Engendering Climate Change Policy and Practice in Ethiopia

Abstract

Executive summary Neither the impacts of climate change on people nor the ways in which people respond to climate change are gender-neutral. Gender inequalities and different socially ascribed gender roles, needs and preferences which vary over space and over time influence the specific ways in which climate change affects males and females of all ages and the ways in which they develop strategies to adapt to or mitigate climate change. Gender equality is recognized globally as a high-priority development goal, a fact that is reinforced by the third Millennium Development Goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the same time, it is recognized as a condition for the achievement of sustainable development. As such, gender equality is both a goal and condition for successful climate change adaptation and transitions to low carbon development pathways in developing countries. Yet, the mainstreaming of gender issues is an issue of great concern in climate change policy making and programming. While some progress has been made over the past few years, the social, and particularly the gender dimensions of climate change and its responses, are insufficiently addressed under the UNFCCC and in developing countries’ strategies for climate change adaptation and low-carbon development. The spheres of policymaking and programming on climate change, both at national and the international levels, remain dominated by technical and natural science perspectives and solutions, whether they are implemented at the household, community, national or global level. Amongst known and new sets of stakeholders working on around climate change and development-related issues- including civil society, donor and the more recently established private-sector low-carbon initiatives – government leadership on promoting a much greater focus on the gender dimensions of climate change is, therefore, essential. However, despite the rapid development of new knowledge and awareness on the gender dimensions of climate change, there has been hardly any consideration of how climate change policy makers and institutional leaders could achieve this. It is by now widely accepted that failure to include women in decision-making processes around climate change adaptation and mitigation at local, national, regional and international levels not only exacerbates gender inequalities, but also undermines the effectiveness of climate change responses. Gender based analysis has the potential to facilitate gender mainstreaming and programme efficiency, thus contributing to capacity building and empowerment especially of poor rural women as producers of knowledge and has clear benefits for the communities that they will serve. This will also assist in achieving the long term development goal of achieving gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability. Understanding how different social expectations, roles, status, and economic power of men and women affect and are affected differently by, climate change and incorporating these gender differentials in the climate change policy making process will improve actions taken to reduce vulnerability and combat climate change in poorer countries. In this regard, the study was conducted with the main aim of understanding the gender dimensions of climate change in Ethiopia thereby contributing towards engendering climate change related policies and programmes of action. This is perhaps the single most important step towards the development and achievement of more equitable and responsive climate change policies and programmes. The study heavily relied on secondary sources of information (Government climate change related policy documents, action plans, and published and unpublished research reports). In addition, attempts were made to include the viewpoints of relevant experts and policy makers at the Federal Environmental Protection Authority and the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth. The followings are the major findings of the review: Need for national policy response measures: There are a number of reasons why Ethiopia should be concerned about climate change. Our main natural resources namely water, forest, rangeland, agricultural land, biodiversity, energy, etc are very much the reflection of the climate we have. Socio-economic activities such as agriculture (both crop cultivation and livestock herding) and agro-forestry which are the main source of livelihoods and backbone of the country’s economy, as well as vital socioeconomic sectors including energy and water supply, human health, etc are also very sensitive to climate variations. Well-intentioned climate change policy response measures are vital if Ethiopia is to break the poverty trap and achieve its national ambition of becoming a middle income carbon-neutral economy by 2025. National policy responses to climate change: Ethiopia is determined to flip challenges of climate change into genuine opportunities. The country has ratified the UNFCCC (1994) and the KP (2005). A national adaptation document is in place, and climate change is being integrated into sectoral development plans. The NAPA (2007) document (now replaced by EPACC) was prepared (2007); NAMA (in 2010); and currently a CRGE strategy is being developed. The five-year national Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) stipulates the country’s ambition to build a climate resilient green economy by 2025. Other than the GTP, the various national policies and sectoral programs now in place also address climate change, albeit indirectly. Why engendering climate change policy and practice: Including both men and women in decision-making on climate change adaptation, mitigation, financing, technology development and transfer, and understanding the reasons for and implications of their different roles, responsibilities and capabilities is clearly essential for gender equality, poverty reduction and low-carbon development. Moreover, when addressing climate change, not taking both women and men, and girls and boys into account would mean neglecting a large part of the people whose well-being we seek to improve. Gender insensitive policies and perspectives tend to exacerbate existing inequalities and vulnerabilities. It is only through gender sensitive climate change policy making and programming that the vulnerabilities of women and their unique environmental knowledge and life experiences in environmental adaptation be taken care of. This is why engendering climate change related policies and practices become key to the reduction of poverty and attainment of the MDGs. Gender differentiated impacts and vulnerabilities in Ethiopia: In Ethiopia, the majority of the poorest groups are composed of women, the disabled, and those living with HIV/AIDS. Women constitute nearly half of the country’s population, and most of them are living in dire economic condition with endemic poverty and poor working and living conditions. Not surprisingly, these social and demographic groups are also the most vulnerable, least prepared and likely worst affected by climate change. It follows that any response to climate change should be sensitive to their needs and priorities, and thus aim at building their resilience and adaptive capacities. Women’s limited access to resources and decision-making processes increases their vulnerability to climate change. Women as agents of environmental adaptation: Despite their vulnerability to climate change and environmental degradation, Ethiopian women are also the unsung heroines. Rural women in particular strategize to prevail amid deteriorating environmental conditions. They generally have developed a sense of how to cope with disasters and have found ways to adapt with climatic and non-climatic stressors. They have developed important knowledge and skills for orienting the adaptation processes, a product of their roles in society. In this regard, involving both women and men and their respective viewpoints in the climate adaptation process of planning and implementation is critical to ensure that the end solutions will actually benefit all members of the community. Environmental Policy of Ethiopia: Ethiopia did not have a comprehensive environmental policy until 1997. Realizing that natural resources are the foundation of an economy, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) issued the country’s first ever Environmental Policy in 1997. The aim was to rectify the economic and social costs of environmental damage from widespread mismanagement of environmental resources, and to provide overall guidance in the conservation and sustainable utilization of the country’s environmental resources. From the perspective of climate change, the policy has considered in its sectoral environmental policy components atmospheric pollution and climate change as important environmental, social and development challenges that need to be tackled. The Policy fully considers sectoral and cross-sectoral issues, and ensures the full participation of women in environmental decision making, resource ownership and management. However, during implementation of the various policy measures stipulated in the EPE, the issue of gender and the role of women in environmental adaptation and sustainable development were not taken seriously. Ethiopia’s Program of Adaptation to Climate Change (EPA-CC): EPA-CC is a programme of action to build a climate resilient economy through adaptation at sectoral, regional and local community levels. EPA-CC updated and replaced the NAPA which was formulated and submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat in 2007. The EPA-CC interlinks climate change adaptation strongly with the economic and physical survival of the country and identifies key climate change adaptation measures, and strategic priorities and intervention areas to address the adverse effects of climate change. In the project based NAPA that Ethiopia prepared in 2007, there were important concerns about the participation of relevant stakeholders in the plan preparation process. Most importantly, there were no representatives from the Women’s Affairs Office and the Ministry of Health in the steering committee (responsible for the preparation of the NAPA document). Social and gender issues were also not given sufficient attention. The EPA-CC, on the other hand, considers gender and social issues as two important components of the adaptation process. Among the objectives listed for EPA-CC relate directly to gender and social issues: ensuring that gender equity is achieved and ensuring that the physically handicapped are enabled to fend for themselves. Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) of Ethiopia: In accordance with the requirements of the Copenhagen Accord, Ethiopia prepared and submitted its NAMAs in January 2010. The Ethiopian NAMA is comprised of various sectors and concrete projects in the energy, transport, forestry, agriculture and urban waste management sectors. However, there are two important concerns. First, the limited experience in the country so far in the production of bio-fuels show that there is real danger of energy crops displacing food crops and forest resources. If care is not taken, land use change from forests and woodlands to energy crops will rather lead to more carbon emissions than sequestration. Second, as compared to NAMAs prepared by other countries, the Ethiopian NAMA has failed to include important mitigation actions in land use planning, energy efficiency, fiscal incentives and traffic management regulatory policy measures. Over all, mitigation responses should avoid a narrow criterion that leads to environmentally and socially harmful consequences. These responses should have broad goals that aim to reduce climate change, protect natural resources, improve social wellbeing, promote equality, and recognize that women are key agents in climate change processes. Engendering climate change policy and practice: There are gender mainstreaming frameworks and tools to facilitate and/or guide the mainstreaming of gender issues and the engenderment of climate change related policies and programmes of action. The most commonly used frameworks include the Harvard Analytical Framework, Gender Planning framework (Caroline Mosser Framework), Social Relations Framework (Naile Kabeer IDS Framework), and Capacity and vulnerabilities Analysis (CVA). The main steps for successful gender mainstreaming are Gender Auditing, Gender Analysis, Idea formulation, Strategy and Action. Engendering climate change related policies and practices also requires the following considerations: o Beyond a focus on vulnerability (women as environmental managers and leaders) o Generating and disseminating gender disaggregated data o Paying particular attention to women’s special condition o Overcoming underlying drivers of women’s vulnerability o Taking into account the concerns and capabilities of men and boys o Gender based technology needs assessment and information dissemination o Gender training. There are some steps that should guide the process of mainstreaming gender in national and regional adaptation plans and programmes, including the EPA-CC and NAMAs. These include: o Analyzing the effects of climate change from both a male and female perspective; o Incorporate a female perspective when designing and implementing projects; o Developing and applying gender-sensitive criteria and indicators; o When collecting and presenting data include women’s statistics as well as men’s; o Capitalizing on the talents and contributions of both women and men; o Setting targets for female participation in activities; o Ensuring that women are represented in 50% of all decision-making processes; o Making women’s equality, access to information, economic resources and education a priority; o Focusing on gender differences in capabilities to cope with climate change adaptation and mitigation actions; o Undertaking a gender analysis of all budget lines and financial instruments. Given the gender dimensions of climate change and the need for engendering national and regional climate change related and environmentally-oriented policies, programmes and plans and the need for strong and consistent advocacy and lobbying work required for this, it is high time for the ENCNCC to establish a separate Gender and Climate Change Working Group. This working group will facilitate and coordinate research and advocacy works for the engenderment of climate change related and other development policies and programmes and their effective implementation.