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CLW Interview with Yianna Lambrou, Gender and Population Division, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations Rome, Italy

Author of the Report: Gender: The Missing Component in the Response to Climate Change

The Report:

Gender: The Missing Component in the Response to Climate Change
Yianna Lambrou and Grazia Piana
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
October 2005
This report analyses the gender dimension of climate change and the policies enacted to mitigate and adapt to its impacts with the aim of developing gender sensitive approaches with regards to mitigation measures, adaptation projects and national regimes. According to the report, natural disasters and environmental damage associated with climate change are worse for vulnerable populations, including women and children. They depend largely on the environment for their livelihoods and have less access to natural and economic resources for recovery. However, the research found that gender aspects have generally been neglected in international climate policy.

The report proposes that:

• prioritising women in programmes for education and skills training can strengthen their ability to adapt;
• women’s local knowledge systems are an important source of information for natural resource management in areas affected by climate change;
• gendered division of labour, particularly in poor households, means women need to negotiate with men over key choices about mitigation or adaptation; and
• the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol can offer women access to a range of projects using new technologies in household energy, agriculture and food processing.

The report proposes that policymakers should:

• ensure funds are available that allow women to learn about and acquire improved energy technologies;
• ensure that more research is carried out to identify the gender differences in dealing with climate changes (such as emissions and lifestyle choices);
• increase the availability of gender disaggregated data on households and emissions profiles;
• develop a marketing strategy based on gender differences in CDM projects and make government agencies ensure that gender differences have been properly considered;
• introduce gender concerns as an issue into international climate change negotiations and at conference side events; and
• increase collaboration between the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention of Biological Diversity and the Climate Convention to increase awareness and conformity of integrating gender issues.

The report concludes that studies, debates and international fora suggest integrating the gender variable into emerging national and future international responses to climate change. Gender considerations should be introduced in the key critical issues on the climate change agenda, namely: mitigation, the CDM, adaptation and capacity building. More efforts should be directed towards a wider application of a gendered approach even in other strategic sectors, including, for instance, technology transfer and vulnerability studies.

Source: The Communication Initiative, Canada

Yianna Lambrou was born in Greece and at a very young age left her homeland to live in other parts of the world learning new languages and ideas. She has lived in Iraq, Chile, and many other parts of Latin America as well as Canada where she came with her family to study. She earned a B.A, an M.A with a thesis that looked at how immigrants adapt and; and a Ph.D in Rural Sociology with a dissertation on the powerful political role that peasant cooperatives played in Chile during the Pinochet regime. She has worked with OXFAM, taught at several universities and research funding institutions (CIDA, IDRC in Canada), lived extensive periods in the UK including teaching at Cambridge university and also worked for Amnesty International in London.

Her career has focused on international development, using research and action to understand social injustices and inequities (including gender) and then work towards changing them. She is now at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome working on gender and sustainable development where her passion for the environment has led her to focus on climate change -- surely one of the most important challenges for the future of humanity. Yianna has two children, her greatest fans and loved supporters. One of her life aims has been to remain centred on the importance of living a balanced life that combines personal, professional and planetary perspectives.

 

Statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (Twelfth Session) Nairobi , Kenya , 6 November 2006

 

The complete FAO document that was prepared for the above event: Adaptation to climate change in agriculture, forestry and fisheries: Perspective, framework and priorities This draft working document has been prepared to provide an FAO perspective and indicate priority areas where the Organization could contribute to climate change adaptation activities. . (October 2006)

Interview with Yianna Lambrou 

The Report mentioned in this interview is Strategic Thinking Gender: The Missing Component in the Response to Climate Change by Yianna Lambrou and Grazia Piana Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, October 2005. 

"This report analyses the gender dimension of climate change and the policies enacted to mitigate and adapt to its impacts with the aim of developing gender sensitive approaches with regards to mitigation measures, adaptation projects and national regimes. The framework of the study is represented, on the one hand, by the scientific assessment of climate change, with its impacts and associated effects on human and natural systems, and, on the other hand, by the international response to this challenge. The findings show that the gender aspects have generally been neglected in international climate policy. This is a major concern given the emphasis of policymakers on general equity issues. It is only during the last few years, on the occasion of the sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP), COP-8 (held in New Delhi, in October 2002) and COP-9 (held in Milan, December 2003), that gender was tangentially broached." (Gender: the missing component in the response to climate change)

In your Report you discuss how poor and marginalized men and women have a limited ability to cope with the effects of climate as in most societies, particularly in developing countries, women have lower incomes and fewer opportunities than men meaning that their adaptive and mitigative capacity is lower than those of males, all of which goes to show that climate policies are thus not automatically gender-neutral." Historically, how did gender emerge as a central factor that needed to be acknowledged in issues of climate change? What does your research show of how women in developed countries deal with climate change issues and strategies?  

 Gender emerged in the late 80’s and early 90’s as a socio-cultural concept that looks at the relations between men and women and not only at women separately (WID: Women in Development). Looking at gender issues  and climate change is a relatively new approach. Perhaps in the last 2-3 years we started to examine more closely how men as well as women impact and are impacted differently by climate change. It is still not mainstreamed in national policies and plans and only starting to be taken up by adaptation practitioners.

In developed countries there is research that is beginning to be done to document how men and women use differently energy, transport and resources that may impact climate change,  but it is still not clear exactly in all domains how gender matters. Much more needs to be done to provide clear answers and thus develop better policies and appropriate actions.                         

Women in your Report are said to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change but in many cases they exhibit resilience and their responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions is relatively lower than that of men. Enhancing their resilience and adaptive capacity and responsibility for high gas emissions can be done if "responses are not imposed from above, but modelled on needs, aspirations, knowledge and capabilities of individuals that are then actively involved as crucial partners in these efforts." Can you provide examples of how such context specific initiatives can be implemented? Do you see insufficient funding being a problem in implementing these strategies?

If men and women can actively participate in deciding together what is important to them by expressing their exact needs, it is much easier to propose and carry out successful initiatives. It is not only funding that is important, but how the initiative is designed, who participates and most importantly who makes decisions about its outcome and for whose benefit. 

Do you believe that the Kyoto Protocol would be strengthened if it included recognition of gender economics?  Does it do so to a satisfactory level in its present status?

Of course the Kyoto Protocol would be strengthened if it took into consideration the different contribution of men and women and the impact they have on the environment both positive and negative; both in terms of mitigation and adaptation.

At the present moment, the aspect of people in general is largely missing. Efforts are being directed for the post 2012 negotiations to ensure that women’s needs will be recognized as a specific constituency that has its own requirements.                           

Your Report states that "In particular any discussion on the economics of climate change to be effective should include issues including:

•  differences in emissions characteristics between men and women  

•  the additional work burden of women and female children;

• the gender differences in access to resources and consumption patterns;  

• the comparative vulnerability of women to climate change"

And that countries should engage in "gender-sensitive policy-making."

Are there any international examples of policies which have done this even in a small way?  

At FAO we are carrying out a research project to find out if indeed there are some international examples of gender sensitive policy making with regards to climate change. At the moment, we have no concrete data that supports this.  

One of the conclusions you make in the Report is that "In order to support women's knowledge systems and benefit of their contribution to the adaptation to climate induced changes, the availability of gender-disaggregated data on households is of key importance to reach two relevant objectives: first, an improved assessment of actual coping strategies, and, second, to target women in communication of information related to climate change."  How responsive have leaders and policy makers been to this recommendation and what are the main barriers that you see as hindering the adoption of your recommendation?  

The issue of collecting sex-disaggregated data is one of great importance in that it allows us to see where men and women are, what they do, what they produce and what their eventual needs may be. We need this kind of information to be able to develop good policy interventions  that are relevant to women’s needs. However, collecting sex-disaggregated is costly and furthermore requires an awareness of gender issues and gender inequality and the practical means to carry out this work. The preparation of Censuses has been one of the best ways to make sure this information is collected. FAO has worked whenever possible with countries to assist them to create databases and to collect at least agriculturally relevant sex-disaggregated data. It is not always possible to do so due to costs, lack of trained people, lack of know-how, lack of awareness and very often due to the many priorities that have to be attended to: gender issues tend to fall behind. The Women’s Ministries would need to collaborate closely with the Ministries of Agriculture to ensure that sex-disaggregated data is collected whenever possible.

What is the next step from this point? What is FAO aiming to achieve in the next five years in relation to climate change?  

FAO is increasing its concrete efforts in both research and development projects that deal with bio-energy, alternative sources of energy and with focus and awareness of  sensitivity to people issues with regards to the impacts and opportunities for adapting to climate change.  

(See the above statement by the FAO made at the UNFCCC in Nairobi)

How did your professional and educational background contribute to your evaluation of the data for this Report and its writing?  

My doctoral studies prepared me to be inquisitive and to be open to ideas and new challenges. I am keenly interested in the scientific aspects of climate change and the social consequences of such environmental changes. I have been working on environmental issues since I was a graduate student and I am passionate about the planet’s well being and what we will leave to our children and future generations.          

How do you personally regard the outcomes of this Report and what are your expectations of it in the long-term?  

This report is only a small step along many other steps that myself, my organization and hundreds of other people are also taking to ensure that we can deal well with climate change and ensure that we do all we can at the soonest possible time.

I expect to continue devoting my time to this topic. In fact, I am organizing a team of researchers to look further into social issues such as migration, post disaster management, conflicts over natural resources, all as a result of climate change.

It promises to be a most interesting time!

 

THE ABOVE EXPRESSED OPINIONS ARE ENTIRELY THE AUTHOR’S AND DO NOT IN ANY WAY OR FORM REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. Yianna Lambrou