heads of States and governments at the next SADC Summit in August 2016 to listen to the voice of women, implement existing commitments and policies of international and regional conventions that are pro rural smallholders and gender equity, to ensure that under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are ambitious and address gender inequality, and for the full and effective participation of rural women smallholders in policy making, implementation and monitoring processes. Action on land ownership by women, food sovereignty, support and legal protection for indigenous knowledge systems and knowledge holders rights, the right to water, and the provision of transparent information on climate, services and rights, amongst others, was also called for.

UN Women Representative, Ms Anne
Githuku-Shongwe receives the
declaration and states she will
ensure it reaches the relevant
stakeholders

Less than a week after the workshop the SADC Secretariat established a ‘Regional El-Niño Response Team’, SADC noted that “At least 27 million people, translating to about 9 per cent of the SADC’s 293 million population, are already affected by the current disaster and this figure is likely to increase” and that the 2015/2016 El Niño phenomenon is affecting livelihoods and the quality lives of especially women. The Response Team will prepare a regional drought appeal with the aim to mobilise resources to meet the needs of people requiring humanitarian support in the Region.

Indian Women's Rights to Property: Implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005

In India, women’s access and rights of ownership over family property (both moveable and immoveable), in the absence of a will, is governed by succession laws based on religion. Under Hindu law prior to 1937, a woman did not have the right to own any property at all, except what she received from her parents at the time of her wedding. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was a breakthrough in terms of giving Hindu women a full and equal share of their husbands’ property as the children; yet, the male bias persisted. An amendment to this Act in 2005 took the progressive step of making daughters coparceners at par with sons, such that they receive an equal birthright to a share in the natal family’s ancestral property, i.e., parents’ property.

In December 2013, International Land Coalition (ILC) member Landesa Rural Development Institute and UN Women, India, prepared a report on the formal and informal barriers in the implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 in the context of women agricultural producers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The study is unique in a number of ways, especially given its focus on women as agricultural labourers, an explicit effort to ask women what they want, and an assessment of the overall awareness of all stakeholders on general awareness relating to this law.

'Pluralism, Equality and the State'. 14th National Conference on Women's Studies

Natural Justice's Vaneesha Jain attended the 14th National Conference on Women’s Studies in Guwahati, Assam, India, from 4th to 7th February 2014. The conference was organised by the Indian Association of Women’s Studies in collaboration with Gauhati University Women's Studies Department, TISS Guwahati Campus, Cotton College State University and North East Network. The title of the conference was 'Pluralism, Equality and the State: Perspectives from the Women’s Movement'.

The conference had a total of 10 sub-themes, and Vaneesha presented a paper entitled ‘No Woman’s Land: Exploring Women’s Relationships with their Land and their Legal Entitlements’ under the first sub-theme. Participants in this sub-theme shared theory and field experiences in various Indian states on the subject of women’s access to land and land-based resources. The NJ presentation was well-received, and generated particular interest in its reference to the recent Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement legislation.

National Consultation in Sabah on Women's Rights in ASEAN

From 14-15 June, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended a national consultation in Kinarut with women from East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) on human rights in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. The consultation was organised by Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP) and the Women's Aid Organisation, with support from the Southeast Asian Women's Caucus in ASEAN (Women's Caucus).

The two-day consultation included the following topics and activities:

• Introduction to the Women's Caucus,
• Introduction to ASEAN and its human rights mechanisms, including the ASEAN Charter and Human Rights Declaration, ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, and ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers,